There’s a growing trend among property owners along the north side of Willapa Bay: Hope.

More than 60 landowners, cranberry farmers and representatives from several state agencies packed the conference room at the Shoalwater Bay Tribal Center on Feb. 15 to talk about short- and long-term solutions to the erosion problem that has been eating away at the shoreline for decades.

“Eight years ago my property was a half mile from the water. As of today it may be 30-40 feet from the property line,” said local Ken Watanabe. “I figured I might have one more year before my mobile home might go in. But I have seen some improvements, and now I am at a crossroads.”

Two years ago, meetings like this one were filled with negativity. The common theme was, “There’s nothing we can do.” But now, through the efforts of irrigation district board director David Cottrell and the North Willapa Harbor Grange, among many others, steps have been taken that have already significantly reduced the amount of erosion suffered over the past year.

The “crossroads” Watanabe spoke of have to do with his mobile home.

“It leaks, it has mold,” and with the impending shoreline encroachment he figured it wasn’t really worth fixing, he told the crowd. “Now, if I can see continued improvement, it could be worth it to put in the money to improve the home.”

He, like many landowners, do not want to leave.

“I want to stick around,” said Watanabe. “And I don’t want to see you go through what I did.”

Cottrell said Watanabe’s laid-back nature has made him a favorite of new agencies around the state, who call when the winds are strong and the tides are high “to ask him if his house is going in the water yet.”

Charlene Nelson, chairwoman of the Shoalwater Bay Tribal Council, started the meeting with a blessing and words of encouragement.

“Neighbors, friends, the fact we are all sitting here together makes us unique,” she said. “We all know each other and help each other out. We have an alliance between Shoalwater, cranberry farmers, North Shore, Tokeland, and each one of your voices has meaning.”

Cottrell conducted the meeting, echoing Nelson’s statements about how improved cooperation among all the players in the area has led to some big improvements, and more is coming.

“I see a lot of friends from a lot of different places,” he said. He added, “60 years ago there would be projects done in pieces, but nobody was looking at what was happening to the left or the right of them. We are all in the same boat.”

Long-term and short-term solutions are needed, he added: “We can’t have one without the other.”

The message of hope continued: “We can put all the pieces together and put them into one plan,” said Cottrell. “Things are happening suddenly faster than ever before, and we don’t want to lose that.”

Next up was Pacific County Commissioner Lisa Ayres, who discussed the upcoming demonstration project that could be key to preserving what’s left of North Cove and the surrounding areas. She said she had applied for financial assistance from the state, but with no capital budget passed last year it didn’t come through. Fortunately, she said, this session it did pass it and $650,000 was earmarked for North Cove area shoreline protection work.

Vladimir Shepsis, principal coast engineer at Coast and Harbor Engineering, described the demonstration project. First, he had to study the existing conditions, understanding the shoreline and the processes causing erosion.

“We have six miles of shoreline all behaving differently,” said Shepsis. “It is changing constantly in place and time.”

The six miles is split into three zones, separated by their distinct characteristics.

“You cannot make a plan for region 1 and apply it to region 2,” said Shepsis. “What we are trying to address is shoreline protection, cranberry bogs, the highway and homes.”

The money received from the state for the project will more than likely be used for a project covering between 1,000 and 3,000 feet in region 2, which spans roughly from North Cove to the Shoalwater Bay reservation, and include the design, permit and construction phases.

“We will try everything on this project and learn from it,” said Shepsis. “Then we can do another demonstration project or implement what we have.”

He also stressed the importance of continued cooperation among all affected groups.

“It is important to keep the group together and continue public involvement as a team with no conflict between them,” said Shepsis. “Then we will be successful.”

Mike Nordin, district manager of the Pacific Conservation District, then spoke about the progress made in recent years.

“We are working with landowners who are looking for a short-term fix, which helps as we look toward long-term fixes,” he said. “Six years ago we were always being asked, ‘Why put money into Washaway?’ which I thought was pretty insensitive. I’d say if it does wash away it’s because nobody did anything about it.”

Shoalwater dune

In the late 1990s, the Shoalwater Bay tribe approached the Army Corps of Engineers to come up with a solution to flooding and storm debris damage. The Corps agreed to a feasibility study to try to determine a long-term solution, ranging from large breakwaters to sea walls and revetments, finally landing on dune restoration, according to David Michalson with the Corps.

