Middle Willamette River Floodplain – Oregon Conservation Strategy

The mainstem Willamette River from Willamette Falls (RM 26) to the confluence with Calapooia River in Albany (RM 120), plus floodplain, and adjacent uplands.

COA ID: 060

Recommended Conservation Actions

Focus invasive species education at public access areas.
Improve in-stream channel complexity.
Manage public access and recreation to minimize conflict with habitat restoration goals.
Protect amphibian breeding sites
Protect and create suitable turtle nesting and rearing habitat.
Protect and enhance off-channel and backwater sloughs habitats for both fish and wildlife.
Protect, restore and expand Oregon white oak habitats.
Reconnect mainstem to floodplain through removal of levees and dikes.
Reduce water temperatures, run-off from agricultural fields, and inputs of chemical contaminants.
Restore riparian habitat; expand where feasible.
Restore wet prairie and grassland habitats.

Local Conservation Actions and Plans

Potential Partners

Special Features

General

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department owns and manages significant portions of the greenway

Previously Associated With

2006 COA ID WV-03 (Willamette River Floodplain)

Protected Areas

American Bottom Landing Willamette River Greenway
Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge
Beardsley Bar Landing Willamette River Greenway
Bernert Landing
Black Dog Landing Willamette River Greenway
Boones Ferry Marina
Boones Ferry Park
Butteville Store
Canemah Park
Champoeg State Heritage Area
Coalca Landing Willamette River Greenway
Darrow Bar Access Willamette River Greenway
Darrow Rock's Landing Willamette River Greenway
Doaks Ferry Access Willamette River Greenway
Edgewater Open Space
Eldridge Bar Landing Willamette River Greenway
Emergency Watershed Protection Program - Floodplain Easement
Eola Bend
Fish Eddy Landing
French Prairie Access Willamette River Greenway
Grand Island Willamette River Greenway
Hall's Ferry Access Willamette River Greenway
Hebb Park
Hess Creek Landing Willamette River Greenway
Holman State Wayside
Homeowners Association Open Space
Independence Bar Access Willamette River Greenway
Jackson Bend Landing Willamette River Greenway
Keizer Falls
Lincoln Access Willamette River Greenway
Little Rock Island
Luckiamute State Natural Area
McLane Island Landing Willamette River Greenway
Memorial Park (East)
Memorial Park (west)
Mid Valley Wetland Mitigation Bank
Mineral And Energy
Minto-brown Island
Molalla Landing Willamette River Greenway
Molalla River State Park
Old Canemah Park
Palma Cia Park
Parrett Mountain Access Willamette River Greenway
Peach Cove Landing Willamette River Greenway
Pete's Mountain Landing Willamette River Greenway
River Road
Rivergreen Open Space
Rivers Edge Park
Rock Island Landing Willamette River Greenway
San Salvador Access Willamette River Greenway
Sidney Access Willamette River Greenway
Simpson Lakes Access Willamette River Greenway
SPC Stewardship

Ecoregions

Willamette Valley

The Willamette Valley ecoregion is bounded on the west by the Coast Range and on the east by the Cascade Range. This long mostly level alluvial plain has some scattered areas of low basalt, and contrasts with productive farmland and large urban areas. It has the fastest-growing human population in the state resulting in challenges due to land-use changes.

Strategy Habitats

Grasslands

Grasslands include a variety of upland grass-dominated habitats, such as upland prairies, coastal bluffs, and montane grasslands.

Natural Lakes

Natural lakes are relatively large bodies of freshwater surrounded by land. For the purposes of the Conservation Strategy, natural lakes are defined as standing water bodies larger than 20 acres, including some seasonal lakes.

Oak Woodlands

Oak woodlands are characterized by an open canopy dominated by Oregon white oak.

Flowing Water and Riparian Habitats

Flowing Water and Riparian Habitats include all naturally occurring flowing freshwater streams and rivers throughout Oregon as well as the adjacent riparian habitat.

Ducks on a wetland in Ladd Marsh Wildlife Area, Oregon

Wetlands

Wetlands are covered with water during all or part of the year. Permanently wet habitats include backwater sloughs, oxbow lakes, and marshes, while seasonally wet habitats include seasonal ponds, vernal pools, and wet prairies.

