An Oregon Story:
From Rivers to Reservoirs:
The Last of the Lumbermills:
|
From Living River to Pipe?
Ironically, the floods we fear and attempt to control, in large part, created and continue to sustain many of the Willamette's natural resources we rely upon and treasure.
--Willamette Riverkeepers pamphlet, "Floods and Floodplains," 1997
Canary Reed Grass is one of the dominant species at Cottage Grove and Dorena lakes.
An invader, this highly competitive grass threatens the integerity of native wetland areas.
Courtesy of the King County Department of Natural Resources
The Willamette River system is still a degraded one. Problems in the basin stem from agriculture, logging, industrialization, dam construction, and urban development. The following statistics illustrate the contemporary Willamette River.
70% of Oregon's population lives within the Willamette basin
25-35 percent of the flood plain's original forests remain
800 million gallons of water are removed from the basin each year for
Less than 1/10 of 1 percent of the original native habitat below 1000 feet remains intact
Portland releases 5 billion gallons of raw sewage into the Willamette every year
74 percent of the squaw fish, an indicator species, near Portland are deformed
agriculture,
industry, and to provide drinking water
________________________________________
The river of today is characterized by decisions made long ago. One organization, Portland-based Willamette Riverkeepers, suggests that the solution lies in the annual flooding valley residents have worked so hard to irradicate. Floods create fish and wildlife habitat and deposit alluvial soils. Instead of avoiding these natural and healthful occurances, they charge, we should learn to live with them. Historian William Robbins reminds us that the flood of 1996 "revealed the flaws of a culture that assumed it had bested the river."
