Carol's Project

For several years now, Carol and I have talked about how nice it would be to have a walking trail around our neighborhood lake. Recently she decided to make it her project.

Together we composed the following letter to the Port Of Alsea, the local government body in charge of Eckman Lake. (In the winter, during high tides and high runoff the lake actually becomes part of the bay, and so it comes under their jurisdiction.)

Eckman Lake as a Wildlife Viewing Area

Over the past 20 years my husband and I have been regular visitors to a small 50 acre lake a few miles east of Waldport on the central Oregon coast. We have fished, kayaked, photographed wildlife and just plain relaxed on the lake.

For several years we picked up trash around Eckman Lake while he was a member of the “Adopt a River” program, and although he's no longer a member we still do our part to keep the lake trash free.

Over the years we have watched families of Deer, Otters, Beavers and Nutria going about the daily business of feeding and raising their young.

Every spring a pair of Ospreys return to their power pole aerie and raise two or three chicks to maturity. One of our most rewarding sights has been watching the chicks mature, take their first hesitant flight from the nest and then gain confidence in their ability. Within a few days they are doing fantastic aerobatics, playing like puppies in the sky.

As amateur birdwatchers, we can only recognize a few of the many other bird species that live near or visit the lake, but we are familiar with the Blue Heron, White Egrets, Cormorants, Loons, Green Herons, Canadian Geese, Mallards, Wood Ducks, Kingfishers, Gulls, Red-Winged Blackbirds, and countless other birds and waterfowl.

On several occasions we have seen Western Pond Turtles sunning themselves on partially submerged logs. Bullfrogs inhabit the water plants along the shoreline where Salamanders lay their eggs in fist sized gelatinous globs.

One sunny day kayaking when the water was unusually clear, we watched a Large mouth Bass protecting her babies in a nest she had scooped out of the sandy bottom. Schools of tiny Sticklebacks provide food for the Bass and Trout that live in the lake. During the winter, high water and high tides provide access for the Coho Salmon and Steelhead to swim through the lake on their way to spawn in upper Eckman Creek.

We feel that if there was a trail around the perimeter of the lake, a prime wildlife viewing area and greater accessibility for fishing would be created. This would surely bring visitors to the Waldport area.

Since private property abuts the water line in many areas, possibly a boardwalk similar to the one at the Darlingtonia Wayside, north of Florence, could be built. It is approximately two miles around the lake and a wheelchair friendly, boardwalk – trail combination with interpretive signs and rest benches would be a great wildlife viewing attraction and provide much more access for fishing.

Hopefully there is a grant somewhere waiting to finance a project like this, possibly in President Obama's “Stimulus Program.”

The Clelands

Carol met with Maggie Rivers, the port commissioner and was happy to find that her lake improvement project was enthusiastically received. They agreed that circulating a petition would be a good way to see how much local interest there would be in improving the lake.

While she and our daughter-in-law Dianna were gathering signatures, they talked to many people who learned how to swim, fished, boated and even water skied on the lake when they were kids. Almost all of them were excited about an improvements project, and they made many useful suggestions. Dredging, to deepen the lake and remove the silt and overgrowth of water plants was number one, followed by a wheel chair friendly boardwalk along the highway side of the lake for fishing and wildlife viewing, and a kayak - small boat ramp at the park.

As of this writing, in a little over a week, they have collected well over 1,000 signatures.