Conflict of interests: The Slough That Has It All

1. Background: Before the mid 1950s, the Columbia Slough was regarded as a container for directing dumping of sewage and industrial wastes, which consequently led the water to be severely polluted. Recently, however, efforts have been put into improving the water quality, as well as natural area (see definition below), of the Columbia Slough; and as a result , there seems to be a notable sign of some improvement in the quality of water in the slough. Nonetheless, recent land cover change around the slough requires us to pay attention to such change and how it might play into the improvement of water quality of the slough. Thus, in this project, we examine land cover change around the slough between 1996 and 2006, and • Methods: • This project investigates the change in land use over • time, and how the economic changes have benefited or obstructed restoration efforts. • In doing so, we used two air photos (both of which were already georeferenced); and we employed the LUCC to do the analysis of the land change. • We then looked at various groups or organizations that have been devoting time and resources to the restoration of the slough. • Through these methods, we are able to grasp the ways in which industries play in the restoration of the Columbia Slough. Research Questions: 1. How has land developed over time in the Columbia Slough? How has the ratio of industrial or residential area to natural area (see definition below) changed over the past century in the watershed around the Columbia Slough? 2. How have the change in land usage and cover impacted the restoration efforts?3. Who has attempted to restore the Slough to “natural area,” and what reasons and incentives have led them to focus on restoration? Conflict of interests: The Slough That Has It All “Natural area” here is used to refer to the regions of the Columbia Slough that support a variety of flora and fauna. This includes forested, aquatic, and grassy ecosystems, but does not include industrial and residential areas with impermeable surfaces. Large man-made ecosystems such as parks and community gardens are included in the definition of “natural area” due to the difficulty of differentiating between ecosystems that are man-made and those that are not on GIS