SALT MARSH CREATION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST: 

 CRITERIA, PLANTING TECHNIQUES, AND COSTS 



Wilbur E. Ternyik 



Wave Beach Grass Nursery 

 Post Office Box 1190 

 Florence, Oregon 97439 



INTRODUCTION 



Wave Beach Grass Nursery contracted 

 with the Corps of Engineers Waterways 

 Experiment Station at Vicksburg, Missis- 

 sippi, to provide a report of basic data 

 collected through one growing season on 

 pilot test planting of six species of 

 vascular plants endemic to the area at 

 Miller Sands. This island complex under 

 tidal influence is located near River 

 Kilometer 39 (River Mile 24) on the low- 

 er Columbia River, Oregon. This report 

 outlines the progress of the pilot test 

 from plant selection, collection, plant- 

 ing, and growing season from 21 June 

 1975 through 18 November 1975. Although 

 my experience with marsh plantings is 

 limited, I have worked with plant mate- 

 rials and in the erosion control field 

 on the Pacific coast for 34 yr. 



METHODS 



The geographic location of Miller 

 Sands is 9.7 km (6 mi) from Tongue Point 

 on the eastern edge of the city of As- 

 toria, Oregon. The test site was created 

 in June 1974 by the Corps of Engineers' 

 placement of 612,000 m 3 (800,000 yd 3 ) of 

 dredged material. Particular size analy- 

 sis shows basically sandy materials 

 ranging from 2.8 to 3 mm (Oregon State 

 University, 75 samples). The lower 9 m 

 (30 ft) of the site is not of dredged 

 materials, but contains long-term accu- 

 mulated sediments of very fine silt and 

 wood particles. 



Plants were selected because of 

 availability of uniform stock sufficient 

 to plant both plots of the species. 

 Plants were selected as near to the 

 early growth stage as possible to avoid 

 possible shock of excessive topping. 

 Species selected for planting were 

 Eleocharis palustris , Juncus balticus , 



6. 



The 

 for 



Juncus effusus , Scirpus validus , Carex 

 lyngbyei , and Deschampsia caespitosa . 

 Sites for plant collection were se- 

 lected with the following factors in 

 mind: 



1. Quality and vigor of plants 

 present on site; 



2. State of growth, both top 

 growth and root system; 



3. Location in relation to dis- 

 tance from site; 



4. Age of plant that would mini- 

 mize the need for extensive 

 cleaning; 



5. Quantity of plant stock growing 

 on site in order to avoid de- 

 pletion problems; 

 Stands growing in sandy areas 

 similar to the planting test 

 plot. 



collection procedure was the 

 same for all species. All plants were 

 hand dug by shovel, and sand was cleaned 

 from the roots by dipping them in water. 

 The sprigging method was used because of 

 the time factor resulting from the late- 

 season start. All plants were topped to 

 a uniform height before digging to 

 provide surface integrity to the entire 

 plot. Failure to observe this procedure 

 may have resulted in tidal currents 

 washing out areas extending above the 

 general plant surface height and result- 

 ed in a progressive failure of the en- 

 tire planting. The rhizome or root 

 length was a personal judgment of what 

 would constitute a transplant of suffi- 

 cient size to allow for expected top 

 growth recovery and new feeder root es- 

 tablishment. Lengths of the root cut- 

 tings were generally made with a section 

 of rhizome containing from one to three 

 culms or stems. Pruning of feeder root 

 systems was not necessary. 



Two methods of plant material stor- 

 age were attempted, but one method was 



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