Gorge Owned ‘Sense of Place’ lecture series returns March 2

In 1980, the Columbia River Gorge faced an existential threat. The I-205 bridge would soon be completed, placing Skamania County’s unzoned and unprotected farmlands — high above the Columbia River, on top of Cape Horn and Mt. Pleasant, and across from Crown Point — within easy commuting distance of downtown Portland. Under Nancy Russell’s leadership, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) acquired important lands prior to passage of the National Scenic Area Act, and played a strategic, post-enactment role in securing iconic Gorge properties for public use.

This lecture will take a behind the scenes look at TPL’s role in protecting so many special places in the Gorge — the Sandy River Delta, Cape Horn, Mt. Pleasant, the Mosier Twin Tunnels, the Rowena Plateau, Lyle Point and Miller Island and considerable Washington State river frontage from Steigerwald Lake to Beacon Rock.

Blair is vice chair of the Columbia River Gorge Commission. He was the executive director of Friends of the Columbia Gorge from 1982 to 1988, during which time he lobbied for and negotiated the terms of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act. From 1989 to 2010, Blair founded the Trust for Public Land’s Oregon office, led its Northwest and Midwest regions, started TPL’s national Tribal Lands Program, and headed its national land acquisition work as senior vice president. Blair also helped negotiate land purchases at Cape Horn, Rowena Plateau, Mosier Twin Tunnels, Lyle Point and the return of 10,300 acres of land in northeastern Oregon to the Nez Perce Tribe, which represented the tribe’s first return to Oregon since the Nez Perce War of 1877. He is currently writing a biography of Russell and her work in protecting the Columbia River Gorge.