Sandy River Delta

The Vision is Clear | Sarah-Amalia Lawrence-Welch, Confluence Project

Danche, hello and thank you for taking a moment to listen. My name is Sarah Amalia Lawrence-Welch and I am the Director of Partnerships and Programming at Confluence. Confluence is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with Native American tribes who have been sustained by the Columbia River system since time immemorial. 

In our nearly quarter of a century work, we have uplifted Native communities, artists, and educators to connect people to the history, culture, and ecology of the Columbia River system. You, friend, are presently standing on a place of deep cultural and ecological significance, the Sandy River Delta. In this message, I am going to speak about the ongoing repatriation and rematriation of this land, a critical process that is restoring the delta as a vital harvesting area for the first peoples of this land whose knowledge and care have sustained this region since time immemorial. 

Repatriation means returning ancestral land and cultural heritage to its rightful owners. Rematriation emphasizes the return of these lands to the hands of Indigenous women, recognizing their inherent connection to the earth and their role in cultivating traditional food, medicine, and craft materials. The vision is clear to ensure that the delta can once again be used for traditional harvesting for both essential food and materials needed for traditional crafting. 

This work is crucial for revitalizing essential Native plants such as cattails, camas, and wapato, which have sustained these communities for thousands of years. The right to gather these materials is protected by the foundational treaties between the United States and the sovereign Native American nations of the region, ensuring access to usual and accustomed fishing, hunting, and gathering grounds throughout Oregon and the greater Columbia River Basin. There are ways in how you can help this process. 

Your support as a member of the broader community enjoying this beautiful space is vital to achieving this vision. We need your help to keep this delicate ecosystem clean and safe. Firstly, we ask that you clean up after your dogs. 

Please always pick up and properly dispose of all pet waste. Contamination is a serious concern that affects soil health and the safety of any harvested materials or food. We also ask that you keep your dogs on a leash in designated areas. 

Please follow all signs regarding leashes. Active soil testing is currently underway in specific areas and allowing your dog to run off leash in these spots can compromise these sensitive tests and delay the entire restoration process. And finally, we ask that you pack out all trash and litter. 

Any trash or litter that you generate should be carried out with you. This prevents environmental contamination and maintains the pristine nature of the delta for traditional harvesting and practices.

Birding by Ear | Brodie Cass Talbott, Bird Alliance of Oregon

As a birder, when I think of the Sandy River Delta, it’s as much of an audio scape as a landscape. Birders learn pretty quickly that listening carefully to our surroundings can help us find birds and identify them. The Sandy River Delta is one of the most unique natural areas in the Portland area in terms of habitat and birds, with species here that are really hard to find anywhere else in our area, and that’s why it’s one of my favorite places to come and listen.

Of course, with a beautiful natural area close to a major city, there are a lot of human sounds as well. When you first get out of the car in the parking lot on a spring day, you might hear the of a Bullock’s Oriole wrapped in a blanket of freeway noise, and making your way to the river, a willow flycatcher singing might be punctuated with dogs barking at each other. For better or worse, the Delta has become the largest off-leash dog area around.

But the further you get, the more the freeway noise dissipates, and the more spread out people get, and the more I enjoy the unique mix of sounds of the natural world. The Delta is one of the best remaining patches of savanna in the Portland area, and in spring, I hear that distinction with the chorus of Lazuli Bunting, a stunning blue songbird that has traveled all the way from Mexico to nest here. The beautiful cottonwood gallery forest along the river is where I come every June to listen for the question and answer song of the Red-Eyed Vireo.

In late summer, I love listening for young osprey begging their parents for one more piece of fresh fish, and in winter, I’m captivated by the sudden rush of wings to the sky as a large group of cackling Geese get spooked by a Bald Eagle. In late winter, Song Sparrows are usually the first to sing, reminding us that spring is coming eventually, which is one of the things I love about birding by ear. Just by listening, I can know more or less where I am and what season it is and feel connected to the landscape. 

So take off your headphones and enjoy being where you are. I’m Brodie Cass Talbott from Bird Alliance of Oregon. Thank you for listening.

Dogs, Ducks, and Horses | Barbara Adams, Friends of the Sandy River Delta

I love the Sandy River Delta because of the joy it brings to people. You can see it on their faces and the dogs having such a wonderful time meeting other dogs and just being dogs. We get a chance to talk to people when we are doing volunteer work and they just love the Delta.

