News

by Alex Rhodes, Environmental Educator On a bright and sunny weekend, the first in what seemed like forever, the Blueprint Foundation and the Estuary Partnership circled up on the grass near the busy Cathedral Park boat ramp to build relationships and learn together. The Blueprint Foundation is a family—some related by blood but most tied together by the close-knit Black community of North

For nearly a decade, the Estuary Partnership has been working alongside the US Forest Service to restore a critical slice of floodplain habitat in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Floodplain habitat for migrating salmon is especially scarce in the Gorge--this site makes up 31% of this type of habitat in the lower Gorge. Our work has improved fish passage, enhanced habitat quality

April is Earth Month and the 51st anniversary of Earth Day! For more than 50 years, the world has recognized Earth Day as a day of action. This year the Estuary Partnership is teaming up with nonprofits across the state for the Earth Day Oregon* campaign. And together we are working to Amplify Earth Day! As a nonprofit that supports several of the UN's 17 sustainable development goals , we are

We are excited to welcome two new members of our team, who will be with us through the next year working on a variety of projects with us. Katrina Poremba was raised on a hobby farm in Idaho, where part of her daily life included chores around the pasture and backyard pond. At 17, she attended Humboldt State University to study marine biology. As an undergraduate, Katrina went abroad for a year to

We recently released our 2020 State of the Estuary Report . Every five years, we examine and report on five indicators on the health of the lower Columbia River and estuary: Habitat , Water Quality , Land Use , Endangered Species , and Connecting People to the Columbia . Each indicator is presented as an interactive storymap that together paint a picture of a river with many champions and many

We owe a thanks to our sister organization, fellow National Estuary Program the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP), for lending us one of their VetsWork Interns this year. Over the last few months, Chris Sutherland has worked on a variety of projects with us. While he’s still assigned to TEP, unexpected challenges from the pandemic made it hard to reach Tillamook consistently. Since he is local

In a normal year, the Estuary Partnership’s Big Canoes hit the water in mid-late March, with a warm up paddle here and there. By mid-May, we typically have 10 paddles under our PFDs, and our staff is ready and dialed in for a summer of providing multiple on-water Big Canoe trips a week for youth and community groups from diverse communities. Trips in our Big Canoes—29-foot, 14-passenger, orange

Major construction has wrapped for the season for the Steigerwald Reconnection Project. Fall rain and the in-water work window, which protects salmon during the most vulnerable parts of their life cycle (spawning and egg incubation), means most construction has to stop during fall and winter. There is one more season of construction to come next year. We recently released a video recapping the

The Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership intends to establish a short-term contract for the procurement of native bare root plant materials for use at the Steigerwald Reconnection Project located in Washougal, WA. These plant materials are needed for the winter 2021 planting window (i.e., 1/1/2022 – 4/1/2022). BACKGROUND Over the past six years, the Estuary Partnership has partnered with the Port of

The Steigerwald Reconnection Project is well into its second year of construction. By 2022, the refuge's lands and Gibbons Creek, which flows through it, will be reconnected to the Columbia River for the first time in generations. This effort will bring a lot of changes to the Refuge, and we're excited to share them with you while the project takes shape! Check the Refuge 20/20 Blog for the latest