Smith River, CA Coastal Erosion Rate
Shoreline change 5.3 miles northwest of Smith River, CA
5.3 miles northwest of Smith River, CA, the coast is advancing, not retreating, at a measured 0.19 feet a year, sediment accumulating faster than any erosion USGS recorded here. At that rate, the shoreline has gained roughly 1.9 feet over the last decade.
What this reading actually covers
Smith River, CA is the nearest named place, 5.3 miles away, to a ~3.5-mile stretch of coast USGS has surveyed - the reading below covers that whole stretch, not a single property in it. Segment center: 41.99, -124.21. The survey behind it runs to 1852-2016, in USGS's California assessment, using the LRR method. Shoreline surveys aren't repeated every year, so this is the most recent long-term measurement USGS has published for this coast, not a live reading.
What 0.19 ft/yr means over time
Holding the 0.19 ft/yr accretion rate 5.3 miles northwest of Smith River, CA for 25 years would add roughly 5 feet of shoreline, again assuming nothing about the local sediment supply changes.
Where this fits nationally
Averaging 50 separate transects produced this segment's rate, with 14% individually reading as erosion, rather than relying on any single survey line. Uncertainty on this specific number: 0.17 ft/yr either side. Sorted from fastest erosion to fastest growth across all 1211 measured segments nationally, this one lands at 919. Source: USGS National Shoreline Change data release (ScienceBase, DOI 10.5066/P94J0K7Z), Kratzmann 2024 / Data Report 1187. For scale: Chincoteague, VA, 2569 miles away, ranks 1119 of 1211 nationally for growth, 1.09 ft/yr, 5.7x this stretch's rate. 2.5 miles up the coast, Smith River, CA shows the same lack of a significant trend.
One address near Smith River: the Coastal Change Hazards Portal zooms past this stretch to the underlying map.