It’s a place like no other place. We’ve ridden down there for many, many years with our horses. You can ride all year long and you can ride on Christmas and you see all the dogs. 

It’s like the world’s best dog show at the Sandy River Delta. I’m Barb Adams and alongside my husband Dave had 30 years of volunteer work there with the Forest Service. The Sandy River Delta was purchased by the Forest Service in 1991. 

Originally it was a dairy farm with a house on the other side of the freeway. The farm was more than a thousand acres and some people continue to this day to call this area thousand acres. The aluminum plant that began operations in the 40s poisoned the air and the land so much that the dairy farm could no longer operate. 

When the Forest Service purchased the land it took a community effort. The Forest Service was interested in purchasing the Sandy River Delta for its value to native plants and animals and as a migration site for ducks. Duck ponds were put in specifically to help the migration and Ducks Unlimited was an important partner in making this happen. 

When the Sandy River Delta was purchased by the Forest Service there was no parking lot, no signs, no restrooms, just cattle grazing in the meadows as enough time had passed from poisoning the land. Off-lease dog enthusiasts and horseback riders populated the area by parking in a very small spot right by the freeway or coming in along the Sandy River as it flowed under the bridges. In 2005 the Forest Service began a formal process to prepare for the bird blind, one of the art installations along the Lewis and Clark Trail. 

With concern among the current users and the Forest Service looking for volunteer groups to help, Oregon Equestrian Trails and the leaders of the future Friends of the Sandy River Delta joined together to help keep the Sandy River Delta dog and horse friendly. The Forest Service and the volunteers met each month for years to collaborate on trails, brushing, barbed wire removal, signage and visitor etiquette. When the bird blind was dedicated at the Confluence of the Columbian Sandy Rivers in 2008, Oregon Equestrian Trails and Friends of the Sandy River Delta were on hand. 

In 2013 a dam blocking the main upper channel at the Sandy River Delta was removed to restore natural flow, help smelt runs and restore native plants. With the dam gone, people lost recreational access to Sundial Island, but this was a fair trade-off for restoration efforts. Volunteers at the Sandy River Delta continue today with a trash team maintaining the 18 perimeter trash cans, a bag restock team, a tractor volunteer for stone and mowing, and volunteers on call to deal with gate and other safety issues. 

Education is a big part of this effort to smooth interaction between visitors ranging from bird watchers to hunters. Both Oregon Equestrian Trails and Friends of the Sandy River Delta are non-profit organizations with no paid staff. All of the money raised by Friends is dedicated to the Sandy River Delta.

Love for the Sandy River Delta continues to inspire our dedicated volunteers. We are always looking for more dedicated volunteers. You can contact us by finding our information at the kiosk at the Sandy River Delta or by finding us on Facebook.

When we do volunteer work, we get more than we give. Thanks for listening.

Glacier Speed of Change | Andrew Fountain, Portland State University

Hello, this is Dr. Andrew Fountain from Portland State University talking to you about glaciers. I’ve been studying glaciers for 40 years. Glaciers simply form by more snow accumulating in the wintertime than melting off in the summer. 

Perennial snow or ice, that moves. So we’re very fortunate to have glaciers out here in Oregon and Washington. There aren’t any glaciers back east, so this is kind of unique to us.

So when they do get to lower elevations, they melt and they lose the mass and there’s a balance between how much snow it gets in the winter and how much snow and ice melts off in the summer. The good thing is that meltwater supplies the stream flow in the high alpine areas. You know, we get a lot of stream flow from snow, but the snow eventually melts away, and certainly by August and September, there isn’t any snow left.

So glaciers are the only source of meltwater in these high alpine ecosystems. But the glaciers are changing. They’re retreating, and that’s due to climate warming, not only due to warmer air temperatures in the summertime, which causes the glaciers to melt more, but also warming in the wintertime, which changes the phase of precipitation from snow to rain, and rain doesn’t nourish a glacier. 

So because of this climate warming, the glaciers have been receding. Certainly part of the warming is natural. They’ve been retreating since, gee, about 1900, but human influences have caused the glaciers to retreat even faster, and we don’t think the glaciers are going to be around a whole lot longer.

Certainly, probably not by 2100 for most of the glaciers that we see. So the melting glaciers on Mount Hood feeds a lot of streams and rivers that flow off the edifice, and one of the rivers is the Sandy River. And it was the Sandy River, actually, that is fed by the sandy glacier, maybe not surprisingly. 

