The Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex hosted a celebration of National Wildlife Refuge Week on Sunday, October 10, as Refuge Operations Specialist Dawn Grafe led a watery tour through the heart of Siletz Bay National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Participants in this interpretive and interactive event brought their own canoe or kayak, and spent two hours traveling first up the Siletz River then back west down Millport Slough. During the guided tour, 24 participants, in 21 kayaks and two canoes, paddled past the recent tidal marsh restoration project along Millport Slough and learned about the positive effect the restoration is having on salmonids using the estuary. They also enjoyed an opportunity to sharpen their bird identification skills as the tour included discussion of the variety of birds using the refuge. Highlights included a belted kingfisher, great egrets, great blue herons, mallards, golden-crowned kinglet, double-crested cormorants, and a harbor seal poking its head out to watch the travelers pass by. Siletz Bay NWR is located just south of Lincoln City on U.S. Highway 101 and consists of some of the most scenic estuarine habitat along the Oregon coast highway. On either side of the highway, starched skeleton trees jut forth from the estuary and are reminiscent of a time when the salt marsh was diked. Red tailed hawks, bald eagles, and other raptors can often be seen roosting at the top of these snags, and a variety of estuarine dependent birds including great blue heron, great egret and many species of waterfowl can be seen foraging in the tidally influenced waters. Siletz Bay NWR was established to protect salt marsh, brackish marsh, tidal sloughs, mudflats, and coniferous and deciduous forestland. The refuge provides nursery grounds for coho and chinook salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout. The primary ecological goal for the refuge is to allow the salt marsh to return to its natural tidally influenced state. Siletz Bay NWR is currently closed to the public, but much of the refuge can be seen from Highway 101.

You can visit the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex home page here: http://oregoncoast.fws.gov