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Having triumphed over the Rockies, the men raced downstream — for the first time since leaving St. Louis — to the Pacific Ocean. Steep gorges and violent rapids filled the Snake and Columbia rivers. The Corps ran them in rough-hewn dugout canoes and hopscotched along, camping on different sides of the river in present-day Oregon and Washington. Salmon teemed in the waterways and lush, impenetrable rain forests greeted them.
This wild, untamed land has changed dramatically since Lewis and Clark passed through here. There are 29 dams, generating much-needed power for the region, along the Columbia and its tributaries. Changes in water quality and flow are hurting river species and the wildlife that depend on this life-giving corridor. Among the greatest losses is the region’s coastal temperate rainforests, storehouses of organic matter that supported a complex web of life. About 95 percent of Oregon, Washington and California’s coastal rainforests no longer remain in their original old-growth condition.
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In Their Own Words... |
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“I assended a high clift about 200 feet above the water from the top of which is a leavel plain extending up the river and off for a great extent, at this place the Countrey becoms low on each Side of the river, and affords a prospect of the river and countrey below for great extent both to the right and left; from this place I descovered a high mountain of emence hight covered with Snow.”
~ Clark | | The Conservancy is working along this historic route to preserve and protect critical lands that remain, while working to restore what was lost. An excellent example of a coastal rainforest can be found at the Conservancy’s 5,600-acre Ellsworth Creek Preserve, which includes nearly 300 acres of old-growth forest. Some of the western red cedars and Sitka spruce here are more than 800 years old, making this a truly rare place.
As Clark stood on the coast at Oregon’s Tillamook Head and looked at the Pacific Ocean, he writes, “I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospect which my eyes ever surveyed ... ” This lush region has since been extensively logged. Today, the Conservancy is working with Oregon state parks to restore 1,400 acres to awe-inspiring old growth conditions.
Old-growth Douglas-fir are preserved along the Sandy River, which provides a corridor for black bear, cougar and elk. Its clear glacial waters support native steelhead, salmon and river otters. | 
