Metro Council on Dec 12 unanimously approved $10 million of grant funding to benefit fish and wildlife and strengthen community access to nature near Kellogg Creek in Milwaukie.
“To know that when we are taking a vote, community needs are being met, is exciting,” said Metro Councilor Christine Lewis, who represents District 2 where the project is located.
The Kellogg Creek Restoration and Community Enhancement Project has been in the works for years and addresses a more than 150-year-old issue plaguing the creek. Now, thanks to funding through Metro’s Large-Scale Community Visions Program, the project can move toward completion over the next several years.
The restoration project centers around removal of the obsolete Kellogg Dam and replacement of the Kellogg Bridge on Highway 99E. Removing this barrier will provide fish access to 17 miles of habitat and will restore the currently muddy, shallow and algae-filled area behind the dam.
“Willamette River salmon, steelhead, as well as Pacific lamprey will be top of the list of beneficiaries because this area is vital rearing and migration habitat,” said Neil Schulman, executive director of the North Clackamas Watersheds Council, one of the organizations leading the project. “So will people who live, work, and go to school in Milwaukie and throughout the Lower Willamette Basin.”
Large-Scale Community Visions Program funding can go to capital projects that devote at least $2 million to habitat restoration and that engage with historically marginalized communities, among other requirements.
The grant program’s director, Linda Bartolini Venegas, said, “The project’s intersection of nature with transportation improvements aligns with the vision of the Large-Scale Community Visions Program of a transformative, regional-scale project that will strengthen climate resilience.”
The Large-Scale Community Visions grant offers a unique opportunity for additional funding, as agencies working on Kellogg Creek can leverage the $10 million awarded by Metro to access around $50 million in federal funding, which is crucial for the project’s completion.
"We are making an investment as a region, but more than that, we're giving the local community what they need to draw support from the federal government,” Lewis said.
The multifaceted Kellogg Creek restoration project will be a collaborative effort between North Clackamas Watersheds Council, the City of Milwaukie, Oregon Department of Transportation and American Rivers. This collaboration is a crucial component of the project’s success, says April McEwen, a program director with American Rivers and the restoration project manager.
"Transformational river restoration and infrastructure improvement projects require an extremely coordinated approach, with strong partnerships between the entities that can deliver the project,” McEwen said.
This project is also a priority for local tribes, including the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. The project is within both tribes’ usual and accustomed places, a key aspect of their treaties with the federal government where these tribes retained their rights to activities like fishing and material gathering. Both tribes participate on the Kellogg Creek project’s technical advisory committee.
The tribes submitted testimony in support of the project’s funding, as it benefits culturally significant fish species.
“Kellogg Dam has blocked these streams since Statehood and has served no purpose since the 1890s. The time to remove this important barrier is now,” read the final line of both statements.
Kellogg Dam was originally built in 1858 for a flour mill that ceased functioning in the 1890s. It is a near-total barrier to local spawning fish and to rearing-and-resting habitat for threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead populations.
In addition to benefiting fish habitat, this work will restore a 14-acre impoundment, an area behind a dam, into healthier riparian habitat. It will also benefit people living nearby by restoring the floodplain.
“The No. 1 community complaint we get about watersheds by far is about flooding,” Schulman said. “When this project is completed, the impoundment will provide a place for floodwaters to go before they end up in someone’s basement.”
During restoration, the impoundment will be drained. This offers a rare opportunity for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to monitor and propagate new populations of a native freshwater mussel known as the Oregon floater, currently inhabiting the creek upstream of the dam. These important freshwater mussels are facing population decline.
The project will also replace the 89-year-old Kellogg Creek Bridge on Highway 99E, as the dam forms part of the bridge's foundation. Replacing the bridge will increase infrastructure resiliency and create a more earthquake safe bridge.
“The Kellogg Project is a fantastic opportunity to upgrade aging transportation infrastructure,” said Oregon Department of Transportation engineer Jonathan Horowitz.
The projects calls for an underpass below the Highway 99E bridge which will directly connect downtown Milwaukie to the parks and natural areas along the Lower Willamette River. Currently, pedestrians must cross the highway to reach the river from downtown.
“Trying to cross Highway 99 is not fun, it has high capacity and fast speeds,” said Shelli Romero, area manager for the ODOT.
This work will also create a safe passage for students at local schools who participate in an outdoor education program run by the watersheds council called the Kellogg Creek Student Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Program.
Once the impoundment and floodplain are restored, the area near Kellogg Creek will become a prime environment for outdoor recreation.
With water flowing, no longer stifled by the dam, people can canoe in the stream and walk along the water without being waist-deep in mud.
“Removing Kellogg Dam, restoring the creek and creating the undercrossing is a rare opportunity to restore nature as a defining element of Milwaukie’s downtown, and connect to affordable housing,” says Joseph Briglio, the City of Milwaukie’s assistant city manager.
The City of Milwaukie plans to develop a natural area along the stream that connects to nearby trails.
Current plans have construction starting in 2028 with completion in 2030.