The Klickitat River is spectacular: Make a trip to the river and you’ll see why its lower 10.8 miles were designated as Wild and Scenic. Columbia Land Trust first conserved land here in 2001; since then, we’ve markedly expanded the amount of land we care for. Our most ambitious restoration project? We removed eight miles of an old road from the Klickitat River shore, allowing the river to reclaim its historic floodplain for the first time in 80 years. We also care for land along the Little White Salmon, a 19-mile-long Columbia River tributary to the west, which courses through similar terrain and is a go-to hotspot for whitewater kayakers.
Both the Klickitat and the Little White Salmon Rivers are critical for native plants and wildlife: The area’s Oregon white oak woodlands and pine-oak forests support more than 200 species, including Lewis’s woodpeckers and the state-threatened western gray squirrel. Millennia-old runs of salmon and steelhead spawn and grow stronger in these rivers. Our challenge is protecting this paradisaical area from the very real threat of development while finding conservation solutions that allow land-connected livelihoods, such as farming, ranching, and forestry, to continue.
My childhood was entwined with nature. My mom took me camping and hiking, and showed her love for nature in her professional life as a pioneer of outdoor play spaces for children in daycare. I played and worked alongside my dad on his 40-acre farm in Ridgefield, Washington. My dad led the transformation of the…
Read MoreOne of the longest undammed rivers in Washington state, the Klickitat River supports thriving forests, woodlands, and grasslands, and hundreds of wildlife species including salmon and steelhead. It offers important opportunities in forestry, ranching, and recreation, and is rich in history and culture of the Klickitat people. This fall, Columbia Land Trust installed interpretive signs along the lower Klickitat Haul Road that celebrates the watershed and our nearly twenty–year effort to restore the river’s access to eight miles…
Read MoreThe vanilla scent of ponderosa pine mingles with dust in the air as a crew of Land Trust staff and interns convene in the forest near Washington’s Summit Creek, a tributary of the Klickitat River. Contractors from Slawson Wood Products out of Goldendale have been on site since 6:00 a.m. and were just packing up…
Read MoreIn July 2020, after 12 years of planning and collaboration, we at Columbia Land Trust realized our vision for the 11,000-acre Klickitat Canyon Conservation Area. It’s hard to overstate the uniqueness and importance of this transitional landscape, which bridges upland and lowland habitat and spans fir forests, oak and pine woodlands, and grasslands. Of course,…
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