30th Anniversary Timeline

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership!

 

Here are just a few of the highlights of our three decades of protecting, restoring, and caring for the lower Columbia River.

The Origins


1987

Amendments to the Clean Water Act authorize the National Estuary Program.

1990-1996

Lower Columbia River Bi-State Program is convened, co-administered by Washington Department of Ecology and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, and housed under DEQ. A series of Bi-State Studies measure current and historic ecosystem and watershed health.

 

People stand on a research boat on the Columbia River

 


1995

The Lower Columbia River Estuary is nominated and accepted to the National Estuary Program, and is declared to be an “estuary of national significance.”
 

an abandoned barge sits offshore on the Columbia River

 



1999

The first Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan is completed and adopted. The plan is submitted to the EPA by Governors John Kitzhaber of Oregon and Gary Locke of Washington. The process took more than 3 years and more than 150 people across more than 100 agencies and municipalities were involved.

Photo: Governor John Kitzhaber (Oregon), Estuary Partnership Executive Director Debrah Marriott, and Governor Gary Locke (Washington) at the Management Plan signing ceremony.

Black and white photo of the group smiling

 

 

 


2000

Our first environmental education programs take place. Some of the first students we work with are 2nd graders from Raleigh Park Elementary in Beaverton (pictured).

 

three students stand together outside holding dirty buckets

 

 

 

 

2001

The Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership is incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Photo: Implementation Committee meeting, July 2001

a group of people on a covered pontoon boat

 

 

2001

The Estuary Partnership convenes its first Water Trail committee meeting. The Columbia has been used as a transportation corridor for millenia by Chinookan-, Sahaptin-, and Salish-speaking peoples. But modern communities lacked information about paddling the river, like where to launch, land, and camp. More than 150 people were involved in Water Trail planning meetings.
 

a person visits a US Coast Guard booth at an early water trail planning meeting

 

 


2001

The Estuary Partnership worked with the City of Oregon City and City of Longview on Project NEMO – NonPoint Education for Municipal Officials. This marked our first foray into reducing the impacts of polluted stormwater runoff.

Photo: A stormwater swale in Oregon City in 2000

stormwater swale by a parking lot

 

 

 

 

2003

Our Field Guide to Water Quality Friendly Development goes live online. The guide includes dozens of techniques and local examples of stormwater treatment.
 

screenshot of the field guide

 

 


2003

Our Ecosystem Monitoring Program begins. The program provides long-term data to assess the status and trends of the aquatic habitats, with a focus on the least disturbed sites.

Photo: Beach seining for juvenile salmon

three people huddle over a seine net on the shore, identifying juvenile salmon

2004

The Lower Columbia River Water Trail is launched. Ceremonies are held at Fort Clatsop, Skamokawa, St. Helens, and Vancouver. The Water Trail is the last section of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.

Photo: Paddling during the launch ceremony in Skamokawa

Lewis & Clark Columbia River Water Trail logo        Lower Columbia River Water Trail logo
 

several people in kayaks paddle away from the camera

 

 

 

 


2006

The Estuary Partnership launches our first schoolyard stormwater project at Centennial Learning Center.

students and staff raking dirt in a stormwater swale under construction

 

 

 

 

 

2007

The Estuary Partnership purchased our first two Big Canoes to provide on water experiences to the community: used voyageur canoes named Moose and Osprey. Each canoe fits up to 17 paddlers in addition to the staff guides in bow and stern.
 

a group of 18 people in a big canoe smiling and waving

 

 


2009

While we funded restoration projects led by other agencies (more than 50 by 2009!), the Estuary Partnership led implementation for its first habitat restoration project in 2009 in Coal Creek Slough. The project removed more than 200 derelict pilings and over-water structures, as well as two derelict vessels to improve off-channel habitat important to salmon.
 

crane removes an old piling from the river

 

 

2010

Senator Merkley and Congressman Blumenauer first introduce the Columbia River Restoration Act. The act would elevate the status of the Columbia Basin to that of other great water bodies such as Chesapeake Bay and bring millions to the region for toxics reduction and monitoring.

Photo: Congressman Earl Blumenauer, a longtime supporter of the Estuary Partnership, speaks at a press conference in 2000.

