At a public foreclosure auction in October the Department of State Lands, in partnership with the South Slough National Estuarine Reserve, purchased 240 acres in the Coos estuary. Known as the Indian Point parcel, the land will connect to the South Slough’s northern-most boundary, and become part of nearly 600 acres of protected estuarine wetland. “This purchase is something we’ve had our eye on since the 1990s when the owners first approached the South Slough,” said Reserve manager Gary Cooper. “We had begun negotiations with the owners earlier this year when we learned the parcel was facing foreclosure. We obviously are very pleased that we placed the winning bid,” he said. Cooper said the bid price of $980,001 was $280,000 below the appraised value of the land. Funds to purchase Indian Point were obtained through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program. The grant application was submitted by the Department of State Lands, Coos Watershed Association and the South Coast Land Conservancy. Matching funds were provided by the Gustafson family’s bequest to the South Slough Reserve for land acquisition. The grant stipulates that the acquisition – called the “South Slough Shorelands Project” – must support efforts to maintain the integrity of the South Slough estuary and to protect it from uses and activities that would alter the ecosystem and natural processes. The Department of State Lands, which serves as the South Slough’s state administrative partner, will maintain interagency agreements with cooperating organizations to manage and oversee the project. The Reserve is one of 28 estuarine reserves overseen by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Indian Point parcel consists of about 240 acres of estuarine shore lands including tidal estuarine wetlands, forested uplands and forested fresh-water wetlands, located approximately 1/2 mile southeast of Charleston. The majority of the property’s boundary, about 1.5 miles, fronts and forms the shoreline of the South Slough and Joe Ney tidal inlets of the Coos estuary.
