One of the largest employers in the Portland Harbor says it will appeal the city’s new plan to help restore the Willamette River.
The Portland Tribune report that Gunderson, a maker of rail cars and marine barges, filed a notice with Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals. The company tells the Trib the plan isn’t balanced enough toward business interests.
See Portland Tribune: River Plan challenged
Oregon’s House Speaker Dave Hunt wants wildlife officials to trap and kill sea lions that are hanging out at Willamette Falls near Oregon City. It’s similar to what’s going on at Bonneville Dam. The sea lions have figured out that this spot, on the Willamette River, is a great location for easy pickings of salmon and other fish. They’re even stealing fish off the lines of fishermen. Hunt held a public meeting Monday night to help fishermen vent their frustrations.
Along the Willamette River Water Trail. Photo from Oregon Parks and Recreation.
If we’re ever going to restore the Willamette River basin, it’s going to cost a huge chunk of money.
Anywhere from about $593 million to $1.2 billion, according to Oregon DEQ.
In a new report, DEQ says decades of farming, logging and urban development have degraded the basins streams and rivers.
Cruise the Willamette downstream from central Portland and you’ll soon realize this is not the wild river our city founders knew. Shipping terminals, cargo vessels, scrapyards, oil tanks, warehouses and gazillions of imported cars line the riverbank. This area, as city officials like to describe it, is a working river. An important area for business and for jobs.
But it’s home to wildlife as well. Herons, sea lions, otters and fish spend some or all of their lives here. Fall salmon numbers in the upper Willamette system have been surprisingly robust, giving hope that the endangered fish might be making a comeback. For that to happen, salmon and steelhead have to migrate at least twice through the dirtiest section of the Willamette. The working part of the river. A Superfund site.
Soon, the Portland City Council will hold a public hearing on a plan to reconcile all these different demands. Two of Portland’s best known environmental groups, Willamette Riverkeeper and the Audubon Society, are concerned over industry attempts to weaken some of the environmental protections in the plan. Those industry objections led Mayor Adams to cancel a public hearing that was scheduled for last month. It could also be the reason why Thursday’s planned hearing was put off as well.
A change of heart for state officials and a small victory for some Portland area conservation groups.
This week, the Oregon State Marine Board approved a “no wake” zone for the Ross Island Lagoon. It means, with a few exceptions, that motorized boats traveling into the lagoon will have to go slow enough so they don’t leave a wake.
Early this year, the Portland Audubon Society and the Willamette Riverkeeper asked the board to ban all motorized boats from the lagoon and for a “no wake” zone in the Holgate Channel on the east side of Ross Island. The groups were trying to create a quiet area for kayakers, canoeists, and the area’s wildlife. The ideas were strongly opposed by water skiers and jet boaters and the Marine Board decided to vote them down.
But the two groups asked again, and this time the Marine Board moved a little closer in their direction with the “no wake” rule for the lagoon. It also directed staff to see if they could find a long term solution for the Holgate Channel.
Ross Island is actually a small chain of islands in the Willamette River near downtown Portland. The city recently acquired part of the area as a wildlife park, while most of the island remains in private ownership and is operated as a gravel pit. But sightings of Bald Eagles, Osprey, Great Blue Herons and River Otters are common. Portland Audubon and the Willamette Riverkeeper are hoping to improve conditions for wildlife and give kayakers and canoeists a calm stretch of the river where they wouldn’t have to compete with bigger and faster boats.
