The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde say their plan to restore and create public access at Willamette Falls will not be delayed by a fire last weekend.
Saturday’s Oregon City fire at the shuttered Blue Heron paper mill completely destroyed a derelict building and led to the arrest of a man who was charged with trespassing and arson.
The Clackamas Fire District #1 has responded to a three-alarm fire at the old Blue Heron Paper Mill in Oregon City on Saturday.
Clackamas Fire District #1
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde purchased the 23-acre former paper mill site at Willamette Falls in 2019. The site is located within the tribes’ ancestral homelands of the Charcowah Village of the Clowewalla people. The Grand Ronde says it holds a significant historical and cultural importance. The tribes plan to restore the site and allow for public access as it is the second-largest waterfall by volume in the United States.
The Grand Ronde tribes’ chief of staff Stacia Hernandez said the fire shouldn’t cause any delays, even though it is forcing the tribes to shift their focus to dealing with the fire’s aftermath on the southernmost part of the property.
“Right now, we’re currently working on getting an environmental consultant on hand to help us do some additional studies on the site to see what type of materials we’re potentially dealing with,” she said. “But we are also working hand in hand with a lot of our partners… to get estimates for demolition, remediation and also work that we’ll need to do now in that building complex area.”
The Grand Ronde are working with Metro, Oregon City, Clackamas County, the state of Oregon, private stakeholders, and community members to restore the site known as the Willamette Falls Legacy Project.
The goal is to create public access to the site by creating a river walk, trails, a public boat dock and other amenities to bring visitors up close to the waters and learn more about its significance and importance to the tribes.
Willamette Falls Legacy Project manager Brian Moore said they are continuing to work with the Grand Ronde and hope to have a public update within a few months.