River Island

Mike Faha recently toured our project at River Island. Situated along the Clackamas River near Barton County Park, River Island is 240 acres of natural area that provides habitat for native species including endangered salmon and steelhead, native turtles and migratory birds. The main portion of the site in the middle of the river was a gravel mining operation until the 1996 flood, which greatly altered the natural area's landscape by breaching man-made levees and shortened the main channel of the Clackamas River. GreenWorks and Inter-Fluve have been working with Metro to help create a vision and concepts for restoring natural channel processes and supporting multiple values including fish and wildlife habitat, riparian and upland forests, water quality and recreation. GreenWorks assisted with public outreach and prepared presentation materials to easily convey complex engineering concepts into understandable, photo realistic graphics that help the public and stakeholders understand the opportunities and what the site could look like once it is restored. Conceptual design alternatives were created for restoration of riparian-forested wetlands at the gravel mine site as well as design and restoration of Goose Creek, reconnecting it to the Clackamas River mainstem for cool water rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids. Inter-Fluve developed a site conservation plan and permit-level designs. This project is one of the biggest restoration projects in the Pacific Northwest.

GreenWorks would like to acknowledge Metro Project Manager Brian Vaughn as well as project lead Inter-Fluve, and members of their team: Emily Alcott, Lon Mikkelsen, Mike McAllister, Mike Brunfelt, Caitlin Alcott, Matt Cox, Colin MacLaren, Rich Phaneuf, and Mackenzie Baxter.