‘We’re throwing them a lot of
curves, but they are resilient’
Two new books chronicle
salmon life, restoration
on the Columbia River
BY CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER
For the past 20 years, Pat Welle’s
life has followed the Columbia River
current.
This slow fl ow began in eastern
Washington’s Hanford Reach, where
Welle once ran a kayaking business and
directed water quality projects.
Later, she moved on to a fl oating
home in Portland, during which time
she obtained a second master’s degree
in environmental resource manage-
ment, and served on the Scappoose Bay
Watershed Council.
Today, the nature photographer calls
southwest Washington’s Willapa Bay
home.
“Well, I could get about another
mile west,” jokes the author of two new
books about the Columbia River.
But it’s not Welle’s own journey
chronicled in her dual books.
See Page 9
Photos by Pat Welle
ABOVE: Morning fi shing near the Sauvie Island bridge. BELOW: A heron on pilings in
Multnomah Channel.
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