Senator Gordon Smith, on behalf of Oregon's congressional delegation, announced the first appropriation by Congress of $1,250,000 to the BLM to buy and conserve lands on the Sandy River near the city of Sandy. Over the next few years, the BLM hopes to assemble an eleven-mile corridor of publicly owned land along the river for protection of fish and wildlife habitat and for public recreation. The Sandy River supports runs of winter and summer steelhead, coho salmon, fall and spring chinook, chum salmon and coastal cutthroat trout. "The Oregon delegation is proud to have the creation of this incredible urban preserve as part of our legacy to Oregon," said Senator Smith. "We wanted to support the initiative that PGE has taken to restore the Sandy River as a top-quality Northwestern salmon stream, and spectacular natural area for outdoor enthusiasts. I, along with the rest of Oregon Congressional delegation, will make every effort to secure additional federal dollars for this project in the upcoming fiscal year."

PGE announced that it has donated sixty acres of forested land along the river to a Portland conservation organization, Western Rivers Conservancy. In addition to its land donation, PGE has previously announced its intention to eventually decommission and remove Marmot Dam, an action making the Sandy a completely free-flowing stream from the glaciers of Mt. Hood to the Columbia River. "Fish protection is an important priority for PGE ," said Steve Quennoz, Vice President of Power Supply/Generation at PGE. "We have been intensely working on fish protection measures for 25 years, and many of our efforts date back to the turn of the century.

Western Rivers Conservancy combined the donated PGE land with a 154-acre tract that it bought last year and conveyed the entire 214-acre package to the BLM in early April. The transaction marked the BLM's first land acquisition within the new conservation corridor. The land acquisition by the BLM covers both banks of the Sandy River just downstream from Marmot Dam, and is near a unique area known as the Middle Sandy River Gorge. "This is a spectacular and relatively unknown stretch of river that offers some of the best fishing and most challenging whitewater rafting in Oregon," said Sue Doroff with Western Rivers Conservancy. Western Rivers Conservancy is also protecting the Dodge Ranch, across from Alder Creek on the Sandy River, where gravel mining was approved by Clackamas County in February 2000.

The BLM's Elaine Zielinski, Oregon/Washington State Director, said that the new acquisition program is a continuation and extension of BLM's role on the Sandy River. "As managing agency for National Wild and Scenic River segments from Dodge Park downstream to Dabney Park and the lower eight miles of the Salmon River, the BLM has a strong mandate to conserve the Sandy for fish and wildlife and public enjoyment," Zielinski said. "We hope to manage the newly acquired lands as part of an expanded Sandy River 'Area of Critical Environmental Concern' that we originally established for our lands within the designated Wild and Scenic River."