Fruit Growing and the Columbia River Estuary

Snapped a few pictures of our strawberries (ready to pick), blueberries (not yet ripe), and pears (not yer ripe).

I also got to evaluate a couple project proposals up near Knappa in the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge which meant a field day!  The issue at hand is that there is a very old railroad dike that is bisecting and cutting off a bunch of estuary wetlands.  The dike is drained in a few places by undersized culverts which because they're too small, accelerate flow and prevent aquatic organisms from effectively passing.  Unfortunately, the railroad company doesn't want to relinquish their rights to the railroad and a deepwater port, so the proposal is to replace the culverts with bridges.  It's a silly ask from an infrastructure perspective, but highly valuable from an ecological functionality standpoint.

The proposal is to install more bridges like this (above) to reconnect estuary floodplain (below) with Knappa Slough of the Columbia River

Railroad dike (above) that bisects a valuable estuary wetland from Knappa Slough (below).  Note the anchored gillnetters.

Existing, but undersized drainage culverts (above) which inhibit organism passage and accelerate tide and streamflows leading to erosion