Alder Point Restoration Project

Alder Creek Lumber has been operating at the southern tip of Sauvie Island as long as I've lived here. Now some of its land has been sold and it's about to undergo a major restoration project as mitigation for the superfund sites at Portland Harbor -- a fine reminder that we are all downriver from the superfund sites.

According to a website of the Portland Harbor Natural Resource Trustee Ecological Restoration Portfolio (http://www.darrp.noaa.gov/northwest/portharbor/pdf/Restoration_Portfolio.pdf) it says  "Proposed restoration: Restoration efforts at this site could include regrading the river banks to create a shallower slope, increasing interaction between the river and the floodplain. Restoration could also include adding native vegetation to floodplain and upland areas. Additional restoration options could also include removing portions of the private levee and restoring a diversity of riparian, marsh, mud flat and off‐channel habitats across the site. Benefits: Off‐channel, shallow, slow moving waters provide refuge and productive foraging areas for lamprey and juvenile salmon. Shallow areas can also serve as important hunting areas for bald eagles, osprey, spotted sandpiper, mink and other species. Natural beaches serve as foraging areas for mink and staging areas for spotted sandpiper and other migratory birds. Regrading the shoreline will reconnect this area to its historic floodplain and encourage the use of off‐channel areas by fish. Adding native vegetation along the banks will improve habitat complexity, increase sediment retention, provide an invertebrate food source for fish and some wildlife, and create perching and nesting habitat for birds and other animals."

West Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation notes that Wildlands PNW is a for-profit corporation that is developing the "Alder Point Project" as a Harbor mitigation site.

http://www.wmswcd.org/public/file/Publications/Appendix_B_Stakeholders.pdf

The website for Wildlands is http://www.wildlandsinc.com/ although I don't see where it lists this project.

Last week at the Sauvie Island Community Association meeting, Michael Karnosh, the Ceded Lands Program Manager for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, talked about this project when asked. (The Multnomah tribe that lived on Sauvie Island are recognized as part of the confederated tribes). He said they are on the Trustee Council and explained that "Portland Harbor needs cleanup because it's been damaging fish and wildlife. This is to compensate the public; a way to make the public 'whole' is to restore habitats."

I don't know how soon these lumber company structures will be gone, but I wanted to document them.

As I was paddling by on Sunday taking these photos, three mergasers flew off in front of me, and I spotted these two great blue herons (if you look closely at the last photo (or enlarge it) you can see one on the piling and one on shore -- a good omen, I thought, for what's to come.