Hello All -
Happy July! Wow, that was some heat wave we just had, I hope you all made it through alright. At any rate, I hope your summer is going well so far and that you have the opportunity to spend some time outside - especially along the Willamette.
This month we are kicking off our 25th Anniversary Celebration that will run to the end of the calendar year. While I cannot claim that the river is where we need it to be today, over the past quarter century we have gotten a lot done for the river.
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Some of our highlights include:
- Making the water cleaner through numerous Clean Water Act lawsuits against those violating this bedrock environmental law.
- Restoring significant portions of Oregon State Parklands along the river.
- Improving fish passage at the US Army Corps Dams via our legal work on the Endangered Species Act, and now on the growing antiquity of the Corps dams.
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- Playing an instrumental role after 16 years of work getting to the Record of Decision for the Portland Harbor Superfund site. We continue to watchdog the implementation of the cleanup process.
- Getting several thousand people out along the Willamette River through our various River Discovery events, 19 Paddle Oregon trips (we will do the 20th in 2022!), and via the Willamette Water Trail maps and sites. WR has distributed over 10,000 maps.
- Improved the River’s ability to be healthy through our burgeoning land acquisition program that can help create an improved degree of climate resiliency for the river.
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Over the years we’ve done a lot more. In all of this, YOU have been instrumental in helping to keep the canoe headed downstream, navigating the rapids, and making progress. Your memberships, sponsorships, and overall financial support from a wide array of sources have enabled our work to continue. Stay tuned on our Facebook and Instagram - in the weeks to come, we'll be highlighting some of the folks that have been crucial to our organization over the years.
When I started at WR in 2000, there were no staff, and just a handful of volunteers. Because of your support, we have two offices, ongoing monthly events for the river, and a professional staff of 8 that will continue this important work into our next quarter century.
We will keep the work going, making progress for clean water and healthy habitat.
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Thank you!
Travis Williams
Riverkeeper & Executive Director
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Portland:
Join our Tuesday, July 13 cleanup on the Eastbank Esplanade in SE here.
On Wednesday, July 21, we'll be cleaning at Kelly Point Park with Portland Parks and Recreation, more details and registration are available here.
Salem:
On July 7, we're partnering with Oregon Parks and Recreation for an on the water cleanup beginning at Wallace Marine Park. Details are registration are available here.
Corvallis:
July 22, we're partnering with Corvallis Parks to clean up the floodplains and mulch native plants and trees in the Orleans Natural Area. More details and registration are available here.
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Eugene/Springfield:
Join our Tuesday, July 20, cleanup here. This event will take place on the water and beginning at Alton Baker.
Harvest Paddle 2021: This event will take place September 11 - 12. Details and registration will be released in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned!
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It’s Time to Celebrate #OurWillamette | Willamette River Festival 2021 |
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River enthusiasts across the Willamette Valley are invited to the 5th annual Willamette River Festival. The Festival honors and recognizes that we are on Kalapuya Ilhi – the traditional indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya people who were here first, and who will always be here.
The Festival will highlight art and music from local Indigenous Peoples, and works to connect the community to the Kalapuya language through the Talking Stones exhibit.
Activities during the festival week include a “Paddle Cross Challenge” where individuals can compete or participate for fun to complete a recreational paddle route starting at the Alton Baker Canoe Canal, winding downstream on the Willamette River and then back to the park. Other activities include snorkeling, paddling, a species count, interpretive walking and canoe tours, river safety, mussel studies, flyfishing casting clinics, and a native plant ethnobotany workshop. Folks can even get their hands dirty at a series of small volunteer group events, featuring an on-water river cleanup, riparian tree mulching and English ivy removal in the Whilamut Natural Area.
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Stormwater education will also be a component of this year’s festival, featuring a series of art installations created and organized through programming led by Lane ARTs Council and Willamette Resource & Educational Network (WREN).
The purpose of the Willamette River Festival is to bring the community together to enjoy and celebrate the Willamette River by highlighting its unique history, culture, ecology and recreation opportunities. The Willamette River Festival is committed to family-friendly fun, with free opportunities for all to explore and enjoy the natural river corridor through a diversity of human-powered activities.
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The partnership between festival organizers provides a framework and space for all groups working to enjoy, protect and restore the Willamette River. Organizing Partners include the City of Eugene, Willamette Riverkeeper, University of Oregon Outdoor Program, Willamalane Parks and Recreation District, and Willamette Resource & Educational Network. Sponsor Partners include Willamette Kayak & Canoe Club, Lane ARTs Council, and Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission.
For more information about the Willamette River Festival, the event schedule, sponsorship, or opportunities to volunteer, please see: www.willametteriverfest.org.
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A huge thank you to all of you who contributed to funding the acquisition of the Red Osier Preserve. We received donations from over 120 people for this project at all giving levels, enabling us to meet the $25k match.
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Now we can move forward into closing on this property. We will keep you appraised of when the purchase is concluded. It should be sometime in August.
