PORT ORFORD WETLAND INTERPRETIVE
WALKWAY
The Port Orford Wetland Interpretative Walkway is located between Ray’s
Place Market and Kar Kare Auto Parts just off Highway 101. Turn west on
18th Street and then turn south on Idaho Street. Follow the sign on Idaho
Street for a turn east onto a gravel road that leads to the entrance to
the wetland walkway. The road has a paved turnout with a parking place
for a handicapped van and the walkway is handicapped accessible.
At the beginning of the walkway is a bench dedicated to Ellen Warring,
a local environmentalist. The 160-foot long wooden boardwalk encourages
visitors to get within the boundaries of one of Port Orford’s most
significant “scrub-shrub” wetlands. There are three interpretive
signs along the walkway that explain some of the life in this fresh water
wetland. There is a bench at the end of the boardwalk for closer and extended
observation.
The official explanation of a wetland is “those areas that are inundated
or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient
and under normal circumstances to support a prevalence of vegetation typically
adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.”
Some of the vegetation in this wetland: cat-tail, skunk cabbage, yellow
pond lily, slough sedge, soft rush, and Sitka, Pacific and Hooker willows.
A wetland has many important ecological functions including (but not limited
to): flood control, shoreline stabilization, water filtration (i.e. some
pollution is taken up by plants and the recycled water goes into Garrison
Lake), and habitat for birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
Some of the animals living in this wetland area are dragonflies, western
pond turtles, raccoons, beaver, river otter, frogs, and lots and lots of
different birds. Some of the birds common to this wetland are: pileated
woodpecker, belted kingfisher, tree and violet-green swallows, marsh wrens,
dark-eyed junco, red-breasted nuthatch, winter wren, sharp-shinned hawk,
owls, Virginia rail, sora, common snipe, American bittern (a type of heron),
green heron, chestnut-backed chickadee, and American goldfinch.
PORT ORFORD WETLAND INTERPRETIVE
WALKWAY
Some of the vegetation in this wetland: cat-tail, skunk cabbage, yellow
pond lily, slough sedge, soft rush, and Sitka, Pacific and Hooker willows. 
