A Look Back: How the Willamette River became Oregon’s first Designated Water Trail
By Jennifer Halley, The West Side Newspaper
The Willamette River became the first designated water trail in Oregon, and the second in the nation, in 2012, after years of protection and restoration efforts across different organizations.
Much like a regular hiking trail, a water trail is an appointed route on a river, lake, or canal that is designed for recreational and educational experiences. Water trails provide safe access to the waterways and help to stimulate local economies while providing connections to cultural and historical attractions.
As the city of Salem and its surrounding areas expanded into what it is today, the river was the beating heart underneath it all.
Thousands of years before pioneers migrated into Salem and Polk County, the Northern Kalapuya Native Americans, residing in permanent villages near the river, traveled up and down the river in dug-out canoes, sourcing fish from its waters, hunting game like deer, and plucking fruits, nuts, berries, and roots from the river’s shores. The camas plant was a staple in their diet, as well as wapato, a tuberous plant that resembles sweet corn in taste, and tarweed, a yellow flowered plant that was sometimes boiled down into a thick tar.
“The river was seen as an industrial and agricultural resource rather than a recreational one,” said Michelle Emmons. She is the Co-Executive Director, Upper Willamette Riverkeeper of Willamette Riverkeepers (WRK), a non-profit 501(c)(3) that provides restoration and protection efforts along the river. “The Willamette Valley is the breadbasket for the state of Oregon. The Willamette Valley soils are known for being able to grow things because of the history of the Missoula floods (a series of destructive glacial lake floods occurring between 15,000 to 18,000 years ago that swept across areas of the west that would become eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, Northern Oregon, and the Columbia River Gorge). It’s how the valley was created. Those soils retained nutrients from the silts that were spread across the floodplain, silts that are still here today, still being transported through the tributaries and functioning backchannel areas of the Willamette River.”
By the early 1800s, pioneers crossed into Salem via riverboat. In 1851, water transportation opportunities expanded with the arrival of the Hoosier, a steamboat that made trips south to Eugene and up north to Oregon City, carrying passengers, mail, and freight. Upon its completion in 1886, the Center Street Bridge allowed for continued access from one side of the river to the other. While this was occurring, the agricultural and logging industries were booming, accelerating the city’s population.
Designating a water trail system is a federal process, and requires extensive collaboration between different agencies to achieve its status.
“The Willamette Riverkeeper was one of the leading non-profit partners working with Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) to develop the vision of the Willamette Water Trail,” Emmons said. “There was a collaboration with the National Park Service, too,” as well as the Bureau of Land Management, alongside stakeholders such as the cities of Salem, Independence, and Keizer, and Marion County. These involved agencies compiled a comprehensive inventory of public lands along the river that identified and documented the connections between all the Greenway properties. Then, of course, there was the process of securing formal endorsements from landowners and municipalities.”
On June 4, 2004, the first 35 miles of what is now known as the Willamette River Water Trail was mapped out, starting from Buena Vista to the Wheatland Ferry. Following similar processes, the first leg of the Salem/Keizer area opened up in 2005, and by the following year, the second trail leg flowing from Eugene to Salem was established.
Decades earlier, thanks to the efforts of state treasurer Bob Straub and, later, state governor, Tom McCall, the Willamette Greenway became a protected corridor of public lands, parks and conservation areas at the end of 1973 — providing a framework for further protection efforts.
“The Willamette Greenway designation connected the dots between all of the public lands along the Willamette River, which allowed for protected public access points to the river, also serving as a corridor for wildlife and public recreation,” Emmons said.
Governor John Kitzhaber signed an executive order in 1998 that would coordinate efforts to protect and restore the Willamette Watershed. A watershed is an area of land that drains to a certain lake, river, or other body of water. While this was happening, President Clinton designated the Willamette River as one of 14 American Heritage Rivers, and established the River Navigator position to help assist with renewing connections between local communities and their rivers.
After years of hard work, the Willamette River Water Trail became nationally designated on May 21, 2012. It stretches from south of Springfield at the confluence of the Coast and Middle Forks, to the Multnomah Channel and Columbia River, north of Portland. This designation followed the launch of America’s Great Outdoors initiative (AGO), which was set in place in 2010 as a way to further develop conservation and recreational approaches to public lands.
To be designated, a National Water Trail has to meet certain criteria, such as having a clear set of trail signs and mile markers for users to follow. Overall, the criteria includes recreational opportunities and what public accessibility looks like for a diverse group of watercraft and end users.
“More than that, though, it would encourage enhancement of natural areas and provide opportunities for conservation, protections, and stewardship,” Emmons said. “So maintaining the natural ecosystems, and managing restoration projects that would create more functionality in the floodplain before agriculture became a dominant element on the river banks.”
Today, there are forty national water trails, two of which are in Oregon: the Willamette and the Tualatin Rivers. In Oregon, there are nine regionally designated water trails.
“When we have an official designation, it provides a protected, funded, and recognizable unified system of public lands for recreational purposes in the interest of the public first,” Emmons said. “Those official designations allow for better access to resources to care for them.”