UPDATE: Newport City Council produces positive action for Yaquina Bay

The Yaquina estuary as seen from Paddle Park near Toledo, Oregon. Photo by Bobby Hayden.

Newport is now the first city on the Oregon coast to formally acknowledge the threat of climate change in management of its estuary habitat and plans to periodically revisit the issue. 

On Monday, October 21, Newport City Council passed a resolution committing the Council to periodically revisit its portion of the Yaquina Bay Estuary Management Plan (YBEMP) to keep pace with new science around climate change and sea level rise impacts, changes in natural resources, and anticipated development in the local area. This positive outcome arrives after an October 7 vote by the Council to adopt the first comprehensive update of its Estuary Management Plan in more than 40 years.

More to be done

Despite the good news, the Council stopped short of amendments and additions to the Plan to ensure that Yaquina Bay’s people and environment are ready for both future threats and opportunities. 

In the runup to Newport’s YBEMP adoption, Seven Capes Bird Alliance (SCBA) joined with several other conservation organizations on a detailed comment letter. Here are some of the important future changes needed for a climate-ready estuary management plan:

  1. The YBEMP would benefit with the inclusion of zoning standards to make its commitment to consider the realities of climate change impacts enforceable. Yaquina Bay and its people deserve strong standards that would ensure consideration of sea level rise in zoning decisions, prioritize nature-based solutions instead of traditional rip-rap for shoreline stabilization, and mitigate impacts from submerged crossings like underwater cables. 

  2. Special policies are needed to protect eelgrass beds in all estuary management units that contain suitable eelgrass habitat. Currently, management unit 7 is the only area within the estuary with a special policy protecting eelgrass, which is essential to the health of juvenile salmon, rockfish, Dungeness crab, shellfish, and migratory water birds living in the estuary.

Let’s keep the momentum going. 

The YBEMP’s next stop is Toledo City Council and the Lincoln County Commission, likely in 2025. We’ll be in touch about future opportunities to help support a climate-ready Yaquina Bay.

Thank you for your continued commitment to help protect Yaquina Bay!