3.4 Shoreline Land Use 
West wide, approximately an estimated 55% of estuarine area had shoreline 
immediately adjacent that was classified by field crews as undeveloped. In Washington 
and Oregon, much of the undeveloped land was in silviculture. Somewhat surprisingly, 
across the three states, the percentage of area with adjacent shoreline classified as 
residential was very similar, on the order of 20%. California and San Francisco Bay had 
much higher area with urban shoreline adjacent to the intertidal sampling points than did 
Washington and Oregon. 
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ZX2 
Agriculture 
Undeveloped 
Residential 
Recreational 
Oyster Aquaculture 
Armored 
Industrial 
Highways 
Other 
Urban 
Figure 3.4.1. Percentage areas within assessment regions with shoreline adjacent to 
sample locations in different land use categories. 
3.5 Lessons Learned 
Tidal wetlands constitute critical habitats in West Coast estuaries, although their 
nature varies geographically. In the Pacific Northwest, tidal wetlands predominantly 
consist of unvegetated sand and mud flats, with marshes limited to a relatively narrow 
band along the upper edge of the bathymetric gradient. In comparison, vegetated 
wetlands constitute a much greater proportion of the total estuarine area in San 
Francisco Bay and in estuaries in Southern California. The results presented here 
represent the first regional scale survey of the condition of these habitat types on the 
West Coast and, to the best of our knowledge, anywhere. As such, these results 
constitute a critical baseline by which to evaluate changes in response to continued or 
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