The Estuary Partnership works to restore and protect habitat between Bonneville Dam and the mouth of the Columbia River. Habitat restoration supports the recovery of salmon and other wildlife and also helps to protect human uses of the river.
Our goal is to protect and/or restore 25,000 acres of wetland habitat by 2025. Since 2000, the Estuary Partnership and over 100 regional partners have completed 199 projects for a total of 22,685 acres. Of these, the Estuary Partnership has directly funded and provided technical assistance to 83 projects and 4,159 acres. Projects include land acquisitions and conservation easements, adding large logs to streams to create fish habitat, planting trees to shade and cool streams, and removing barriers to fish passage.
Our strategy is to team with many partners to complete scientifically sound projects. We do that in a variety of ways detailed in the links below. Check them out!
Estuary Partnership Restoration Projects: Check out highlights from a couple of the Estuary Partnership's most recent on-the-ground habitat restoration projects.
Restoration Project Funding Opportunities: Find information on the types of funding available, funding criteria, project application deadlines, project applications, and more.
Lower Columbia Habitat Restoration Project Inventory: Interactive map of completed projects that have occurred within the lower Columbia floodplain.
Lower Columbia Restoration Prioritization Strategy: Learn about and use our restoration prioritization strategy to identify lands where habitat restoration work would have big benefits.
Habitat Monitoring: Check out our program to monitoring long term status and trends at select sites, and our program to measure the effectiveness of restoration projects.
Reference Site Study: We found more than 70 near pristine sites and cataloged and measured their current habitat conditions - in order to develop a library of reference sites.
Habitat Mapping: Find the Columbia River Estuary Ecosystem Classification, habitat change analyses, land cover data, elevation data and more.
Fish Monitoring: Check out underwater video of juvenile salmon at sites in the Columbia River Gorge that are providing cold water refuge to juvenile fish.
Monitoring Coordination and Protocols: Check out information from habitat restoration monitoring workshop and the standard monitoring protocols for the lower Columbia River.