Specialized Local Habitats

Off-channels and oxbow lakes
Riverine islands
Shoreline and sandy beaches

Strategy Species

Acorn Woodpecker (Observed)

Melanerpes formicivorus

California Myotis (Observed)

Myotis californicus

Chipping Sparrow (Observed)

Spizella passerina

Clouded Salamander (Modeled Habitat)

Aneides ferreus

Coastal Cutthroat Trout (Documented)

Oncorhynchus clarki clarki

Common Nighthawk (Observed)

Chordeiles minor

Fringed Myotis (Modeled Habitat)

Myotis thysanodes

Grasshopper Sparrow (Observed)

Ammodramus savannarum perpallidus

Hoary Bat (Modeled Habitat)

Lasiurus cinereus

Howellia (Observed)

Howellia aquatilis

Northern Red-legged Frog (Observed)

Rana aurora

Northern Spotted Owl (Observed)

Strix occidentalis caurina

Olive-sided Flycatcher (Observed)

Contopus cooperi

Oregon Chub (Documented)

Oregonichthys crameri

Oregon Slender Salamander (Modeled Habitat)

Batrachoseps wrighti

Oregon Vesper Sparrow (Observed)

Pooecetes gramineus affinis

Peacock Larkspur (Observed)

Delphinium pavonaceum

Purple Martin (Observed)

Progne subis arboricola

Short-eared Owl (Observed)

Asio flammeus flammeus

Silver-haired Bat (Observed)

Lasionycteris noctivagans

Southern Torrent Salamander (Modeled Habitat)

Rhyacotriton variegatus

Townsend’s Big-eared Bat (Modeled Habitat)

Corynorhinus townsendii

Western Bluebird (Observed)

Sialia mexicana

Western Gray Squirrel (Observed)

Sciurus griseus

Western Meadowlark (Observed)

Sturnella neglecta

Western Painted Turtle (Observed)

Chrysemys picta bellii

Northwestern Pond Turtle (Observed)

Actinemys marmorata

Western Rattlesnake (Modeled Habitat)

Crotalus oreganus

Western Ridged Mussel (Observed)

Gonidea angulata

White Rock Larkspur (Observed)

Delphinium leucophaeum

White-breasted Nuthatch (Observed)

Sitta carolinensis aculeata

Willow Flycatcher (Observed)

Empidonax traillii

Yellow-breasted Chat (Observed)

Icteria virens auricollis

Strategy Spotlight: Willamette River Confluences

Confluences, the point where two or more river systems come together, are ecologically vital areas, especially along the Willamette River. Over the past two centuries, the Willamette River has been transformed from complex and dynamic system, to a much more simplified and largely channelized river. Throughout the Willamette Basin, there has been widespread loss of floodplain and off-channel habitat due to human encroachment onto the floodplain, physical barriers (such as rip-rap and revetments), loss of side channels, and changes in flow regimes that eliminate floodplain-inundating flows. These changes have significantly harmed Oregon’s native species, resulting in state and federal listings of several plant and wildlife species associated with the river and its floodplain.

Protection and restoration of channel complexity, riparian habitat and floodplain forest have been identified as critical conservation needs in the Willamette Ecoregion by multiple plans and programs, including the Upper Willamette River Conservation and Recovery Plan for Chinook Salmon and Steelhead, Oregon Conservation Strategy, Willamette Subbasin Plan, and Willamette River Floodplain Restoration Study Draft Integrated Feasibility Report/Environmental Assessment.

A partnership between three grant-making organizations – Meyer Memorial Trust, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB), and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) – has been instrumental in addressing the complex issues facing the Willamette River floodplain. These funders work together to support one another’s objectives, while simultaneously pursuing their own mainstem agendas.

Photo Credit: © RaptorViews Philip Bayles. Spring 2014, before construction. Three deep, steep-sided, warm water former gravel extraction pits (ponds) disconnected from the Middle Fork Willamette River.

Photo Credit: © RaptorViews Philip Bayles. September 2014, after grading, contouring and sloping banks, connection to the Middle Fork Willamette River and installation of habitat structures was finished.

Significant support from this partnership has enabled non-profits, watershed councils, and soil and water conservation districts to increase the extent and pace of protection and restoration efforts along the Willamette River. Other significant partners working in this area include private landowners, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon State Parks, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In 2010, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), with significant help from BPA and OWEB acquired the 1,271-acre Willamette Confluence Preserve. Historically, the property was used for a floodplain gravel mining operation, with extraction actively occurring from the 1950s through the 1980s. As a result, the floodplain became disconnected from the river by levees designed to protect the gravel pits. Although portions of the property were significantly altered, an intact floodplain forest remained, which is a limiting feature throughout most of the low-gradient portions of the Willamette Basin.

In 2014, TNC, with funding from the NOAA Restoration Center, OWEB (includes funding from the Pacific Coast Salmon Recovery Fund), Meyer Memorial Trust, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, and others completed an extensive restoration project to increase the amount and quality of floodplain and off-channel habitat and improve water quality. The project reconnects the Willamette River to its floodplain, creates new river channels and increases and improves shoreline habitats. A major goal of this work is to restore natural floodplain and in-channel habitat forming processes to provide critical juvenile rearing and adult holding habitat for native fish, including Chinook salmon.