Mile 300 - Manzanita Beach, Manzanita, Neahkahnie Beach - 12/31/2024

Report Details

Manzanita Beach is very busy on this last day of 2024. I've never seen so many people and dogs on a winter day on our beach! We began our walk pretty much at high tide and were able to see all the wrack lines with their deposits. The amount of marine debris and microplastic is sad. Every wrack line was filled with it, entangled with natural materials like wood and shells. Many new driftwood logs are on the beach, and a long time root ball (since at least 2020!) has moved very far south to the entrance on the beach at the end of Laneda, the main road in Manzanita. We picked up garbage as we walked, petted all the dogs and chatted with many visitors. It was a beautiful sky and the mood on this New Year's Eve was merry!

Conditions

Temperature: 44 F. Cloud Cover: Cloudy. Wind Velocity: Calm/Light. Tide Level: 8.19 feet.

Human Activities

Number of people: 140. Number of dogs: 38. Walking or running: 130. Sitting: 10. Other Activities: Most folks were walking dogs, a large group of runners, a few bikes and one man with a shovel who was leveling the northern end of the mile entrance for the New Years Day Polar Bear Plunge!.

Concerns

Apparent violations: Evidence of fire near dunes and burning of driftwood..

Notable Wildlife

Western Gulls all around, and Snowy Plover (pretty sure) at the water line.

Driftline Content

Lots of different wrack lines FULL of debris. Small plastics, wood pieces, rope of all sizes and colors. So much burnt wood and small bits of wood.

Natural Changes

The recent king tides created steeper bluffs on the northern end of the mile (pictured). At the entry of semaphore 21 the waves have carved out the dune and signage (reported to OPRD), dumped in boulders from elsewhere along with a large, long driftwood log. There were huge roots and logs way up high in the dunes, dumped during king tides. This indicates to me that the waves overtopped the dunes.

Report Images

Treasure Cove starting point / south end of mile 300

Driftwood structure at the south end of mile 300

The famous root ball of Mile 300. Now at the end of Laneda Street.

Wrack line content.

Bluff changes. Much steeper here now.

Large pyroplastic.

Large burnt driftwood log.

Looking south from northern end of Mile 300.

Northern end of Mile 300 w/ local polar bear plunger leveling out entry to beach.

Snowy Plovers (i think?)

Report Images

Michelle Schwegmann

CoastWatcher

All Mile 300 Reports

Date

Showing 8 of 64 reports