Families who want to fish, boat, and swim along the Boardman stretch of the Columbia increasingly butt heads with port, farming, and industrial interests over river access and water quality. How should the community prioritize its most iconic natural resource?
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Add your commentMy question to the pro-industry folks in this thread: do your kids swim in the Columbia? Do you? Because mine used to and I stopped letting them about four years ago after a summer when the algae bloom near the boat ramp was so bad it looked like someone spilled green paint. I contacted the county. I contacted the DEQ. You want to guess how far that got me. Recreation access and water quality aren't luxury issues, they're public health issues, and I'm tired of pretending otherwise.
Born and raised in Morrow County. My dad fished that stretch of the Columbia every weekend from the time he was a kid until he passed in 2019. You want to know how many public boat launches we have between Boardman and the McNary pool that are actually maintained and usable? I can count them on one hand. Meanwhile the port keeps expanding its footprint and we just smile and nod because 'jobs.' I'm not anti-industry, never have been, but at some point we have to ask what we're actually preserving this community FOR if our own kids can't get to the river.
Okay I have to correct something I keep seeing in these discussions — people keep saying the whole shoreline is 'owned by the port.' That's not accurate. A significant portion of the riparian land near Boardman is actually under BLM jurisdiction and technically open to public access. The PROBLEM is there's no infrastructure, no signage, and no maintained path to get there safely. So yes, technically public, practically inaccessible. Big difference. Don't let anyone tell you it's all private, because that lets the county off the hook for doing absolutely nothing about access.
Hard disagree with the framing of this whole debate. The Columbia River IS protected — it's managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, it has the Clean Water Act, there are already regulations in place. What people actually mean when they say 'protect it for recreation' is 'restrict existing legal uses so I can have a nicer picnic spot.' That's a real tradeoff with real consequences for real livelihoods. Say what you mean.
I moved here from Portland three years ago specifically because I thought a small river town would mean easy river access. Oh how naive I was lol. My neighbor had to explain to me that the nice-looking waterfront I kept eyeing near the port is essentially off-limits to the public. Coming from somewhere with the Willamette waterfront trail this genuinely shocked me. Boardman has an incredible asset and treats it like a loading dock.
lol every few years somebody writes an article or starts a petition and then absolutely nothing changes. the port does what it wants, the ag operations do what they want, and the rest of us just drive past the river on 730 and look at it like its a painting. a painting we're not allowed to touch.
Genuinely curious what the people calling for more recreation access think that looks like in practice. More boat ramps? A trail system? Public swimming areas? Because those things cost money and Morrow County isnt exactly flush. I support better access in theory but somebody has to pay for and maintain it, and 'protect the river' as a slogan doesnt answer that question.
Agriculture feeds people. The wind farms power people. The port moves goods people need. I get that recreation matters but can we have a little perspective? This isn't the Oregon Coast, it's an industrial corridor that also happens to have a beautiful river next to it. Prioritizing kayakers over farmers seems backwards to me and I'll die on that hill.
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