One of the most common questions received is "What does the Port do?"

While the Port of Coos Bay is engaged and facilitates many community and economic activities of the region, our main lines of business can be separated out into three parts: Marine Operations, the Coos Bay Rail Line, and the Charleston Marina Complex. 

The Port’s boundaries include the Coos Bay harbor, which has been critical to the development of the region, serving as the multimodal connection point for logs, lumber, and woodchips produced by the region’s mills, and the watershed of the Coos and Millacoma Rivers. While the timber industry is smaller than it once was, it is still a major source of jobs in the region.

The Port serves as a facilitator to the harbor’s maritime industry and as an economic development and transportation advocacy organization, promoting marine and industrial growth throughout southwest Oregon and the state, and economic activity in national and international markets.  As of 2015, the Port offers diverse facilities and infrastructure to support the regional economy, including a large commercial fishing fleet based at the Charleston Marina, which is part of a complex that includes the Charleston Ice Dock, the Charleston Boatyard, the Charleston Marina RV Park, and a U.S. Coast Guard installation. These facilities serve various market segments, including commercial fishing and seafood processing, recreational fishing and boating, tourism, and a growing retail and commercial sector. In addition to tenants of the Port, a number of fish processing firms in the port district depend on the local fleet for their raw product.

The Port expanded its transportation portfolio in recent years with the acquisition of the Coos Bay Rail Line which is operated under Coos Bay Rail Line Inc. The railroad connects Coos, western Douglas, and western Lane counties to the North American freight rail system. The CBRL is a cost‐effective and efficient transport option for the forest products and local dairy industries and is a key component of reaching the Port’s economic development goals. In addition to the Charleston facilities and the CBRL, the Port owns several marine industrial sites (none are currently used for cargo movements) and is one of the lead agencies that helps maintain the federal navigation channel that provides access to the private marine terminals.

The Port owns a number of properties in the North Spit, East Bay and Upper Bay areas of Coos Bay which are zoned for industrial use and future business development, recreational use and activity, and environmental mitigation. 

In addition to Port‐owned facilities, the Port is the non‐federal sponsor for navigation system maintenance and improvements. This navigation system includes the jetties at the mouth of Coos Bay, the channel leading to the Charleston Marina, and the deep draft channel that provides access to the upper portions of Coos Bay, approximately 15 miles from the bay entrance. The depth of the channel at the entrance is ‐47 feet mean lower low water (MLLW). Channel depth is maintained at ‐37 feet MLLW for the length of the 15.2 mile channel.