Thank you so much again! Gaining these properties along the Willamette Floodplain is essential to the long term health of the river, as well as helping to create essential resilience in the face of climate change. Every property we can acquire and preserve, as well as improving the habitat on such property, can create cooler water along the side channels of the floodplain, and can aid a great many species with health floodplain forest cover. Thanks again!
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Over the past few years WR has acquired several properties along the Willamette River, such as the one mentioned above. Over time we work to rid these properties of invasive plants, establish or protect native plant species, and create access for low impact recreation where it makes sense.
We have grown this work to the point where we are establishing a Stewardship Fund that can help us make gains on these properties, conduct annual maintenance on them, and develop specific management plans, such as our plan for Norwood Island created last year. This type of a fund is pretty typical for organizations that own and steward conservation lands. A small portion of this fund can also enable us to work to acquire additional riverside lands.
Between our staff working on such sites, the need for contractors to do work
at a meaningful scale, and the coordination of volunteers to do work, there is a real need to provide financial support to our properties. While we stretch the dollars in a meaningful way in stewarding our properties, the need is real.
If you are interested in contributing to the Willamette Stewardship Fund, feel
You all have made a big difference in our ability to make gains for the river, and this is another way to sustain this important work. Thank you!
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Natural Recruitment & Natural Regeneration |
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Our last Riverscape article delved into the topic of mortality, an unfortunate factor with the native trees and shrubs that we’ve planted. This time we want to bring awareness to a more joyful dynamic: natural recruitment, or the emergence of native grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees that we did not plant. The simple act of removing weed cover and reducing weed pressure from a restoration site can lay the groundwork for what can amount to a robust process of natural regeneration of native plants from seed in the seedbank. As a recap, our restoration revegetation process usually involves three stages:
1) Site Preparation for 2-3 years, first cutting non-natives plants to reduce biomass, and using carefully targeted applications of herbicide to ensure their roots systems are dead and killing invasive plants that continue to germinate from the seedbank.
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2) Planting occurs in the winter and spring after site preparation when plenty of water usually abounds. Sometimes a project will have staggered plantings so that the site has growth of different age classes.
3) Plant Establishment then is conducted over a 3 – 5 year period, nomenclature for selective weed abatement until our young natives are large enough to outcompete non-native species.
It is after site preparation is nearing completion that the magic of natural recruitment really starts to occur. All of a sudden we start seeing native plants appear that we did not introduce to the site, primarily herbaceous annuals and perennials. Monitoring our restoration sites has revealed some great new surprises this year: blankets of fringecup that have burgeoned at restored areas around Mission Lake, patches of native broadleaf bluebells and meadowrue at Gail Achterman Wildlife Area, with camas species, lupine, wapato, and a number of native shrubs and trees joining the parade. As we travel these sites, the sight of natural regeneration delights and offers hope, a testament to the resilient power of nature.
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Forest Fires
Numerous fires raged throughout the Willamette River Basin in 2020, and Willamette Riverkeeper is tracking several government sales in the watershed. We continue to work on protecting the Santiam State Forest’s old mature complex habitat, the water supply for the Santiam River Basin, and drinking water for downstream communities. In May, we lost our request for preliminary injunction to stop logging in the Santiam State Forest, but we continue to push back on ODF’s efforts to kick us out of court.
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Portland Protests and the Willamette River
In Fall 2020, Willamette Riverkeeper, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, 350PDX, Cascadia Wildlands, and Neighbors for Clean Air filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration Department of Homeland Security, seeking environmental and public health analyses of the chemical munitions used during the 2020 vigils and protests. We are still awaiting documents from the DHS, and the Biden Administration continues to defend DHS’s actions. DHS is also trying to kick us out of court, and we have oral argument on July 20th.
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Shop Willamette Riverkeeper |
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Maps! Did you know that we sell Willamette River maps for all of your on the water adventuring? You can purchase digital copies on the Willamette Water Trail website, as well as paper copies (waterproof of course) of the Lower Willamette River.
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Willamette Water Trail Patches, we're selling them for just $5 here!
Coffee! We are so excited to be working with Pastor John's Blessed Beans, a locally owned, small batch roaster - Roast #187 is now available for purchase on the Willamette Water Trail website. Named for the 187 miles of the Willamette River, this blend has notes of chocolate, roasted almond, nougat and a touch of stone fruit and is best enjoyed riverside. You can purchase these 2lb. bags for $35!
Coming soon... more Willamette Water Trail gear!
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How to Support Willamette Riverkeeper |
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Make a one-time donation or become a monthly donor!
- Are you a business owner? Support Willamette Riverkeeper by becoming a sponsor today!
- Make a donation of stock or Bitcoin.
- Make Willamette Riverkeeper a beneficiary in your will or life insurance policy.
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Contact Heather King for more information about how to offer long term support for Willamette Riverkeeper!
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