Neotsu, OR Coastal Erosion Rate
Is the coast eroding 3 miles north of Neotsu, OR?
Good news, and an honest one: USGS's data can't distinguish this stretch, 3 miles north of Neotsu, OR, from a flat trend. Whatever small movement it measured here is statistical noise, not a reliable direction, so none is claimed.
What this reading actually covers
USGS surveys the coast in transects spaced a few hundred feet apart; this page groups the nearest ones into a single ~3.5-mile reading for the stretch closest to Neotsu, OR, rather than showing one arbitrary line. Segment center: 45.04, -124.00. Survey years: 2002-2011, method LRR, from USGS's Pacific Northwest shoreline-change assessment. That's how current the data is here, real, but not a live feed, since a shoreline survey is a major undertaking, not an annual check-in.
What backs this reading up
28 transects feed this segment's number; 25% of them individually measured retreat. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.82 ft/yr either side. The unadjusted figure here, 0.73 ft/yr, would place it 1070 of 1211 if ranked directly - but an unreliable rank isn't a useful one, which is exactly why "no significant trend" is the headline instead. Source: USGS Open-File Report 2012-1008. Rank 1180 nationally for growth belongs to Ocean Park, WA, 98 miles from this stretch, measured at 2.86 ft/yr. 2.7 miles up the coast, Lincoln City, OR shows the same lack of a significant trend.
Not this whole stretch, just Neotsu itself: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal is USGS's own live version of this data.