The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is 187 miles (301 km) long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward between the Oregon Coast Range and the Cascade Range, the river and its tributaries form the Willamette Valley, a basin that contains two-thirds of Oregon's population, including the state capital, Salem, and the state's largest city, Portland, which surrounds the Willamette's mouth at the Columbia.
Detroit Lake is a reservoir impounded by the Detroit Dam on the North Santiam River 46 miles (74 km) southeast of Salem, Oregon, United States. The lake is adjacent to Oregon Route 22 near the city of Detroit. This mesotrophic lake stores water for use by the city of Salem and other nearby communities.
The Rogue River in southwestern Oregon in the United States flows about 215 miles (346 km) in a generally westward direction from the Cascade Range to the Pacific Ocean. Known for its salmon runs, whitewater rafting, and rugged scenery, it was one of the original eight rivers named in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Beginning near Crater Lake, which occupies the caldera left by the explosive volcanic eruption and collapse of Mount Mazama, the river flows through the geologically young High Cascades and the older Western Cascades, another volcanic province. Further west, the river passes through multiple exotic terranes of the more ancient Klamath Mountains. In the Kalmiopsis Wilderness section of the Rogue basin are some of the world's best examples of rocks that form the Earth's mantle. Near the mouth of the river, the only dinosaur fragments ever discovered in Oregon were found in the Otter Point Formation, along the coast of Curry County.
The Clackamas River is an approximately 83-mile (134 km) tributary of the Willamette River in northwestern Oregon, in the United States. Draining an area of about 940 square miles (2,435 km2), the Clackamas flows through mostly forested and rugged mountainous terrain in its upper reaches, and passes agricultural and urban areas in its lower third. The river rises in eastern Marion County, about 55 miles (89 km) east-southeast of Salem. The headwaters are on the slopes of Olallie Butte in the Mount Hood National Forest, about 10 miles (16 km) north of Mount Jefferson, at an elevation of 4,909 feet (1,496 m) in the Cascade Range. The Clackamas flows briefly north and then flows northwest through the mountains, passing through North Fork Reservoir and Estacada. It then emerges from the mountains southeast of Portland. It joins the Willamette near Oregon City and forms the boundary between Oregon City and Gladstone.
The North Santiam River is a 92-mile (148 km) tributary of the Santiam River in western Oregon in the United States. It drains 766 square miles (1,980 km2) of the Cascade Range on the eastern side of the Willamette Valley east of Salem.
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) or Columbia River redband trout. Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and North America. Like other sea-run (anadromous) trout and salmon, steelhead spawn in freshwater, smolts migrate to the ocean to forage for several years and adults return to their natal streams to spawn. Steelhead are iteroparous, although their survival rate is approximately only 10–20%.
The Willamette Falls is a natural waterfall in the northwestern United States, located on the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn, Oregon. The largest waterfall in the Northwest U.S. by volume, it is the seventeenth widest in the world. Horseshoe in shape, it is 1,500 feet (455 m) wide and forty feet (12 m) high, with a flow rate of 30,850 cu ft/s (874 m3/s). Located 26 miles (42 km) upriver from the Willamette's mouth at Portland, Willamette Falls is a culturally significant site for many tribal communities in the region.
In 1942, the Coleman National Fish Hatchery was established under an act of the U.S. Congress to mitigate the loss of historic spawning habitat caused by the construction of dams. The fish hatchery is located in Shasta County, California, near the town of Anderson on the north bank of Battle Creek approximately 6 river miles (9.7 km) east of the Sacramento River. Coleman NFH covers approximately 75 acres (300,000 m2) of land owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), with an additional 63 acres (250,000 m2) of land in perpetual easements for pipelines and access. It is the largest salmon hatchery in the continental United States.
Oregon Route 22 is an Oregon state highway that runs between the Oregon Coast community of Hebo, to a junction with U.S. Route 20 near Santiam Pass in the Cascade Mountains. OR 22 traverses several highways of the Oregon state highway system, including the Three Rivers Highway No. 32, part of the Salmon River Highway No. 39, the Willamina–Salem Highway No. 30, part of the Salem Highway No. 72, and the North Santiam Highway No. 162.
Abiqua Creek is a tributary of the Pudding River in the U.S. state of Oregon. The creek originates near Lookout Mountain in the foothills of the Cascade Range in the northwestern part of the state. It flows northwest for about 29 miles (47 km) to its confluence with the Pudding, about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Silverton, in the Willamette Valley. About 20 miles (32 km) north of Silverton, the Pudding River meets the Molalla River, which meets the Willamette River less than 1 mile (1.6 km) later near Canby.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for programs protecting Oregon fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. The agency operates hatcheries, issues hunting and angling licenses, advises on habitat protection, and sponsors public education programs. Its history dates to the 1878 establishment of the office of Columbia River Fish Warden. Since 1931, enforcement of Oregon's Fish and Game laws has been the responsibility of the Oregon State Police rather than separate wardens.
Mill Creek is a 26-mile (42 km) tributary of the Willamette River that drains a 111-square-mile (290 km2) area of Marion County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Flowing generally west from its source south of Silver Falls State Park, it passes through the cities of Aumsville, Stayton, Sublimity, and Turner before emptying into the Willamette in Salem.
Santiam State Forest is one of six state forests managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry. The forest is located approximately 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Salem, Oregon, and includes 47,871 acres (193.73 km2) on the western slope of the Cascade Mountains in three Oregon counties: Clackamas, Linn, and Marion. It is bounded on the east by the Willamette National Forest and Mount Hood National Forest. Silver Falls State Park is located west of the forest. The rest of the land surrounding the forest belongs to the Bureau of Land Management or is privately owned. The forest is managed as part of the Department of Forestry's North Cascade District.
Leaburg is an unincorporated community in Lane County, Oregon, United States located on the McKenzie River and Oregon Route 126 east of Walterville and west of Vida.
Marion Forks is an unincorporated community on the North Santiam Highway, 15 miles (24 km) south of the city of Detroit, in Linn County, Oregon, United States.
The Little North Santiam River is a 27-mile (43 km) tributary of the North Santiam River in western Oregon in the United States. It drains 113 square miles (290 km2) of the Cascade Range on the eastern side of the Willamette Valley east of Salem.
Winchester Dam is a dam on the North Umpqua River in Winchester, Oregon, United States. Constructed in 1890, the dam was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Environmental Protection Agency, groups steelhead and salmon into distinct population segments (DPS). There are currently 15 DPS for steelhead and 31 evolutionarily significant units (ESU) for five species of Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus. The boundaries of these areas are used to determine whether specific populations of a species should be designated threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.
Thomas Creek is a stream, about 35 miles (56 km) long, in Linn County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Beginning in Willamette National Forest on the western slopes of the Cascade Range, the creek flows generally west through Santiam State Forest and farmland to meet the South Santiam River west of Scio.
Cottonwood Creek is a major stream and tributary of the Sacramento River in Northern California. About 68 miles (109 km) long measured to its uppermost tributaries, the creek drains a large rural area bounded by the crest of the Coast Ranges, traversing the northwestern Sacramento Valley before emptying into the Sacramento River near the town of Cottonwood. It defines the boundary of Shasta and Tehama counties for its entire length. Because Cottonwood Creek is the largest undammed tributary of the Sacramento River, it is known for its Chinook salmon and steelhead runs.
