Coos River
Template:Use American English Template:Infobox river
The Coos River flows for about Template:Convert into Coos Bay along the Pacific coast of southwest Oregon in the United States.<ref name="topoquest Coos"/> Formed by the confluence of its major tributaries, the South Fork Coos River and the Millicoma River, it drains an important timber-producing region of the Southern Oregon Coast Range.<ref name = "fish plan">Template:Cite web</ref> The course of the main stem and the major tributaries is generally westward from the coastal forests to the eastern end of Coos Bay near the city of Coos Bay.<ref name="DeLorme">Template:Cite map</ref>
The river is the largest tributary of Coos Bay, which at about Template:Convert is the largest estuary that lies entirely within Oregon.<ref name ="fish plan"/> The river enters the bay about Template:Convert<ref name ="fish plan"/> from where the bay—curving east, north, and west of the cities of Coos Bay and North Bend and passing by the communities of Barview and Charleston—meets the ocean.<ref name="DeLorme"/> About 30 other tributaries also enter the bay directly.<ref name ="fish plan"/>
Most of the Coos River watershed of Template:Convert is in Coos County, but Template:Convert are in eastern Douglas County.<ref name = "fish plan"/> Commercial forests cover about 85 percent of the basin.<ref name = "fish plan"/>
The river supports populations of chinook and coho salmon, Pacific lamprey,<ref name=":0">Larsen, Erik. Lamprey in the Coos Estuary. Partnership for Coastal Watersheds, 23 Apr. 2014, www.partnershipforcoastalwatersheds.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FINAL-Lamprey-Data-Summary-03122014.pdf. Pamphlet. </ref> western brook lamprey,<ref name=":0" /> shad, steelhead, and coastal cutthroat trout. Since public river-bank access is limited, fishing is often done by boat.<ref name = "Sheehan">Sheehan, pp. 66–67</ref>
Course
Flowing west from the confluence of the South Fork Coos River and the Millicoma River, the Coos River is bordered by Oregon Route 241 (Coos River Highway) on the right and Coos River Road on the left. Downstream from its source, the river receives Noah Creek from the right Template:Convert from the river mouth. Curving south, the river receives Vogel Creek and then Lillian Creek, both from the left, before passing under Chandler Bridge, which carries Route 241 from the right bank to the left bank about Template:Convert from the mouth. The river then turns west and north as it enters the bay and splits into two distributaries separated by a marsh. The Cooston Channel, which is on the right, continues north around the west side of the marsh for about Template:Convert to the mouth. The left-hand channel almost immediately merges with Catching Slough, which enters from the left and continues around the east side of the marsh to meet the Marshfield Channel of the bay.<ref name="topoquest Coos"/><ref name="DeLorme"/>
Discharge
Estimates of the average discharge of the Coos River varies from Template:Convert in late summer to Template:Convert in February. Estimated extremes vary from a low of Template:Convert to a high of Template:Convert.<ref name = "fish plan"/>
See also
References
Works cited
- McArthur, Lewis A., and McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names, 7th ed. Portland: Oregon Historical Society Press. Template:ISBN.
- Sheehan, Madelynne Diness (2005). Fishing in Oregon: The Complete Oregon Fishing Guide, 10th ed. Scappoose, Oregon: Flying Pencil Publications. Template:ISBN.
- Larsen, Erik. Lamprey in the Coos Estuary. Partnership for Coastal Watersheds, 23 Apr. 2014, www.partnershipforcoastalwatersheds.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FINAL-Lamprey-Data-Summary-03122014.pdf. Pamphlet.