The Army Corps of Engineers is setting up to do repairs of the the South Jetty of the Columbia River. Beginning earlier this week, they began building a road from the parking lot "C" (where the ocean viewing platform is) west over the dunes. This road will eventually go up onto the jetty. Rock will be hauled out to parts of the jetty that have begun failing.
What this means to birders (and other user groups) is that only about a third of the parking lot is currently accessible to visitors. Visitors will not be able to walk directly west to the river beach without dodging trucks. Increased foot traffic through the tidal marsh will almost certainly frustrate shorebird use there and impact saltmarsh wetland plant species.
No one was able to tell me how long the project was expected to take. North Jetty repairs took about 6 months. The current project is for interim repairs only. Funding for a complete rebuild is apparently in the pipeline, though it's hard to imagine that's going to happen around all the recent federal budget cuts. The road being built to the jetty will be removed when the projects are complete and restoration is part of the comprehensive plan, though it is unclear whether these will happen after the interim repairs or the as yet unfunded full repair project.
Posted by mbalame at February 11, 2006 9:03 AM