Whether you are a first time visitor or a long time resident, we invite you to explore the wonders of this special place on the Oregon Coast. Many habitat types occur in this wet coastal environment, making it home to a diversity of plants and animals. Habitat is the place where an organism lives and grows. Habitats overlap and influence each other. From the ridgetops of the watershed to the estuary below they form an interconnected web of life.

The hills and valleys surrounding an estuary are known as its watershed. The Netarts Bay watershed covers 14 square miles. As rain falls into the watershed, some soaks into the earth to become groundwater, and some runs off into the creeks that flow into Netarts Bay. Whatever happens in the watershed affects the estuary. Although erosion occurs naturally, poor forestry practices, road construction and development can cause erosion, contributing increased sediment to streams and the bay. Over a 12 year period (1957 - 1969), sediments deposited into Netarts Bay decreased its water volume by nearly 10%.