And this water flow not only feeds the river, but also feeds the ocean. And as global glaciers recede, sea levels are rising, and this will continue for the foreseeable future, meaning next 100 to 200 years. The Elliot and Co glaciers feed the Hood River. 

Now, more precisely, they feed the middle fork of Hood River. But that’s important because that river flows through the apple and pear orchards high on the mountain near Parkdale, and they supply a good amount of water to those apple and pear orchards. In fact, in September and October, glacier melt supplies about one-third of the total water flow. 

And as those glaciers dramatically shrink and perhaps disappear, a third of that water in September and October will disappear as well.

Greg Archuleta, The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

My name is Greg Archuleta and I’m a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and my tribal family background includes ties to Willamette Tumwater at Oregon City, the Falls area on the Westland side, and the Clackamas Chinook from the Oregon City and Clackamas River region. I’m actually descended from the Tais from both the Clackamas and the Willamette Tumwater that signed the Willamette Valley Treaty on behalf of each of those respective tribes, Oregon City John for the Willamette Tumwater and John, our Chief Wachino from the Clackamas tribe. And then we also have family ties to Cascade Locks, Tai’i, Tahmoquin, and so the Sandy River is kind of in our family’s ancestral homeland area.

Then I’m also Santiam Kalapuya from the Salem area and Tekelma Shasta from Southern Oregon, so those are my tribal family backgrounds. So as you’re going along the trail you’ll see the the Oregon white oaks and then you’ll see the cottonwoods and some ash and alders, things like that that are scattered throughout the landscape there depending where you’re at. You’ll see more of the shrubs and brushes such as the ocean spray. 

There’s a lot of Pacific ninebark as you get closer to the bird blind area. And along the river we have one of our important first foods which is the wapato. You’ll see it along the riverbanks and so it’s what that we hope you’ll be cautious when you’re around about it. 

It’s also known as arrowleaf to help you identify it and it’s usually growing there in the late spring through the summer and then when the early fall rains comes and the leaves kind of dissipate. In the mud or sand there it grows the tuber. It’s also known as Indian potato because it’s kind of like a little potato.

It’s starchy and you can actually fix it up like a potato so you can bake it, you can boil it. I’ve read the journals of Lewis and Clark. The wapato grew greatly in this area from the Sandy River down the river. 

There’s patches upriver also but as they came to this area they called it they coined it wapato valley because of the extensive wapato populations along the the Columbia River, lower Willamette and southeast island area. And this wapato being an important first food for our people of the area was also a important trade item. So it would be gathered and used to trade up and down river up the Willamette etc for other foods.

For instance like if we didn’t have a great abundance of camas in the region so we’d trade the upriver Kalapuya people for camas which grew profusely in their area. But they also had a nice wapato area at wapato lake outside of Gaston, our Forest Grove area. So it’s one of our important first foods that we continue to monitor populations of and have a great interest in gathering.

One of the concerns is the contamination that might be in the bulbs and so that we work with different partners and we’re working at Sandy River Delta to have the wapato tested to be sure that it’s safe for consumption. And it’s been growing along the tributary flowing into the Columbia River and then along the Columbia River shore. And we also have been working with the different partners on a lot of restoration of planting more oaks and first food. 

During a year you might see a little bit of camas. There’s a white flower that we call fool’s onion. You might see some red flowering current during the springtime and into the summertime with the berries.

And then further out there’s elderberry and bitter cherry and kind of different plants like that.

Blackberry Wars | Rachel Peterson, US Forest Service

Hi, I’m Rachel Peterson, a natural resource specialist with the Forest Service here at the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Growing up in Portland, I spent my childhood with the gorge as my literal backyard. I loved it so much that I actually went back to school with one specific goal, to work right here and help manage these incredible public lands, ensuring that current and future generations will always be able to enjoy it.

One of the most unique spots I get to work on is the Sandy River Delta, which the Forest Service has been managing since 1992. It’s a beautifully complex landscape filled with hardwood riparian forests, wide open meadows, and winding wetland habitats. However, it hasn’t always had it easy.

Throughout the 20th century, the delta took some hits from industrial development, overgrazing, and the construction of dikes and dams. All that disturbance created the perfect welcome mat for invasive plants like Himalayan blackberry and reed canary grass to move in and take over. For over 30 years, we’ve been teaming up with amazing partners and volunteers to fight back.