“In 2013 we finished the project. We dredged material from a site about a mile offshore and used a hydraulic pump to build the dune up to historical levels,” he said. “We planned on coming back every five years to rebuild, and we’re there about now.”

The historical height of the barrier dune on Graveyard Spit off the reservation is 25 feet above “mean lower low water,” which is a term used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to describe the average height of the lowest tide recorded at a tide station each day during a 19-year period.

During the last El Nino winter of 2015-16, Michalson said the waves “took a chunk out of the north side of the dune.” This year’s work will focus on that end of the dune, or the “toe” of the dune, and will incorporate dynamic revetment, the placement of cobble — rounded rock about 10 inches in diameter — designed to diffuse wave impact rather than just deflect it.

“The dune is a nesting ground for an endangered species of bird, the snowy plover, but they nest primarily on the south end of the dune,” said Michalson. “So we will start work on the north end of the dune in the spring and rebuild the height of the dune on the south end in late July into early August, when the birds will have fledged and gone.”

The project will pump 600,000 cubic yards of material out of a site a mile offshore, specifically chosen because it has had the largest amount of material deposited in it over the years. There will also be 90,000 tons of cobble used, and sand fencing will be set on the back side of the dune to stabilize it. Construction will likely start in June and go through February. The $10 million to $25 million contract is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

State Route 105

Gary Aust with the Department of Transportation gave a wrap-up of the state project to shore up the section of State Route 105 that follows the coastline just north of the reservation. Crews were finishing up that very day, patching asphalt that had been damaged while the shoreline was fortified with a combination of riprap, cobble, large rock and areas of dynamic revetment.

“The situation now is monitoring normal wear and tear,” he said. “If we have a two-day wallbanger like we can get here, that’s what the big rock is there for.” Crews monitor the shorelines by placing stakes at five-foot intervals and observing them in passing.

He said some funding has become available for the cranberry bog drainage ditch that runs underneath SR 105. This project is of interest to the cranberry farmers; if the flood gates aren’t operational or if the shoreline deteriorates, salt water would be pushed into the bogs, destroying the cranberries.

Dynamic revetment

Cottrell, a cranberry farmer himself, talked about how dynamic revetment works.

The rocks come from Raymond. “Round rocks, made of the same basalt as the beach sand,” he said. “The round rocks roll around and migrate and fracture,” diffusing the energy of the waves. “The waves put it where it needs to go up until the point where it is overwhelmed. If waves go over the top of the rocks they will wash out onto the beach.”

That happened to a certain extent during the Jan. 18 storm, but overall the revetment performed very well.

Saltwater flooding is not just a concern for cranberry farmers. Cottrell said a major shoreline breach would flood all of North Cove; Westport would become an island, and Grayland would just be a tail sticking out of the ocean.

“We’re trying to hold the line where we are until science catches up with us,” said Cottrell. “We are all learning from each other, and we need to keep spreading the word that this is not a lost cause.”

North Willapa Harbor Grange secretary Connie Allen reported that the Grange has raised more than $3,000, which is spent on rock and delivery as soon as enough is available. Recently, rock has been dropped at the end of Whipple Avenue and Spruce Street, she said.

One voice

Cranberry grower Nick Wood said, “Hats off to all the people working on this now. Now David and the tribe are on the right track here. Keep at it and get the word out. Two years ago all we heard was ‘nothing can be done.’”

Cottrell has built a solid relationship with several key agencies, including the Department of Fish and Wildlife. They, in cooperation with the Department of Transportation, the Department of Ecology, Army Corps of Engineers and the county, vowed to continue to work together to slow down the rate of erosion.

“Fish and Wildlife is not going to be an obstacle,” said Marcus Reeve. “We are trying to get all the agencies together.” Cottrell said whenever he needs a permit for shoreline preservation, Reeve is always accommodating.

There will be another meeting in the near future, but Cottrell said, “The big public meetings seem to work best if we don’t overdo them, waiting until there’s new information to share. In between, we sort of break up into informal working groups that stay in touch mostly by email and phone. It saves on meeting burnout, especially when we’re asking people to drive from Seattle, Olympia and Vancouver to meet with us.”