Sandy River, Oregon
Photo by L. McFarlane
The Sandy River flows down from Mt. Hood’s high upper west slope for 56 miles through parts of Clackamas and Multnomah Counties before entering the Columbia River near Troutdale, 14 miles east of Portland. The Sandy River watershed drains a 501-square mile area, two-thirds of which lies within Mt. Hood National Forest. The remaining one-third of the watershed consists of BLM and state lands, private forests and farms, and towns and suburbs on the east side of the Portland metropolitan area. The Bull Run, a tributary of the Sandy River, provides the City of Portland’s drinking supply. The smaller tributary of Alder Creek provides a water supply for the town of Sandy.
Congress designated two sections of the Sandy as part of the National Wild and Scenic River System, including the headwaters that emerge from Mt. Hood’s Reid Glacier. Two other major tributaries of the Sandy, the Salmon and Zigzag Rivers, are also part of the National Wild and Scenic River System. The Sandy River provides whitewater rafting and other outdoor recreation opportunities, and supports a diverse array of sensitive fish and wildlife, including struggling Chinook and coho salmon and steelhead trout. Native fish populations in the Sandy River basin and the lower Columbia River have declined drastically from historic levels, with some runs diminished to the point of being federally listed under the Endangered Species Act, including the Chinook, coho, and steelhead.
Threats
The lower Sandy River’s water quality faces impairment due to elevated stream temperature, sediment, nutrients, bacteria, and pesticides. Many of the watershed’s upstream tributary streams have also suffered riparian vegetation removal, exacerbating temperature and sediment increases and slowing recovery. Salmon and steelhead require water colder than 55 degrees for spawning, egg incubation, and fry emergence. High temperatures impair survival in later life stages as well. Warm water also promotes algal blooms, which give the river an unpleasant taste and interfere with recreation. In addition, the Sandy experiences decreased low stream flows due to irrigation withdrawals and drinking water diversions, among other factors. (See e.g. Sandy River Basin Characterization Report (2005) at http://www.sandyriverpartners.org/water.html).
Opportunities
In 2007, Portland General Electric (PGE) removed the Marmot Dam from the Sandy River, restoring free flow from its glacial beginnings to its confluence with the Columbia. This makes the Sandy a primary focus for recovery of wild salmon and steelhead runs.
However, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) operates the Sandy River Hatchery just north of the town of Sandy. ODFW releases over a million hatchery-raised smolts into the river each year, including coho, spring Chinook, and steelhead. Hatchery-raised fish inhibit the recovery of wild salmon and steelhead in the Sandy. Hatchery fish stray into spawning grounds, weakening the productivity of wild fish through interbreeding and competition for food and space. Addressing and remediating the negative impacts of hatchery-raised fish on the Sandy’s wild runs is essential to the recovery of Chinook, coho, and steelhead and their removal from the Endangered Species list.
