Fairview Creek is a tributary of the

Columbia Slough The Columbia Slough is a narrow waterway, about long, in the floodplain of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. From its source in the Portland suburb of Fairview, the Columbia Slough meanders west through Gresham and Portland to ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. The creek forms in a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

near Grant Butte in Gresham and flows north for to Fairview Lake in Fairview. Grant Butte, rising to above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...

, is one of eight dormant

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

formations near Gresham. Fairview Creek begins northeast of the butte at an elevation of and falls to an elevation of at the lake. The creek is a former tributary of the Columbia River, which it reached by flowing north through wetlands in the Columbia's

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

. In the early 20th century, an artificial channel diverted the water from these wetlands to the Columbia Slough, a tributary of the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

. In 1960, water managers built a dam to create Fairview Lake for water storage and recreation. The lake covers about and is to deep. Fairview Creek has two named tributaries, No Name Creek, and Clear Creek. A smaller stream, Osburn Creek, also flows into Fairview Lake, which empties through a

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

and culvert system on the west side of the lake into the upper slough.Bureau of Environmental Services. "Chapter 5, Streamflow and Hydrology Characterization", p. 8 In 2002, the City of Gresham adopted a plan for a hiking and biking trail to run partly along the creek. The trail was designed to provide a north-south connection between the

Springwater Corridor The Springwater Corridor Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian rail trail in the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, United States. It follows a former railway line from Boring through Gresham to Portland, where it ends south of the Eastbank Es ...

Trail along Johnson Creek to the south and the 40-Mile Loop trail along the Columbia River. As of 2008, a segment of the trail between Northeast Halsey Street and Northeast Burnside Road was open to the public. Unfinished segments between Northeast Halsey and the Springwater Corridor are expected to be ready by autumn 2009. If so, at that point of the trail will be open to the public.

Works cited

Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) (2005)
''Columbia Slough: Current Characterization Documents'', "Chapter 5, Streamflow and Hydrology Characterization"
(pdf). Portland, Oregon: City of Portland. Retrieved on 2008-12-14.

References

External links

Interlachen Home Owners Association

{{authority control Tributaries of the Willamette River Geography of Portland, Oregon Reservoirs in Oregon Rivers of Oregon Rivers of Multnomah County, Oregon

See also

Works cited

References

External links