State extends Willamette Falls fishing platform permit through August 2028

By Dean Rhodes

Publications coordinator

The Oregon Department of State Lands extended the Grand Ronde Tribe’s permit to have a removable fishing platform at Willamette Falls through August 2028 on Thursday, Aug. 3.

The permit continues the Tribe’s ability to harvest up to 15 salmon annually for ceremonial purposes.

“(Permit) Holder is authorized to maintain a fishing platform at a single location only during the period for which the Holder is authorized to harvest salmonids under its Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Ceremonial Harvest Permit,” the notification states. “Holder must remove the fishing platform each year on or before the date that the ODFW Ceremonial Harvest Permit expires.”

The renewal also requires the Tribe to work in good faith with upland owners to ensure the fishing platform does not interfere with any upland owner’s use, including that of Portland General Electric.

The Tribe applied for and received approval for a waterway structure from the Department of State Lands in 2018. The removable fishing platform was completed in October 2018 after Portland General Electric revoked permission allowing Grand Ronde Tribal members and employees to use its land to access and build the platform from the safer West Linn side of the Willamette River.

Tribal Natural Resources Department employees were then forced to ferry supplies across the Willamette River from the Oregon City side of the falls to the West Linn side.

The Tribe obtained authorization from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife to harvest 15 ceremonial fish at the falls in 2016. The platform allows Tribal members to take fish at the culturally appropriate time of year instead of later in the season when water levels are lower and rocks are exposed.

Tribal Fish & Wildlife Program Manager Kelly Dirksen said that the Tribe annually requests permission to harvest salmon from the platform with the time period ranging from early April to the end of July. This year, Tribal fishermen harvested all 15 allowable fish in one day.

The Department of State Lands permit must be renewed every five years.