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  • May

    Man up, and wear a life jacket!

    Eight things you didn't know about water safety.

  • March

    Foster Dam and Reservoir manages water coming from the South Santiam River, and is located in Sweet Home, Oregon. Foster Dam and its accompanying facilities will be part of the Willamette Valley System Environmental Impact Statement. Additional facilities included at Foster are an Adult Fish Collection Facility and a fish hatchery.

    Corps begins Willamette Valley System evaluation

    Almost three million people, or about 70 percent of Oregon’s population live in a fertile valley on the state’s western side, according to Portland State University figures. This number has doubled since 1970 – and people are still squeezing themselves into the roughly 150 mile-long valley, which is bracketed by mountain ranges and dominated by a powerful and deceptive force – the Willamette River. This influential river has had a long history of devastating flooding, which spurred the people of Oregon and the U.S. Congress into action in the 1930’s. Congress granted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the authority to build a system of dams on the Willamette River’s tributaries for flood control purposes.

  • February

    Early morning at John Day Lock & Dam

    John Day 50th Anniversary

    Sept. 20, 2018, the Portland District commemorated the 50th anniversary of the ceremonial spillway opening at John Day Lock and Dam, which took place Sept. 28, 1968.

  • January

    A Dam Safety Program inspector dangles from the face of a Willamette Valley dam as he assesses the condition of spillway gates, June 6, 2009. The dam safety assessment concluded gates could fail to open or could stick, which could affect how the dams released water. In 2010, the District began rehabilitating the gates.

    Dam: that’s a lot of work - Corps completes spillway gate repair

    In 2009, dam safety inspectors dangled from ropes to inspect the spillway gates at federal dams throughout Oregon. The team, in their top-to-bottom inspection, determined that the aging spillway gates might malfunction when the water levels were high.

  • October

    Fall along the Rogue River

    New hopes for the Rogue

    The movie “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” premiered on screens throughout the country in 1977. Around that same time, the Corps updated the Rogue River Basin project master plans to reflect new hopes for Lost Creek Lake, Elk Creek, and Applegate Dam.

  • September

    View Detroit Dam from below. Detroit is a concrete dam with gated spillways. It was completed in 1953 and is 463 feet tall.

    Balancing perspectives in the Willamette Valley

    In the 1930's, people from Oakridge, Cottage Grove, Springfield, Eugene, Monroe, Albany, Salem and Portland were tired of flooding in the Willamette Valley. Oregonians demanded solutions to the frequent flooding, which severely impacted travel, accessibility to homes and businesses and damaged personal and public property. They convinced politicians to address the problem with infrastructure, and drove the authorization, funding and construction of the Willamette Valley system: 13 dams that mitigate flood damages by managing perennial flood risks. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers developed this system from 1939-1969 and it has since provided immense benefits, especially with the valley’s continued, un-checked growth (by politicians, municipalities, developers, etc.) along the Willamette River.
  • The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a temperature control tower (left) in 2005 at Cougar Dam, in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which necessitated a drawdown of the reservoir. Corps plans to create downstream fish passage at the dam could affect reservoir levels during construction and installation. However, the Corps’ goal is to minimize impacts to stakeholders throughout the region.

    Corps begins final step to complete fish passage in the McKenzie River Watershed

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Cougar Dam sits astride the South Fork of the McKenzie River, approximately 50 miles southeast of Eugene, Oregon. The dam has been blocking fish passage in the river since the Corps built it in the 1960s. Salmon numbers have plummeted in this watershed and, as a result, the Corps has worked to help by improve water temperatures and supply adult fish passage upstream of the dam. However, these actions haven’t addressed moving juvenile fish downstream of the dam – until now.

  • August

    Two workers move a massive stone used in the construction of the South Jetty at the Mouth of the Columbia River in the late 1800s.

    The Corps' work maintaining Pacific Northwest waterways is just as important now as it was 133 years ago

    Portland District is rehabilitating the Mouth of the Columbia River Jetty System 133 years after initial construction began.

  • May

    Bella

    Operation Blue Roof rescues Bella the puppy in St. Thomas

    During his time in St. Thomas working with the Corps' Operation Blue Roof program, Portland District's Terry Surratt rescued a puppy named Bella and brought her home to Oregon with him.

  • March

    Amy Redmond, Portland District natural resource specialist, talks to Cottage Grove High School students during a college and career fair, March 21. Redmond and Doug Garletts, District fish biologist, attended the career day to highlight the various types of careers students could look forward to in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

    Corps highlights non-engineering careers at Cottage Grove HS

    Amy Redmond spoke to student after student, planting the proverbial “seed” that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers does more than engineering. It was apt that Redmond, a natural resource specialist for Portland District, was at the career fair planting seeds – she does that during her regular work, too. Or, she at least nurtures the environment – allowing those seeds to blossom.