News

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

By our count, there are at least 21 Watershed Councils and Friends groups in the lower Columbia River, all dedicated to caring for a tributary river or watershed. That’s not even counting Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Riverkeepers, Land Conservancies and other groups and coalitions dedicated to river health. That’s great news, because the lower Columbia is a huge river system, and each

We have The Confluence Project, dedicated to storytelling and art along the Columbia River. Confluence’s mission is to connect people to the history, living cultures, and ecology of the Columbia River system through Indigenous voices. Confluence is a non-profit that works with artist Maya Lin to install a series of art installations along the Columbia River, including three along the lower

Stormwater is the number one source of water pollution across the country. When rain falls on impervious surfaces, it picks up all sorts of sediment, oils and toxic compounds from automobiles, pesticides and herbicides, pet waste, and other contaminants. To lessen the impacts of stormwater runoff, many communities and nonprofits are implementing stormwater retrofit projects - redirecting

The Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership is celebrating our 26th birthday! In 2020, we had hoped to celebrate our milestone 25th anniversary, but COVID threw a wrench in that, as it did with so many plans. But now we are one year older and wiser. And we want to share with you some of the things that we think are so great about our river and its people. Now we know that there are many, many reasons

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