PROTECTING THE RIVER AND ENGAGING THE COMMUNITY
Dedicated to the Columbia River and its communities
News & Events
Find out what we've been up to.
Upcoming Events
About Us
We live for the Columbia River
The Estuary Partnership was founded in 1995, and 2020 was our 25th year of protecting and advocating for the lower Columbia River.
We restore habitat for keystone species like salmon and steelhead. We monitor ecosystem conditions and share our scientific findings. We seek methods to mitigate for changing climate conditions.
We educate the upcoming generation about outdoor science and offer opportunities for community members to make a difference in their watershed. And we work in partnership with hundreds of organizations, companies, agencies, and individuals, because together our impact is so much greater.
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Our Area
The Estuary Partnership focuses on the lower 146 miles of the Columbia River. This tidally-influenced area stretches from Bonneville Dam to the Pacific Ocean and includes 28 cities and portions of nine counties.
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Land Acknowledgement
The lower Columbia River (Wimahl in Upper Chinook and Nch’i-Wàna in Sahaptin) has been inhabited and stewarded by numerous tribes and bands of Indigenous peoples since time immemorial, and these peoples continue to have a deep and abiding connection to our lands and waters. The broad geography of the lower Columbia historically included dozens of seasonal and permanent villages and an interconnected web of tribal affiliations. Tribes including the Chinook, Clatsop, Kathlamet, Wahkiakum, Multnomah, Cascades, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, Wasco, Clackamas, Cowlitz, Skilloot, and Atfalati have ancestral connections to the lower Columbia and continue to be stewards of the river. We recognize that tribal territories were often shared and overlapping, and that this may be an incomplete list of those who lived on these lands. We pay respect to the elders, both past and present, who have stewarded the waters and lands of the Columbia River throughout generations. Read more.
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Our Mission
To restore and care for the waters and ecosystems of the Lower Columbia River, for current and future generations of fish, wildlife, and people.
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National Estuary Program
The National Estuary Program ensures our critical coastal waterways are healthy and support the communities around them. National Estuary Programs are local people working together to restore the water quality and ecological integrity of the 28 estuaries of national significance across the United States, including the lower Columbia River.
Created by Congress in 1987, the National Estuary Program provides seed money to local communities, who leverage those resources to improve habitat, find solutions to difficult ecological issues, support our coastal economies, and engage community members to care for their waterways.
FEATURED PARTNER
Columbia Gorge Refuge Stewards
The Gorge Refuge Stewards are an all-volunteer group dedicated to stewardship of our local National Wildlife Refuges on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. In every season, the Refuge Stewards can be found working in close collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to improve Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge, in particular.
This year, the Refuge Stewards are supporting a variety of the Estuary Partnership's student and community programs at Steigerwald. From educational field trips to volunteer tree plantings to wapato harvest, we've been working in partnership to get folks out and active on the Steigerwald Refuge.
You can get involved directly with the Refuge Stewards to make a difference at the Gorge Refuges. Contact the Refuge Stewards through their website to find out more.