NECANICUM WATERSHED

History

Nootka (Lewis & Clark: The
Journey of the Corps of Discovery)

Clatsop Indians in the Seaside area lived in "Long Houses", about 30 to 60 feet in length, made of cedar planks. A Long House floor was several feet below the ground level, with a fire pit in the center. Along the wall were shelves for sleeping and storage of food and belongings.

Before the beginning of the era of disturbance the Indians of the Siletz area may have numbered 15,000 individuals. In 1782-83 a great smallpox epidemic, which swept the whole Columbian region, reduced the population by more than one-third. A visitation of fever and measles about 1823-25 wiped out whole tribes, and by 1850 probably not 6,000 survived.

The Clatsops made their clothing of animal skins, cedar bark, bear grass, silk grass and flag. The garments of both sexes came no lower than the knees; allowing lower legs and feet to be bare summer and winter. During the rainy season, which was most of the time, they wore cloaks made of strips of bark bound together and coated with fish oil. It made them waterproof but gave them a strong fish odor. They also coated their bodies with fish oil for warmth and protection.

The main staple of the Clatsop diet was fish, but they also ate berries, roots, wild fruits, and some game. They hunted by digging a pit, covering it with branches and leaves, then sitting by to wait for the game to appear and fall in.

The Lewis and Clark expedition ran low of salt for preserving meat and fish during the winter of 1805 and 1806. Three men from the group were assigned to the beach some distance north of Seasides Cove area, to establish the "Salt Cairn", also known as the "Salt Works." They worked continuously from Feb. 2, until Feb. 20, 1806, boiling sea water from which they extracted four bushels of salt.

Today

The watershed's coniferous forests -- trees such as western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), true fir (Abies spp.), and western red cedar (Thuja plicata) -- cover about 72 percent of the total land area. Hardwood species such as red alder (Alnus rubra) and maple (Acer spp.) also grow throughout the region, especially as second growth in riparian areas, covering about 11 percent of the watershed. Most of the older trees have been lost to fire and timber harvest. Today, hemlock and spruce are the dominant tree species in the watershed. Foresters describe this environment as a highly productive ecosystem -- from both biological and commodity perspectives. The watershed is famous for many record holding big trees, including a Sitka spruce tree near Seaside that is 216-feet high with a 52-foot circumference. This giant spruce is thought to be over 700 years old.

In the lower elevations of the watershed, forest gives way to wetlands and rich alluvial plains used for agriculture, rural residential housing, and urban development. The Necanicum River watershed has an extensive floodplain area that occupies about seven percent of the watershed. Developed lands (urban and rural residential) occupy about six percent of the Necanicum River watershed. Agricultural and pastoral lands occupy less than one percent of the watershed and are mostly located at the lower elevations of the watershed.

Anadromous salmonid species known to occur in the Necanicum River include chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), coho salmon (O. kisutch), chum salmon (O. keta), steelhead trout (O. mykiss), and sea-run cutthroat trout (O. clarkii). The chinook salmon were introduced, whereas the other species are native to this drainage. Resident cutthroat trout and Pacific lamprey (Entosphenous tridentatus) are also present in the Necanicum River.

The watershed is almost entirely privately owned and forestry is the primary land use. The towns of Seaside and adjoining Gearhart rely heavily on tourism. The largest amount of water appropriated in the Necanicum River watershed is for municipal and domestic use by the City of Seaside. Most of this water is appropriated from the South Fork Necanicum River.

To learn more about the Necanicum 4th field watershed, visit the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Surf Your Watershed website.

Sources

Compiled by John Ame, Science Writer (2007)