Investigating the State of Morro Bay Estuary: State of the Bay Report 2020

Every three years, the Morro Bay National Estuary Program publishes a State of the Bay report that uses data gathered by our staff, volunteers, and partner organizations to examine the health of the Morro Bay estuary and watershed. It provides important information about environmental trends and guides local efforts to protect and restore this special place. This year, we published a digital version of the State of the Bay report with additional multimedia content and information that we couldn’t fit into into the print version of the report. Today, we invite you to investigate the the health of …

Field Updates, August 2019: Creeks, Stream Profile Survey, Upper Watershed Views

September 6, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program aggradation ca erosion field updates field work fieldwork great blue heron MBNEP monitoring morro bay morro bay national estuary program Morro Bay views restoration road restoration roads project rolling dips stream profile watershed Field Updates

As summer winds down here along the Central Coast, schools are back in session and fall is just around the corner. Though this time of year is slower for field work as most of the field team is busy entering data and writing reports on our various projects, we still got to check out a few different places in our beautiful watershed. Creeks Our long-term monitoring program in the creeks continues with our staff and the help of volunteers. To see what we use the data we gather for, or learn more about what we do out at …

Field Updates, June & July 2019: Creeks, Road Restoration, Eelgrass

August 2, 2019 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program Camp SLO eelgrass erosion gully MBNEP monitoring morro bay morro bay national estuary program restoration road repair shorebird Field Updates

Shows a volunteer conducting water quality monitoring

With summer in full swing, field staff at the Morro Bay National Estuary Program have greatly appreciated the long days. As always, we have been busy out in the field, collecting data from the watershed. Here are some of the things we’ve been up to recently. Creeks Our ongoing monitoring effort of the two subwatersheds, Chorro Creek and Los Osos Creek, that drain into Morro Bay allow long term trends to be established and we can see if current conditions vary from historical patterns. Chorro Creek is the main creek in our watershed, draining about 60% of the total …

Field Updates October 2018: bioassessment scouting, Pismo Preserve, sharing data, and getting ready for rain

November 9, 2018 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program bioassessment Camp SLO chorro creek eelgrass report erosion estuary program macroinvertebrates macros MBNEP morro bay morro bay eelgrass Pismo preserve sediment monitoring winter storms Blog Posts Field Updates

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and wildlife requires a lot of hard work in the field. At the Estuary Program, that often entails doing research, restoration, and monitoring work out on the estuary and along the creeks that feed into it. Read on to see what we’ve been up to during the past month. Scouting a new bioassessment site on Camp SLO Monitoring Coordinators Tim and Karissa ventured out to upper Chorro Creek, on Camp SLO property, to scout out new locations for conducting bioassessment surveys. This site would help …

Join the Morro Bay Rain Gauge Network

November 3, 2017 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program 1995 rains erosion estuary morro bay morro bay national estuary program precipitation rain rainfall sediment sedimentation Blog Posts

In the photograph above, sediment erodes from a dirt road during a rainstorm. This sediment can enter streams and end up in the bay.

Rain is in the forecast, which makes it a perfect time to debut our Rain Gauge Network. This new webpage will display rainfall data from the area surrounding Morro Bay and beyond. Now, we need you to join the network and help us gather that data. Why track rainfall? All precipitation that falls within the Morro Bay watershed can eventually make its way into the estuary through creeks and storm drains. This video shows runoff from roofs, streets, parking lots, etc. entering Morro Bay through a storm drain near the Estuary Program office. Runoff can contain sediment, bacteria, …

From Morro Bay to New Orleans, Estuary Programs Make a Difference

December 16, 2016 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program ANEP erosion land loss morro bay national estuary program new orleans plaquemines parish sediment Blog Posts

Marshland in Plaquemines Parish is disappearing quickly as waves and currents wash land away.

This past week, Executive Director Lexie Bell and Communications & Outreach Coordinator Rachel Pass journeyed all the way to New Orleans, Louisiana. There, they met with staff from the 27 other National Estuary Programs across the country and toured the local Barataria-Terrebonne estuary. National connections Congress established the National Estuary Program in 1987 through the Clean Water Act. There are currently 28 estuaries in the country included in the non-regulatory program. Each of these estuary programs works to address critical water quality issues in their area. National Estuary Programs protect bays big and small. Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, …

June Field Updates

July 1, 2016 Posted by Morro Bay National Estuary Program erosion estuary field update morro bay native plants snorkel survey watershed Blog Posts

Wooly Bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum), one of the many native plants we saw on the field tour.

Fulfilling our mission to protect and restore the Morro Bay estuary for people and animals requires a lot of hard work in the field. Read on to see what our staff and volunteers are doing on the ground. A Busy Month We went out and got our new Monitoring Coordinator, Shane, up to speed on our intertidal eelgrass monitoring efforts. Shane joins Evan, our Field Technician, and Erin, a grad student at Cal Poly, to look at the density of eelgrass at Windy Cove. We found a handful of what we believe are the egg collars of Moonsnails. …