We use everything from our own two hands to mowers and grubbers, and in the more stubborn cases, targeted herbicides in an attempt to clear out the worst of it. To be honest, it sometimes feels like a Sisyphean task, as though we’re pushing a boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down. Progress is indeed happening, and it’s been so rewarding to watch our native plant communities return to their rightful home.

Over the past few years, we’ve started seeing more wapito, ocean spray, Douglas spirea, fireweed, and my personal favorite, camas, starting to thrive out here again. Since this is such a well-loved area, we could really use the help of visitors like yourselves to keep this momentum going. You can assist our ongoing restoration efforts by making sure you aren’t accidentally bringing unwanted seeds into the delta.

The easiest way to help? Keep yourself and your furry friends on the established trails. Also, please give your shoes a good scrub at our boot brush stations on your way in and out. It’s a small step that makes a huge difference in stopping the spread of noxious weed seeds.

Now, knowing its history and all the care that has gone into making it what it is today, I hope you enjoy your visit. Thanks for helping us keep the delta wild and healthy.

Stephanie Craig, The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde

Laxyiam –hello. My traditional name is anqati təmtəm tənas siyaxus, and my American name is Stephanie Craig. My people are from the Wakanasisi and Clackamas Chinookan tribes, Takelma Rogue River, Santiam and Yoncalla Kalapuya, and Cow Creek Umpqua, and I’m a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. I am a seventh-generation traditional basket weaver, cultural practitioner and mom. I carry the names, the bloodlines, and the responsibilities of my ancestors who have looked after these waters and valleys since the beginning of time. Welcome to the Sandy River Delta.

When you walk these trails, where the Sandy and Columbia rivers meet, it’s easy to look around and just see a nice park or a beautiful natural area. But when I walk here, I see a living basket. When I look at a thicket of hazel or a stand of cedar, my eyes don’t see bushes or scenery. I see materials, and I see a story that has been happening here since time immemorial.

In my family, we don’t just visit nature. We practice ancestral stewardship. To us, this delta is a relative, and it actually needs human presence and traditional management to stay healthy.

If you look along the edges of the trail right now, you’ll see the low-growing sedges and the tall rushes lining the damp, muddy areas near the water. Look up a bit higher toward the gravel bars and understory, and you’ll spot the thickets of hazel and the sweeping branches of the cedar trees.

When I reach out and touch these plants, my hands remember things my mind might forget. There’s a language in the texture of a plant. It tells you if the season was too dry, or if the water is clean. My fingers know the strength of a fiber before I even really think about it.

When we harvest these belongings, we aren’t just taking something. We are participating in the plant’s life cycle. That is what active use means. For generations, our people have managed these areas through very specific practices, like cutting and cultural burning. We return to these same places year after year, watching the water levels and matching our gathering to the seasons. When I bring my children here to tend the hazel stalks along these banks, it isn’t destruction; it resets the cycle and encourages the plant to grow back straight, flexible, and strong for the next year’s weaving. When we tend the sedge and rush beds, we are helping the roots hold the soil together against the river’s current.

Because this relationship is so specific, I need to ask you as a visitor to truly respect this place. That means respecting not just the earth and the water, but the plants themselves. Please do not pick them, dig them up, or gather anything from them. In our culture, we have natural, unwritten laws about how and when we interact with these living relatives. Taking things without that inherited knowledge, proper timing, and specific tribal permissions disrupts those laws and harms the balance of the land.

For us, this is a serious, lifelong responsibility. But when it’s done right, it’s a reciprocal relationship. The land gives us what we need to carry our food, our medicines, and our children, and in return, we give the land our care and protection.

If I were to weave a basket from the materials right here at the Sandy River Delta, it would be a literal map of this landscape. The strength of the river is the warp, the cedar root foundation pulled from the earth, and the diversity of the delta’s hazel, sedges, and rushes is the weft woven through it. The history of this water and fire is coiled right into the shape of the vessel.

As you continue your walk today, I’d like to invite you to change how you look at this landscape. Try not to see these plants as just background scenery. See them as living history. When I weave, I am binding the past to the future. These plants carry the DNA of this delta, the land holds the bones of our ancestors, and my hands are just the bridge. Keeping these traditions active is how we keep the land alive for the next seven generations.

Thank you for listening, and for walking respectfully on this land today. Hayu masi.