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Blind Slough, Oregon, looking downstream along right bank.
View from bridge.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Blind Slough ...
Blind Slough enters Knappa Slough behind
Karlson Island (approximately at Columbia River Mile (RM) 27), and meanders east through the low plain towards Aldrich Point. North of Blind Slough is Saspal Slough and south of Blind Slough is Warren Slough.
The western part of Blind Slough is a 897-acre preserve run by the Nature Conservancy. The preserve was created to protect a Sitka spruce swamp, of which some of the Sitka spruce are over 400 years old.
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"... Blind Slough Swamp is the best example of a Sitka spruce swamp remaining in Oregon. Once common in coastal estuaries from Tillamook to Alaska, this habitat type has been mostly lost in Oregon and Washington to logging, diking and other development. The preserve is bordered on three sides by Columbia River sloughs and channels, and it adjoins the Lewis and Clark National Wildlife Refuge. Blind Slough Swamp is in an area well-known for birding, canoeing and kayaking opportunities. ..."
[The Nature Conservancy Website, 2007]
The origin of the name "Blind Slough" is unknown. McArthur and McArthur in Oregon Geographic Names (2003) offers a suggestion:
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"... Blind Slough opens off the Prairie Channel of the Columbia River about halfway between Knappa and Brownsmead. The slough wanders about a good deal and gets nowhere in particular. One fair-sized branch pinches out suddenly, and that was probably the reason for the name. ..."
[McArthur and McArthur, 2003]
Today Blind Slough has a few homes and docks dotting its shore, is an excellent canoe and kayak location, and is home to "net pens" where finglerling salmon are raised before being released to head to the Pacific (see more below).
Research has discovered some of the trees along Blind Slough survived the massive "Cascadia Quake" in 1700, a magnitude 9.0 quake which shook the coastline of Washington and British Columbia on January 26, 1700.
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Blind Slough, Oregon, looking upstream.
View from bridge.
Image taken November 20, 2004.
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Blind Slough, Oregon, looking downstream.
View from bridge.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Early Blind Slough ...
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Blind Slough appears on the State of Oregon's 1856 cadastral survey (tax survey) for T9N R7W as "Blind Slough". It's length included today's Blind Slough and today's Knappa Slough.
The Blind Slough Post Office was established in 1910. It had 4 postmasters before closing in 1924 when Brownsmead Post Office took over.
In 1992 the James River Corporation donated 640 acres bordering the Slough to The Nature Conservatory to manage as a natural area and wildlife refuge.
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Views along Blind Slough ...
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House on Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken November 20, 2004.
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Reflection, House on Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken November 20, 2004.
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House on Blind Slough, Oregon.
View from bridge.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Blind Slough "Net Pens" ...
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Since 1976 Clatsop County, Oregon, has maintained a project along the Lower Columbia River, with salmon "net pens" first set up in Young Bay, and, as the project proved worthwhile, net pens were added in Blind Slough and near Tongue Point.
Fingerlings were raised and then released in the Columbia River as smolts.
According to Clatsop County's "Fisheries Project" information, in 1977 the project released 50,000 coho. In 2004 the project released 2.4 million coho, 1.5 million spring chinook, and over half a million bright fall chinook smolts.
The chinook and coho fingerlings come from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife hatcheries, plus the Clatsop project receives eggs for incubation at its hatchery on the South Fork of the Klaskanine River.
The "net pens" themselves are floating fish pens secured to pilings along the shoreline.
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A small-mesh net is suspended from a floating frame, made of high-density polyethylene pipe, that is secured to pilings. Each side of the pen is 20 feet long. The net hangs 10 feet deep. ...
The fish are raised in these pens various lengths of time, long enough for them to "smolt" a physiological change prior to entering salt water.
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During their time in the net pens, the fish imprint to the scent of the bay, giving the the homing instinct to return to that location for harvest.
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Before their release, the smolts from each group are marked so they can be identified when they return as adults and are harvested. Tiny coded-wire tags are inserted into the snout and the adipose fin is clipped. The fin is located on the topside of the fish near its tail. ..."
[Clatsop County, Oregon, Website, 2007, "Fisheries Project"]
The Clatsop County project is just one of many net pen projects established along the Lower Columbia River, with other projects managed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, all with sponsorship by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). Net Pen sites are located up and down the Lower Columbia River, with locations at Blind Slough, Youngs Bay, Tongue Point, Deep River (12 pens were installed in 1999 with 16 additional pens being requested in 2006), and Steamboat Slough near Skamokawa.
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Net Pens, Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken November 20, 2004.
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Net Pens, Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken November 20, 2004.
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Net Pens, Blind Slough, Oregon.
View from bridge.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Net Pens, Blind Slough, Oregon.
View from bridge.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Birds on Blind Slough ...
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An excellent spot to photograph birds on Blind Slough is from the large concrete bridge crossing Blind Slough. During the winter of 2007-2008 an Arctic Loon hung out. Apparently the fishing was good. Other birds photographed were the Western Grebe, Red-throated Loon, Double-crested Cormorant, and the Glaucous-winged Gull.
[More]
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Arctic Loon, Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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An Arctic Loon, rather rare, hung out for a while on Blind Slough during the winter of 2007-2008. The fishing was good.
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Western Grebe, Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Red-throated Loon, Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Double-crested Cormorant, Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken January 13, 2008.
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Glaucous-winged Gull, adult, Blind Slough, Oregon.
Image taken February 17, 2008.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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