Kerry Island

Tidal floodplain reconnection

After being diked, ditched, and drained for decades, Kerry Island was reconnected with Westport Slough’s natural floodplain in 2016. The Land Trust conserved the 100-acre island, which sits off the Oregon shore of the Columbia River, three years prior with the intention of restoring the landscape to provide vital rearing habitat for juvenile salmon and steelhead. Over a summer of construction, crews breached the surrounding levee, filled existing drainage ditches, excavated inland tidal channels, and placed wood along those channels to increase habitat complexity. 

Following restoration, the Land Trust installed nearly 50,000 native trees and shrubs in 2017, and the property was part of a multi-year monitoring study on reed canarygrass control methods. It responded favorably to the control treatment, and the site is now full of wapato and native sedges and rushes.  

Since restoration, Kerry Island bustles with wildlife. Our stewardship team reports hearing lots of Virginia rails and marsh wrens, and seeing many pollinators including bumbles and the occasional rufus hummingbird. Beavers, river otters, deer, great blue herons, bald eagles, and federally threatened Columbian white-tailed deer are all also known to frequent the site.