River Rally 2012 is underway in Portland, Oregon. I’m here with Laura, Kris, Pam and Jason and 600 members of the international watershed conservation community. For those of us who work to protect rivers, River Network’s Rally is the event of the year for sharing successes, making new connections, and seeing friends from across the country.
Field trips during Rally offer us the chance to see local rivers and hear directly from our peers about their projects. The five of us fanned out across the Portland area on Sunday to witness the following cool projects:
- Stream restoration via bicycle along the Springwater Corridor Trail that runs alongside Johnson Creek including a large salmon habitat enhancement project on the Willamette River built in 2011 with engineered log jams and a constructed riffle
- The decommissioned Condit Dam (October 2011) and newly free-flowing White Salmon River with a tour lead by the company and advocates directly involved in efforts to remove the dam
- Innovative green infrastructure projects in the City of Portland including a daylighted stream integrated into a housing project, ecoroofs, habitat restoration, and community-based green infrastructure
We’ve also been reminded that clean water makes great beer!