Willamette River Recreation Strategy

Willamette River Recreation Strategy

On February 22nd, 2012 the Portland City Council accepted the Willamette River Recreation Strategy as the City's guide for river recreation and boating facility planning along the Willamette River in Portland. The Strategy articulates a new river recreation vision and prioritizes actions for the next 15 years. It identifies key facilities for improvement, targets additional areas for facility expansion, establishes a river recreation advisory group, and describes next steps for asset management, education, and enforcement.

To view or download the Strategy,  click here.

To view the presentation made to Council, click here.

For more information, contact Rick Bastasch, City of Portland Rivers Office, 503.823.0275. 

Willamette River Recreation "Soundings"--An August 2012 illustration showing activities relating to river recreation in Portland.

Strategy Background

The City of Portland’s Office of Healthy Working Rivers and Portland Parks and Recreation have partnered on this new document which establishes a vision for river recreation in the City, offers recreation policy guidance, and identifies specific actions for how the public realm should meet growing river recreation in Portland over the next five to 15 years.

The City of Portland embraces 17 miles of the Willamette River and enjoys an enviable offering of river experiences—spring salmon fishing, bird watching, pleasure boating, sailing, dragon boating, kayaking, river cruises and more. As Portland grows and clean-up work on the River progresses, the City is exploring how best to meet growing river recreation demands.

Portland lies at the confluence of two of the most heavily used boating waterways in Oregon – the Columbia and the Willamette. River-based recreation is increasing and, especially on the Willamette, diversifying. Being on the river has long been a Portland tradition, even through the darkest days of river pollution in the first half of the 20th century. Now Portlanders are poised to claim the clean river dividend made possible by the completion of the Big Pipe, and by decades of efforts both here and upstream.

Recreating on the Willamette is, now more than ever, a defining element of Portland’s livability. As such, it warrants careful consideration on the part of the City, which maintains a portfolio of river recreation interests—operating riverfront parks, providing riverside bike and pedestrian trails, providing boating facilities, and creating educational opportunities to learn about rivers’ roles in our history, natural setting, and economy. A foundational element of Portlanders’ interest in appreciating the Willamette is the on-going need to restore natural habitat that has been severely degraded over the last 150 years.

To date, the management of Portland’s recreation portfolio has been largely implicit. To meet growing needs and expectations on the part of Portlanders, it now needs to be explicit – with clear objectives, institutional linkages, and ties to budget. The Willamette River Recreation Strategy is a first-step in meeting that need.

Willamette River Recreation Survey

In partnership with Portland Parks and Recreation, the Rivers Office invited boaters of all types to take an on-line survey in late April and early May 2011to tell us more about how the Portland stretch of the Willamette is currently being used and how we can plan for the future. Nearly 1,600 people responded. To see a graphic summary of responses to survey questions, click here; to view selected survey highlights, click here.

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