Cox Island Currently Closed Due to COVID-19
Following Governor Brown's "Stay Home, Save Lives" Executive Order and wanting to help limit the spread of COVID-19, we have made the difficult decision to close our preserves until further notice.
What Makes Cox Island Special
Seven miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, this island on Oregon's central coast is an excellent example of an estuarine saltmarsh ecosystem. Low elevation leads to daily floods at high tide. At low tide, the island is dissected by a maze of tidal channels, adjoined by expanses of mudflats.
What TNC Has Done/Is Doing
Volunteers help control the only known Oregon population of saltmeadow cordgrass (Spartina patens), an invasive, introduced species that threatens native wetland vegetation. Researchers believe it arrived decades ago in packing material for clams, and Conservancy ecologists and volunteers are working to control the species and prevent it from spreading to other coastal marshlands.