Joe R Blakely

Saving the Willamette Joe R Blakely

This is the story of the Willamette River from its birth to the 21st century. Confined in the Willamette Basin, the river has been a way of life for valley inhabitants. From early Native Americans to modern man the river has been a vital source of nourishment, floods, steamboats, agriculture, pollution, conservation, and recreation. In the mid-20th century pollution reigned. Governors McCall and Straub fought for a clean river, and the Willamette Greenway-a strip of land 150 feet wide on both banks of the Willamette from Eugene to Portland. Farmers fought that plan which resulted in a 1970s compromise. That solution still exists today.