An estuary story

Places where rivers meet the ocean are in constant change, but changes in recent history have been especially broad.

At the Thursday, April 7, meeting of the MidCoast Watersheds Council, speaker Laura Brophy will explore questions like, “What did the Yaquina Bay Estuary look like 200 years ago?” and “What might it look like a hundred years in the future?” 

Travel through time with her to visualize the estuary's past, how it has changed and hear about what these changes mean to people and wildlife.

Brophy directs the Estuary Technical Group at the Institute for Applied Ecology, a nonprofit in Corvallis, and has been involved in estuary research and management on the Oregon Coast for several years.

As the lead researcher on MidCoast Watersheds Council’s ‘Landward Migration Zone’ study, Brophy will be sharing the results of extensive studies into how the tides will change in the estuary in different sea-level-rise scenarios.

Brophy enjoys developing and delivering solid science to support estuary restoration and conservation by coastal communities. Over the past 20 years, she has led field studies in nearly all of Oregon's major estuaries, including effectiveness monitoring at Oregon's largest tidal wetland restoration projects. From these projects, she and her colleagues have made exciting discoveries about how estuaries work, leading to better mapping of estuary habitats and better data on valued estuary functions like carbon sequestration and fish habitat.

She is currently collaborating with regional and national teams to apply this new knowledge and help improve estuary management across the US.

The meeting begins at 6:30 pm via Zoom. For more information, go to midcoastwatersheds.org.