Eyes on the Slough

Take your Slough stewardship a step further… adopt a stretch of the Slough!

Is there a stretch of the Columbia Slough where you like to spend time walking, paddling, or birding? Do you want to do more to restore the Slough and increase its appeal as an accessible urban water trail? How about helping reduce the flow of trash from our urban watershed all the way out to the Pacific Ocean?

If the Council’s periodic paddle cleanups aren’t enough for you and you want to do more, adopt your very own stretch of the Slough!

Here’s how to get started:

1) Contact our Community Outreach and Events Director Amanda Gallegos

If you find any items that are too large or dangerous to move, please put safety first and leave these items behind. We highly encourage volunteers to do your own reporting of these items to the appropriate local government agencies. Record GPS coordinates of the items and take pictures if you can.

Here is how you can report bulky or hazardous items:

For hazardous items, call the the Oregon Emergency Response System (OERS): 800-452-0311 (This means substances that can leak into the Slough and cause a danger to public health or the environment, such as petroleum products, paints, cleaners, or unknown liquids.)

Within the City of Portland, report large debris that you are unable to move to the BES Pollution Hotline: 503-823-7180

Report incidents of garbage dumping to Oregon Department of Environmental Quality by using their Incident Report Form.

In our urban watershed, it’s a huge task to keep up with all the garbage that enters the Slough. We can’t do it without volunteers like you who are willing to take their stewardship an extra step by adopting their own Slough stretch! Together, we can restore the Slough so it continues to serve as an urban wildlife oasis and accessible outdoor recreation opportunity.