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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015
BAYWATCH
Tokeland marina smokin’ busy
$564,000 state
grant sets stage
for new era in
little town
By KATIE WILSON
EO Media Group
TOKELAND, Wash. —
The Tokeland marina on
Willapa Bay is quiet for now,
but the parking lot is full of
pickup trucks and boat trailers
baking in the heat of a mid-
day, midweek July sun.
All of the marina’s existing
42 slips are spoken for, with
roughly half rented out long
term to commercial boats
and half to recreational boats.
Visitors to the marina — and
during the summer there are
a lot of visitors — must haul
in and haul out each day they
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boat launch ramps. So when
the 50 plus boats in the water
off nearby Washaway Beach
hit their limit in salmon and
head back to the marina, they
will have to take turns to haul
out while everyone else drives
in circles, waiting.
It is not uncommon for
more than 200 boats to launch
from the marina in a single
day when the summer Colum-
bia River and ocean salmon
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
seasons are going strong. Lo-
cated near State Route 105 The Tokeland marina on Willapa Bay’s north shore, like ports in Chinook and Ilwaco, Wash., is abuzz with recreational fishing boats this summer as an
at the northern side of the outstanding salmon season nears its peak. The marina will soon benefit from state-financed renovations intended to reverse decades of deterioration
bay’s entryway, the marina is exemplified by the weather pilings pictured here.
the closest ocean access for
ERDWHUVLQQRUWK3DFL¿F&RXQ-
ty, also drawing users from
elsewhere around southwest
Washington.
During salmon season,
says one angler who is dock-
bound thanks to some expen-
sive boat repairs, it is com-
plete chaos.
But all of this is in the pro-
cess of changing.
Big renovations
This summer, the Port
of Willapa Harbor, which
owns and operates the ma-
rina, learned it will receive
$563,780 from the state Rec-
reation and Conservation Of-
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Marina. Work already in mo-
tion or set to begin this year
includes:
• Replacing a dilapidated
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primarily by birds and, in the
winter, by the port as a sort of
breakwater) with a new dock
that can double as summer
moorage and winter breakwa-
ter;
• Building new bathrooms
to take the place of a row of
green porta-potties;
• Generally cleaning up the
marina frontage;
• Driving piling for a fu-
WXUH ÀRDWLQJ GRFN WKDW ZLOO
add approximately 40 more
slips; and
• Other work to protect the
south shoreline from erosion.
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
Salmon like these are the big attraction for fishermen uti-
lizing a Willapa Bay marina with convenient access to the
Pacific Ocean.
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
Commercial and recreational vessels jockey for space at Tokeland’s marina, which is
fully booked this time of year.
to develop a master plan for
the area. They asked the com-
munity questions like: If you
could build one business here,
and the only goal was to serve
the community, what business
would you build? They prior-
itized a list of improvements,
development ideas and proj-
ects. Improving the Tokeland
marina was near the top of
this list, said Rebecca Chaf-
fee, manager for the Port of
Willapa Harbor.
The face of the marina has
Community vision
already changed dramatically
This, and other grants since then. The port has taken
the port has landed in recent GRZQRUKDGEXLOGLQJRZQHUV
years, are thanks in part to the take down) several run-down
energetic work of Tokeland structures such as an aban-
and area residents.
doned, boarded-up building
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loose organization of area cit- that one down. Now, Nelson
izens and local government Crab is building what will
formed Sustainable Tokeland eventually be a commercial
seafood market. Meanwhile,
the old Nelson Crab building,
a rusted-out potential safety
hazard sitting out on an old
pier to the far side of the ma-
rina, is also gone, torn down
in late July. The pier itself is
considered a failed structure
and will be dismantled —
work that is set to begin soon.
“Right in the middle of
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sighing a little.
Still, Chaffee is excited
about the work and the future
in store for the Tokeland Ma-
rina. She envisions a much
more useful facility, one that
can handle its growing pop-
ularity with local and out-of-
town anglers.
Busy, but not rich
Garth Gerber, the Toke-
LOWER COLUMBIA BOWL
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503-325-3321
C O S M IC B OW L
F ri d a y & Sa tu rd a ys 9:30 to m id n ight
In d ivi d u al s & Te am s W an t e d
St o p b y o r call t o d ay!
10 AM - 10:30 PM M O N -TH
10 AM - 12:00 AM FRI - SAT
12 PM - 10:30 PM SU N DAY
land marina harbor master,
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dishing a thick sheaf of
pink-colored receipts. The
stack is thick: all the launch
receipts from the recent
weekend, representing hun-
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boats. But despite how well-
used the marina is during the
summer, it makes the port al-
most no money. The slips are
rented long-term and there is
not a lot of turnover. The port
doesn’t charge for parking,
only for use of the launch.
“In a perfect word, with
lots of money, we might
have done bigger and better
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Sustainable Tokeland had for
marina improvements will be
met, in part.
“We haven’t been able
to do them all, and probably
never will, but we’ll be able
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said.
And every little bit helps.
Chaffee believes the marina
is well on its way to having
its busiest season ever this
summer. Those new docks for
recreational boats can’t come
soon enough.
“The word seems to really
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