H2ONCoast

Hoquarton Slough is a lovely but much neglected piece of the Tillamook Bay Estuary. It runs into the heart of downtown Tillamook and until the 1931 construction of Highway 101, it was the major entryway to the city. Killamook Indians gave the area its name (meaning landing) and from 1951-1911 the city grew along it. Sawmills, docks and merchants lined the south side of the slough. Rafts of logs were sent both up and down the slough to the mills, while commercial ships and even pleasure boats plied its waters in the busy days of late 19th century capitalism.

The primary consequence of that busy trade however, was a heavily polluted and altered waterway that by the early 20th century was becoming a backwater to the busy streets of downtown Tillamook and traffic roaring through on Highway 101. When the final lumber mills and docks decayed or were burned in the 1960s, the area became a true brownfield. Only concrete footings and buried trash remain to remind visitors of this busy past. During much of the 20th century, Hoquarton was a weed covered area, filled with the last remaining waste from its heydays as a commercial hub.

Early in this century, a dedicated group of citizens approached the City of Tillamook with the intention of reviving the slough’s image and creating a public space for reconnecting local residents with their landscape and history. Their tenacious efforts have born fruit in the form of the Hoquarton Interpretive Trail system and Hoquarton Park.

Over the last few weeks I have had the pleasure of working with a diverse group of citizens and institutions to design and install two bioswales along the park’s parking lot and entryway on North Main (Hwy 101). These swales were constructed to take runoff from the parking lot and allow natural hydrological processes to reduce the water’s velocity and pollution load before dumping back into the slough. The project was made possible by a grant from Oregon Sea Grant, in-kind contributions from the City of Tillamook, generous volunteer help of Tillamook County Master Gardeners, the Hoquarton Interpretive Trail Committee and others.

Below are some photos from the installations that took place September 6th and 7th.

Above, volunteers Claudine Rehn, Cindy Sommers and Claire Thomas load soil and grade the swales on Thursday, September 6th.

As you can see in the above three photos, planting progressed quickly as volunteers placed the mostly native mix of plants into position, watered and then applied a 2″ thick mulch. The mulch will provide a surface for microbial action to break down hydrocarbons from the parking lot. Heavy metals can also be bound by this layer. These swales will serve as a demonstration of alternatives to more traditional, engineered stormwater management, which generally dumps large volumes of fast-moving and dirty water into local waterbodies with consequences for water quality and stream conditions.

Above are the completed bioswales on September 7th. While the plants looks sparse at this point, next year we expect a full swale and thriving ecosystem which will slow down and filter rainwater runoff before it enters Hoquarton Slough and Tillamook Bay.

Big bioswale thanks go out to Tillamook County Master Gardeners Linda Stephenson, Evelyn Von Felt, Carla Albright, Nancy Reardon, David Sip, and Vivi Tallman (along with her grandson Manche). Equal appreciation is due to Claire Thomas, Laureen Lamb, Cindy Sommers, Claudine Rehn, Ivan Boge, Cara and Lindsay Mico, and April Peterson, for helping with the construction. Claire was particularly helpful with the use of his truck and time. Carla even brought some slough sedge from her own garden to contribute.

Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, and the Hoquarton Interpretive Trail Committee contributed some mighty important logistical support to this effort as well. Special thanks to Laurie Lamb and Claudine Rehn for showing up at 9:00 each morning to haul tools to the site.

Mark Gervasi, Arley Sullivan, and Tim Lyda of the City of Tillamook deserve major kudos for encouraging this project to go forward, and then digging the swales out, as well as providing some fill and a water tank. Special thanks too for Jackie Russell’s support at the OSU Extension office in Tillamook.

Lastly, Hope Stanton of Wild Native Nursery and Joan Sager of Rainforest Nursery did some very hard work securing plants for this project. Don Averill Landscaping Materials also gave us a generous deal on mulch, topsoil and compost.

Stay tuned to this site for more projects in Bay City and Manzanita.