Summary

Description

The Coquille River system is an unregulated system that encompasses 2,745 square kilometers of southwestern Oregon and flows into the Pacific Ocean near the town of Bandon, Oregon. Beginning in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the South Fork Coquille River gains the Middle Fork Coquille River (drainage area 798 square kilometers) and shortly thereafter the North Fork Coquille River (749 square kilometers). In cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Geological Survey completed a reconnaissance-level assessment of channel condition and bed-material transport relevant to the permitting of in-stream gravel extraction along the the South Fork Coquille River from river kilometer (RKM) 115.4 near its confluence with Upper Land Creek to RKM 58.5 at its confluence with the North Fork Coquille River, the mainstem Coquille River from RKM 58.5 at the confluence of the South and North Forks of the Coquille River to its mouth, the Middle Fork Coquille River from RKM 15.4 to its confluence with the South Fork Coquille River, and the North Fork Coquille River from RKM 14.6 to its confluence with the South Fork Coquille River. To support these analyses, digital channel maps were produced to depict channel and floodplain conditions in the Coquille River basin from different time periods. GIS layers defining the wetted channel and bar features and channel centerline of Hunter Creek were developed for four time periods: 1939, 1967, 2005, and 2009. For this project, the active channel was defined as area typically inundated during annual high flows, and includes the low-flow channel as well as side channels, islands, and channel-flanking gravel bars. The wetted channel and bar feature datasets were developed by digitizing from aerial photographs. Aerial photographs from 1939 and 1967 were scanned, rectified, and mosaicked for this project (See metadata for each photograph set for more information on the rectification process and resolution of each dataset). Digital orthophotographs from 2005 and 2009 are publicly available.