Congressman Blumenauer speaks at a podium with many news station mics

 

 

2010

The Estuary Partnership publishes its Land Cover Data Set identifying the various habitats and land uses throughout our study area. The high resolution land cover classification map was made utilizing aerial imagery, LiDAR, LandSAT and other supporting data sets, and supports restoration and monitoring efforts.

Photo: Large wood placement at Mirror Lake at Rooster Rock State Park, one of our earliest habitat restoration projects, in 2010.

a material handler truck arm places down a large log into a lake with three people looking on

 

 

 

2011

We drop “river” from our name and become the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership.

Photo: Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership staff in 2012

nine people in a row in matching blue rain jackets

 

 

 

2013

Work was first initiated on the Steigerwald Habitat Restoration and Flood Control Project, later dubbed the Steigerwald Reconnection Project. The project would take nearly a decade before construction was complete.

Photo: The fish ladder to Gibbons Creek in 2013. The project removed the failing fish ladder, breached the levee system, and opened more than 900 acres of floodplain habitat to salmon.

fish ladder leads to a small culvert

 

2016

The Estuary Partnership purchased new orange Big Canoes and retired the old canoes. These canoes are dubbed Osprey and Kingfisher after birds that are commonly seen on Big Canoe paddles.

By 2025, more than 31,000 people will have paddled in our Big Canoes.
 

13 people paddle a bright orange big canoe

 

 

2016

The Columbia River Basin Restoration Act was passed by Congress and signed into law. This law was championed by Senator Jeff Merkley and Congressman Earl Blumenauer. This legislation has brought $81 million to the Basin to date.

Photo: Former Community Relations Manager Vanessa Bird and Executive Director Debrah Marriott with Senator Merkley in 2016.

Senator Jeff Merkley stands with Estuary Partnership staff

 

 

2016

The Estuary Partnership adopts new habitat coverage targets. Using our Land Cover Data Set, we created new, resource-based targets that focus on maintaining the remaining native habitats and restoring priority habitats—those habitats that suffered the most loss.

Photo: Former Research Scientist Matthew Schwartz and current GIS and Data Management Specialist Keith Marcoe gathering aerial images with LightHawk in 2016.
 

two people in a helicopter with headphones, one giving an enthusiastic thumbs up

 

 

2016

The Estuary Partnership completed a study on enhancing Cold Water Refuges for salmon by modeling flow diversion structures at tributary confluences. Models show these structures will increase areas of cold water, cueing migrating fish into a place to rest out of the warm mainstem waters.
 

confluence of Horsetail Creek and the Columbia River in the Gorge

 

 

 

 

2016

Our Batwater Station Floodplain Restoration wins the Oregon Land Use Board Wetland Project Award.

Estuary Partnership staff and board, the Batwater Station Landowner, and members of the land use board stand with the award

 

 


2017

We plant nearly 17,000 native trees and shrubs with students and volunteers this year alone, bringing our total number planted to more than 100,000 (109,695 to be exact). 

Photo: Volunteers plant at Sandy River Delta in 2017. The Estuary Partnership has been working with volunteers to improve this site since 2014.

a father helps his daughter stand on a planting bar

 

 


2019

The Estuary Partnership finishes a series of maps detailing the predicted effects of Sea Level Rise on tidal wetlands throughout the lower river and estuary. The analysis detailed three scenarios based on different amounts of sea level rise and identified tidal wetlands that would be gained, lost, and relatively unchanged. 

Photo: The Monitoring Team - former Research Scientist Sneha Rao and former Field Technicians Tiffany Thio and Grace Brennan - in the field near Ilwaco in 2019. 
 

three women stand in tall grass holding quadrats

2020-2022

The Steigerwald Reconnection Project is constructed. The project is a collaboration between 17 private and public partners and funders. It remains the largest restoration project to date on the lower Columbia River.

Steigerwald Reconnection Project logo
the main levee breach at Steigerwald during spring freshet
new channels and filled gravel pits in an aerial image of the East Fork


2025

The East Fork Lewis River Reconnection Project breaks ground. Once complete, this project will restore a three-mile stretch of this wild steelhead gene bank.

project logo depicts a steelhead and fly fishing line

 

 

 

 


2025

The Estuary Partnership’s Environmental Education team reaches its 100,000th student!
 

two kids in the back of a big canoe, one using binoculars and the other smiling