Hood River

Hood River

The great Hood River. Photo by Megan Saunders
  • Number of Projects:5
  • Acreage: 471
  • Fact: The Powerdale Dam was removed in 2010, allowing Pacific lamprey (which can’t navigate old fish ladders) access to the upper reaches of the Hood for the first time since 1923.
  • Experience: Ushering from the slopes of Mount Hood, the Hood River is cold and rushing—a glacier-fed Northwest classic that runs through forests and the world-famous farmland of the Hood River Valley.
  • What We’re Doing: Restoring habitat alongside the river. Improving recreational access so that people can hike, swim, fish, and love the Hood River for generations to come. Working to protect prime agricultural lands from being developed.
Contact Us About This Project

The Big Picture

A great Northwest river, the Hood River plunges for 25 miles past forests, orchard lands, and timber country before finally meeting the Columbia near the City of Hood River itself. In 2013, PacifiCorp, which had owned the only dam on the Hood River, transferred a four-mile-long corridor of land along the Hood River to Columbia Land Trust and Hood River County. Our charge is to manage the Hood River for wildlife habitat, make sure that people have access to the river for recreation, and ensure that tribal fishing rights and private property rights are protected.

Click here to learn more about the Land Trust’s work in the Power Corridor.

Why It Matters

For 90 years, power companies owned this corridor, which had a benefit for nature: It kept the land from being divided and developed. Today land along the Hood River provides habitat for elk and deer, cougar and black bear, osprey and eagles. Its rushing waters course over smooth rocks, islands, and fallen wood, forming the cold, deep pools preferred by steelhead and salmon. We’re working with local residents, partner organizations, and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to develop and implement a vision that allows people access to the river and protects fish and wildlife.

 

John Day River, photo by Lindsay Cornelius
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Updates from the Field
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Our Spring Fieldbook Is Full of New Life
What does it mean to have a place? We explore this and more in our latest issue.

Growth, change, and new ways of life — welcome to our Spring issue of Fieldbook. This issue, we hear stories of what it means to have a place, and take a look at what our places look like — from tiny homes, to rock walls, to trees both dead and alive — our diverse places…

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A Win-win on Hood River bluffs
Columbia Land Trust and the Hood River Valley Parks & Recreation District partnered to conserve 40 acres along the lower Hood River, with plans to add to city’s trail network

(March 22, 2019) – Columbia Land Trust and the Hood River Valley Parks & Recreation District recently announced they are partnering on a plan to add a stretch of trail to Hood River’s Indian Creek trail network while also conserving valuable wildlife habitat along the Lower Hood River. Through a partnership with Sieverkropp Development, the Land…

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Our Winter 2018 Fieldbook is now out!
This issue centers our relationships with people, place, and purpose.

Our last Fieldbook of 2018 is now out! This issue, we take a few pages to explore the Land Trust’s relationship with place, people, and purpose and see how all of this impacts our goal of protecting our vital Northwest landscape. Communications Director Jay Kosa takes us on an underwater exploration of a Land Trust built…

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