Partnership for Coastal Watersheds

The Partnership for Coastal Watersheds (PCW) is a community-driven coalition made up of local residents, government representatives, and technical experts. Founded in 2010, the PCW works together to build a shared understanding of Coos estuary and watershed conditions. The PCW mission is to support the long-term health and resilience of the area's environment, economy, and communities for the benefit of current and future generations.

Coos Bay Estuary Management Plan revision

The PCW supported the first phase of Coos County’s community-driven effort to update and modernize the Coos Bay Estuary Management Plan (CBEMP)—the regulatory basis for conservation and development decisions in the estuary. Using a triple bottom line approach that considers economic, social, and environmental factors, the PCW worked with the County to assess current conditions and land uses in the estuary and to develop recommendations for improving estuarine and shoreland management.

Communities, Lands & Waterways Data Source: An encyclopedic compilation of all available data describing socioeconomic and environmental conditions in the area.

Coos Estuary and Shoreland Atlas: A series of maps/tables analyzing current natural resource, hazards, and socio-economic data. This consists of a geodatabase and report with large format maps, and digitization of existing mylar maps.

CBEMP Audit: Evaluates the current plan to assess where legal framework may have changed, implications of any legal decisions that occurred since the plan was adopted, and general usability of the plan.

Coos Estuary Land Use Analysis: A report that evaluates options for local jurisdictions to determine the best process for moving forward with a plan revision. The report includes a set of focus group recommendations, a matrix weighing management options by various evaluation criteria, and a framework for local governments to integrate new information into existing plans.

Climate Change Adaptation Planning

Coos Climate Hazard Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan for the Coos Bay area established a framework for understanding both current and anticipated changes related to the local effects of climate change and local vulnerabilities to those changes and possible actions to be taken to adapt to those changes.

Coos Climate Hazard Vulnerability Assessment and Adaption Plan

The Coos County Estuary Resilience Action Plan provides actions the community can take to restore and strengthen natural systems to protect coastal communities from natural hazards.

Coos County Estuary Resilience Action Plan

Reducing effects of flooding – Nuisance flooding is becoming an increasingly problematic challenge for coastal communities under increasing sea levels. The Partnership for Coastal Watersheds is working with Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and Louisiana State University to quantify how wetland restoration projects reduce future nuisance flooding in Coos Bay. Further information on this work can be found at the following publication.

Can Restoring Tidal Wetlands Reduce Estuarine Nuisance Flooding of Coasts

A Cost Benefit Analysis for Green/Gray Infrastructure for Sea Level Rise Adaptation

Community Visioning

Community Vision, State of the Watersheds Assessment, and Action Plan for the South Slough and Coastal Frontal Watersheds was the PCW’s first major collaborative initiative. This project defined the community’s vision for ideal environmental and socio-economic conditions, assessed current environmental attributes and socio-economic conditions, and outlined practical steps the community could take to overcome barriers to that vision. Its success laid the groundwork for expanding the PCW’s focus to include the broader Coos Bay area.