Mile 4 - North Jetty, Brookings Beach west of Chetco, Tanbark Point - June 20, 2010

Report Details

These two areas on either side of Tanbark Point looked good. Little debris, Osprey on her nest and a few Pelicans dotted the water. Only physical change was due to the big logs thrown up onto the walkway of the North Jetty Beach access, causing fewer people to use this jetty and beach and allowing weeds to grow up over the little trail. The sewer plant and the slippage of the cliff below are being monitored closely by the water department of Brookings and no danger at this point to beach walkers. If one becomes imminent, the beach access will be closed while the problem is solved.

Conditions

Temperature: 58 F. Cloud Cover: Sunny. Wind Velocity: Moderate.

Human Activities

Number of people: 5. Number of dogs: 1. Walking or running: 5. On Sunday morning around 11AM, the weather was gorgeous, no wind had picked up as yet and the tide was low to moderate. A truly beautiful day. The beach on the North Jetty side of Tanbark Point was amazingly clean, with no garbage and little ocean debris. The access, however, is becoming overgrown with weeds, as fewer people are coming down to the jetty and beach area. The logs which were wedged up onto the walking path and are still there, of course, pose a problem for young children and older adults to access the area. All in all, tho, the beach and shorelines of this area looked good and are always a joy to visit.The Osprey is still sitting in her nest on top of Yellow Rock, truly a sight to behold and one that occurs every Spring into early summer.As for the Mill Beach side of Tanbark Point, the beach areas were a bit more littered with wooden debris, no garbage and little human activity. As the bank directly under the Brookings Sewer Plant was reported in the Pilot Newspaper as slipping and showing areas of water seepage, the reporter made claims that the sewer plant was going to be in danger. I spoke with the manager of the plant on Friday and he assured me that the beach is safe and that they are monitoring the situation, but that nothing is in danger of sliding into the ocean. They are talking, however, of shoring up the bank under the plant and when they do so, will have to close off the only public access to the beach for a period of time. So fears of a slide and danger to beach walkers alike were assuaged, at least for the near future. I'll keep on this and let you all know of any further developments. I suggested to him that if they were to rework the cliff at that point, perhaps they could engineer a safer and easier public access to Mill Beach. Now it is a steep trail down and then navigate over a long area of nothing but rocks to actually get to the beach. All in all, things are pretty quiet on Mile #4!

Vehicles

Cars/trucks parking: 1.

Driftline Content

Wood pieces.