Oregonians Get Together to Save the Willamette River

By Johnny Kilroy on April 1, 2010 From Restoration campaign

“The salmon are coming,”

Said the older feller, his back to the river, a silvery bell in one hand, leading his other four tribesmen in song, and several score people hung silent on the bank.

“This is what we pray for every year.”

It’s that time of year.  Late evening sun turned the Willamette’s waves into crisp gold like a fresh clear cider. The river cut through downtown Eugene, still going easy on this last day in March, not yet busy with spring snow melt.

This mighty “blood vein” connects all life in the valley.


(Folks from the Eug, enjoying the sundown on the river.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy.)


That’s what brought people together, Wednesday night at the EWEB building, for Under One Sky, Along One Stream, a public information session on the heritage, health, and future of the Willamette River Basin.

Members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, The Freshwater Trust, and myriad local groups contributed to the event with rituals, speakers, and educational displays.

A speaker panel featured Michael Karnosh of the Grand Ronde Tribe, Aaron Borisenko from Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality, and Dr. Stan Gregory from OSU’s Department of Fish and Wildlife. 


(Panelists, from right, Michael Karnosh, Aaron Borisenko, and Stan Gregory.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

 


Tribal Culture


Karnosh spoke of the significance of the rivers and the salmon runs to the Grand Ronde people, who were once 27 tribes, spread throughout western Oregon, until a treaty in 1855 forced them onto a reservation.  They deliberately chose not to overfish, lest resource depletion and warfare should ensue. 

“The tribes were the first fish and wildlife managers of the salmon.”

With simple stories of tribal lore, Karnosh illustrated how for centuries they have understood the need for cooperative resource management.  In one tale, the figures Coyote and Meadowlark were trying to decide where to place Willamette Falls, in an optimal location for the people in the Basin; they couldn’t understand each other’s languages, however, and ended up misplacing the falls near modern day Oregon City when it should’ve gone near Salem.  So be it.

Miscommunications, or even simple failure of different groups to try to understand one another’s needs, is a root cause of resource contention in today.

Scientific Analysis of the Basin

Aaron Borisenko presented the findings of the DEQ Willamette Basin Rivers and Streams Assessment, a study of the biological, water, and habitat quality of the watershed.


(The Willamette River Basin.  Image:  OR DEQ.)

 

The basin’s 11,000 miles of river and stream (with 12 sub-basins) is home to over 2 million people.  DEQ says,

The human influence on the river basin’s landscape is significant, creating some of the state’s most challenging water quality issues.

 

The assessment was comprised of 450 random study sites, 230 reference sites, and also drew on other governmental and academic reports.  It looked at three different land use types:  agricultural, forested, and urban.

The waterways were impaired in various ways, but by far the most important, said Borisenko, was stream temperature.  The temperature of the water has simply become too high for salmon, in many places.

It’s largely to do with the fact that humans alter riparian zones by removing stream-side vegetation.  By eliminating canopy cover, more sunlight gets through to warm the water.

Developments also tends to “channelize” rivers and streams, and take away the complexity of their natural, ever-shifting network.  Like blood vessels in a body, streams run on a hierarchical scheme; they aren’t benefited when locked in a concrete-clad route that can’t change over time.

Sitting there in the enormous EWEB building, we could look out the window to the large concrete plaza right on the water and see what he was talking about. 

Borisenko remains optimistic, though, as this problem gains recognition.

“I’m seeing an awakening to the importance of riparian condition.”

The river does have one essential tool for restoring itself, said Dr. Gregory:  Flood.  We have to “let the river remember itself,” he said, and “reoccupy its channels.” 

When it is free to do that, then it can create for itself a more heterogeneous anatomy, including cold water refuges for salmon to occupy in the heat of summer.


“What is the Trajectory that We’re On?”


The Willamette River has changed over time, and it’s going to continue to do so, no matter what course we take.  That’s the nature of rivers, they move.

The human population in the Basin is expected to nearly double by 2050, and it must be accommodated.  Dr. Stan Gregory, of Oregon State University, presented the Willamette Basin Explorer, to give an idea of what the human-river interface might look like by then. 

He presented three scenarios:  continuing with current policies (Plan Trend), easing restrictions and allowing more economic focus (Development), and stronger protection of the ecosystem (Conservation).

For each scenario, the vegetation patterns and lay of the river was modeled.  The conservation option would achieve an ecosystem similar to what it was in the 1850s, prior to major interference by Anglo-Americans. 

While some argue that this would be a futile attempt to turn the clock back in time, Dr. Gregory says that restoration is turning the clock forward in time, projecting for a future in which humans and ecosystems can coexist.


What Does it Take…To Change the Essence of a River?


Time for questions, from the crowd of well-meaning Eugenians. 

One citizen asked the panelists why population control isn’t often talked about as a solution.  As the crowd squirmed, I think that guy got his answer.  Some people are their own population control.

How can we get kids involved in this effort?  To repair any part of the environment, we can go a long way by repairing the intellectual and emotional disconnect that modern lifestyles erode.

“Every one of you take a kid out to creek, as quick as you can!” (Laughter)

Gregory was right on the money.  Getting young people back in that primary intercourse with the river, making aquariums for their school science classes (damn that was awesome, back in the day!), and also informing parents of their responsibilities to be role models.

What should we each be doing ten years on?  Gregory said,

“I better always be a kid and enjoy the river.”


(Photo:  Johnny Kilroy.)

This was Oregonians Get Together to Save the Willamette River, an entry in our Restoration Campaign from April 1, 2010. It was filed under Rivers

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