In the coquille watershed, less than 5 of the historic tidal wetlands remain

Lack of slow-water refugia and off-channel habitat has been identified as a critical limiting factor affecting oregon coast ESU coho recovery. The leslie wetland reserve is a 50 acre tidally influenced wetland reserve under a nrcs conservation easement in perpetuity in coquille, or (coos county). A restoration project in the 1990S attempted to revert the 50 acres of bottomland from pastureland to the historic wetland state by removal of tide gates and drainage ditches. The majority of the easement, including the alluvial floodplain, is still in poor condition and almost entirely lacks wetland function. Coqwa has previously received funding from oweb and the wild rivers coast alliance to pursue data collection and begin the design process that will address the following issues: 1) lack of floodplain connectivity due to an incised channel 2) hydrological constrictions above and below the floodplain due to undersized culverts and 3) lack of native plant diversity and a monoculture of reed canary grass. This solicitation will fund final restoration designs for the interior wetland and bridge designs for fish passage, permitting, a planting plan, and monitoring plan. Coqwa will continue to partner with the landowners, coquille indian tribe, USFWS, odfw, USFS, nrcs, and coos county among other interested restoration practitioners to develop a suite of actions to reach our goals.