Geography 110

Assignment 2: River Systems and the Northern Oregon Coastal River Basin

Hydrologic unit maps are a classification system developed by the United States Geological
Survey to cohere data on drainage, culture, hydrography, and hydrologic boundaries in the
United States. The value of the standardized hydrologic maps and codes is to create a base
through which organizations can easily identify, store, retrieve and share hydrologic data and
activities on water-data acquisition. Federal, state and regional agencies have all extensively
reviewed the hydrologic unit maps, creating wide legitimacy for this data in water-use and
land-use planning.

This classification system is divided into four levels, from largest to smallest: regions,
subregions, accounting units, and cataloging units. The first level of classification divides the
United States into 21 regions, which contains the drainage area of a major river or series of
rivers. This level of classification includes regions in Alaska, Hawai’i, Puerto Rico and some
parts of the Caribbean. The second level of classification identifies 222 subregions. A subregion
contains the area drained by a river system, tributaries and reach of a river, closed river basins, or
a coastal drainage area formed by a group of streams. The third level of classification divides the
United States into 352 accounting units. Accounting units are nearly equivalent to subregions,
used by the United States Geological Survey to design and manage the National Water Data
Network. The fourth level of classification identifies 2150 cataloging units. Cataloging units
cover a part of a surface drainage basin, multiple drainage basins, or a specific/unique hydrologic
feature.

The Northern Oregon Coastal River Basin has two major natural lakes, the Triangle Lake and
Loon Lake, which were formed through massive landslides blocking river valleys. Most of the
original Triangle lake is filled with sediment and shrinking as erosion reduces water levels. The
southernmost tip of the North Coast basin also has three coastal lakes, the Woahink, Siltcoos, and
Tahkenitch. Near these lakes is the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, where dune
complexes adjoin the lakes. (Northwest Council)

The Northern Oregon Coastal River Basin is known for its wild fish runs. Six salmon and
steelhead streams run through the Tillamook State Forest and Clatsop State Forest in this area.
The streams are the Trask, Wilson, Kilchis, Miami, Nehalem, and Strawberry. Because the
canyons in the two state forests experience consistent rainstorms from the Pacific, the Northern
Oregon Coastal rivers and wild fish are upheld long term. (Stronghold Fund)
Some notable cities in the North Coast Basin are Astoria, Cannon Beach, Cape Meares,
Garibaldi, Gearhart, Manzanita, Nehalem, Netarts, Oceanside, Pacific City, Rockaway Beach,
Seaside, Tillamook, Warrenton and Wheeler. Some highlights include Garibaldi, a small port
town and maritime community that sits at the end of the Tillamook Bay, where commercial and
sport fishermen bring in Dungeness crabs, ling cod, rockfish, and salmon. Astoria is a city of
10,000 people on the Columbia River, historically experiencing the rise and falls of the
Columbia River fishery and the Oregon timber industry. Seaside was Oregon’s first seashore
resort community, dating back to the 1870s, bringing tourism to the Necanium River. (Visit the
Oregon Coast Association)

The Columbia River is the major river running through the basin, with the Lower Columbia in
particular passing through the Northern Oregon Coastal River Basin. The source of the
Columbia River is the Columbia Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The Columbia River travels
across 1,270 miles before draining into the Pacific Oregon by Astoria, Oregon. (USGS) The
river travels through fourteen dams before draining, storing runoff, reducing flood flow, meeting
the regional electricity demand, at the expense of hurting native wildlife in the basin. Mostly
through melting snow, the river drains across 259,000 square miles as the basin spans seven
American states in addition to British Columbia, with the Northern Oregon Coastal River Basin
being a part. (Northwest Council) Columbia River has several major tributaries, including the
Kootenai, Flathead/Pend Oreille/Clark’s Fork, Willamette, and the Snake, which is the largest.
The Snake’s source is Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, and extends 1,038 miles.
River discharge is defined as the volume of water flowing through a channel in a river. The flow
rate is calculated as volume per time.
One period of high discharge is December 2023. The winter months may experience much
higher rates of precipitation, resulting in a higher volumetric flow rate. The dam system and
human intervention into flow rates also affect when the river experiences higher rates of
discharge in a particular area. Vegetation that proliferates in certain temperatures but dies off in
other seasons may also affect discharge. Because of higher discharge, wildlife patterns may be
affected, such as the types of fish that populate certain areas of the river in summer months
versus winter months, and the characteristics of plants that have had to adapt to faster discharge
rates. Higher discharge may increase erosion, resulting in a linear relationship of higher amounts
of sediment transported through the river.

Research floodplain/river management strategies in at least one area in your river basin or write
about the impacts of a historical flood in your river basin. A suggestion would be to identify a
major city/town in your river basin and use that as a starting point for researching potential
strategies. You might, for instance, read part of a city’s floodplain management plan, read about
FEMA floodplain mapping in that city, or read local or national newspaper articles about the
impacts of a flood.

In Tillamook, five rivers converge into a drainage basin that creates severe flooding for local
communities. Oregon Solutions, as part of the National Policy Consensus Center at Portland
State University, has worked on flooding reduction through several means. Their goals were to
design more effective waterways from Wilson River to Tillamook Bay, support watershed
protection and restoration efforts by residents, support mitigation projects, and utilize the
electoral sector to bring in grant funding and governance into environmental efforts. (Portland
State University)

The results of their efforts was over $1 million from the state legislature two decades ago for
mitigation projects, two completed spillways, and an update to the City of Tillamook’s flood
management plan, among others. The town suffered from highways and travel being shut down
due to flooding and destruction, and last year, over $2.5 million in road damages were estimated
due to flooding. The local work for flood management is ongoing and the stakes are very clear
for this work.

Sources

The Columbia River Basin. (2014, December 30).

https://www.nwcouncil.org/reports/2014-columbia-river-basin-fish-and-wildlife-pro
gram/i-columbia-river-basin/

North Coast Lakes: Oregonexplorer: Oregon State University. oregonexplorer. (n.d.).

https://oregonexplorer.info/content/north-coast-lakes?topic=4138
North Coast. The Stronghold Fund. (2021, October 29).
https://thestrongholdfund.org/portfolio-items/northcoast/

Resources, I. for N. (n.d.). Oregon’s basins. Year of Water.

http://oregonwater.info/basins.html

Seaside. Oregon Coast Visitors Association. (2020, October 16).

https://visittheoregoncoast.com/cities/seaside/

Tillamook basin flooding reduction. Oregon Solutions. (n.d.).

https://orsolutions.org/osproject/tillamook

USGS volcanoes. (n.d.).

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/Historical/LewisClark/Maps/map_col
umbia_river_and_tributaries.shtml#:~:text=The%20Columbia%20River%20and%2
0its%20tributaries%20form%20the%20dominant%20water,Pacific%20Ocean%20n
ear%20Astoria%2C%20Oregon