Makeover for Goat Island
On a foggy October morning along the Clackamas River in Gladstone, “Green Team” volunteers from Clackamas and West Linn high schools planted trees and removed invasive weeds from a natural area called Goat Island.
Brought together by SOLV, a group that organizes volunteers for outdoor projects, they were doing their part to make the island and river habitats more hospitable to salmon, steelhead, trout and other wild creatures.
Goat Island has been overgrown with non-native plants such as English ivy and Himalayan blackberry that have choked off native vegetation. In addition, development around the island has altered water flows so that its side channels run only sporadically.
Volunteer Jana Dorway plants a tree with help from local high school students at Goat Island, a natural area on the Clackamas River in Gladstone that's being restored to create better habitat for salmon and other wildlife.
Fisheries experts have identified the lower Clackamas as essential habitat for salmon and a priority for ecological restoration. Fish relying on the Clackamas River include endangered and at-risk species including Chinook and coho salmon, steelhead, cutthroat and rainbow trout and Pacific lamprey.
Community organizations, citizen volunteers and government agency partners plan to rehabilitate 22 acres of the island and allow more water flows into the side channels. Their efforts will reduce erosion, halt weeds and foster the return of native plants that provide fish and wildlife with food and shelter.
A grant of $20,000 from PGE’s Habitat Support customers is helping to make the restoration of Goat Island possible. Habitat Support funds are administered by The Nature Conservancy.
Turns out neighbors next to the island are as enthusiastic about the project as the volunteers, often allowing the groups to access the worksite through their yards.
“We’ve gotten to know some of the neighbors, and they are very happy about the work we are doing down here,” said Steve Kennett, coordinator for SOLV’s Team Up for Watershed Health program.
Once the initial restoration work is completed, project managers will continue to monitor the natural area to make sure habitat improvements are working and to determine next steps. They expect that once the major work is done, up to 500 volunteers will have lent their hands to the effort.
“The only reason we have been successful with this project is with the elbow grease from a lot of different people,” said Kennett. “We’ve stuck with it, and we’ve gotten a lot done.”
Every PGE renewable power customer can add Habitat Support to their
renewable option for only $2.50 per month.