Locke Island is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

located in the

Hanford Reach The Hanford Reach is a free-flowing section of the Columbia River, around long, in eastern Washington state. It is named after a large northward bend in the river's otherwise southbound course. Hanford Reach is the only section of the Columbia i ...

of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The island is protected as part of the

Hanford Reach National Monument The Hanford Reach National Monument is a national monument in the U.S. state of Washington. It was created in 2000, mostly from the former security buffer surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The area has been untouched by development or ...

, which was created out of lands surrounding the

Hanford Site The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW a ...

. The island is an important

archeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and ...

and is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. These cultural resources are being threatened by erosion resulting from a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...

changing the river's course.

History

Human habitation and use of Locke Island has varied significantly throughout time. Before the arrival of European settlers, Native Americans used the island and areas around it for fishing and other river-based activities. Use of the island largely ceased as Americans moved into the region and began to farm on both sides of the Columbia River, establishing the town of White Bluffs on the Benton County side of the river. This town, which was only a few miles south of Locke Island, was abandoned when the

was constructed under the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

Indigenous Use

Locke Island is located near the former sites of several Native American fishing sites that were primarily used by the

Yakama The Yakama are a Native American tribe with nearly 10,851 members, based primarily in eastern Washington state. Yakama people today are enrolled in the federally recognized tribe, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. Their Yak ...

Nez Perce The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...

, and ancestors of the

Wanapum The Wanapum tribe of Native Americans formerly lived along the Columbia River from above Priest Rapids down to the mouth of the Snake River in what is now the US state of Washington. About 60 Wanapum still live near the present day site of Priest ...

. Two of these were called Tah-Koot and Wy-Yow-Na. Many of the people who fished in the area would camp on the island itself, with others traveling to the area from as far as

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

to trade. Typically visitors who were not members of the tribes that frequented Tah-Koot and Wy-Yow-Na did not fish. According to a Native American who spoke with researchers in the early-20th century, most families who came to the area to fish would catch an average of 300 fish during their time there. Celebrations would occur in the campsites as late as 1904. Artifacts found on the island indicate a long and consistent period of human activity on the island. Erosion during the wet season of 1996–1997 unearthed material that had previously lain below the island's surface, indicating the presence of people as early as 2,000 years ago. Other material has been dated to being as recent as the 19th century. Obsidian cutting tools and arrowheads are abundant on the island. The lands were ceded to the United States in the treaty signed by the Umatilla and Yakama Tribes at the

Walla Walla Council In American radio, film, television, and video games, walla is a sound effect imitating the murmur of a crowd in the background. A group of actors brought together in the post-production stage of film production to create this murmur is known a ...

in 1855.

Abandonment

As white settlers moved into the Columbia Basin, Native Americans found less use for Locke Island and the surrounding fish encampments. The increasing settlers had a significant impact on the ecology of the river through over fishing and constructing dams. No roads or structures were built on the island, though ranching and farming did occur nearby. This was especially true on the Benton County side of the river, with the town of White Bluffs only being a few miles to the south. The island became part of an

involuntary park Involuntary park is a neologism coined by science fiction author and environmentalist Bruce Sterling to describe previously inhabited areas that for environmental, economic, or political reasons have, in Sterling's words, "lost their value for te ...

when the Hanford Site was created under the Manhattan Project in the 1940s. Residents were forced from the area so the federal government could construct the site, which was used to make nuclear weapons. The site was surrounded by a wide security buffer to prevent information about the secret project from being leaked. As part of this buffer, Locke Island remained undeveloped. Much of the security buffer, including Locke Island, was placed in Hanford Reach National Monument in 2000 and continues to be closed to the public.

Geology

The island consists of

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

that has been deposited by the Columbia River since the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and overlies the

Columbia River Basalt Group The Columbia River Basalt Group is the youngest, smallest and one of the best-preserved continental flood basalt province on Earth, covering over mainly eastern Oregon and Washington, western Idaho, and part of northern Nevada. The basalt grou ...

. Much of this is eroded remains of the

Ringold Formation The Ringold Formation is a geologic formation in Eastern Washington, United States. The formation consists of sediment laid down by the Columbia River following the flood basalt eruptions of the Columbia River Basalt Group, and reaches up to thi ...

, which was placed by the Columbia River between 9 and 3 million years ago. The White Bluffs, which are a series of cliffs created by this erosion, are immediately east of the island. The White Bluffs became destabilized by water from the

Columbia Basin Irrigation Project The Columbia Basin Project (or CBP) in Central Washington, United States, is the irrigation network that the Grand Coulee Dam makes possible. It is the largest water reclamation project in the United States, supplying irrigation water to over of ...

entering the groundwater system and flowing toward the Columbia River. This destabilization has caused portions of the cliff to slump into the river, including a large one at Locke Island. This slump has narrowed the eastern passage of the Columbia as it flows around the island, increasing erosion of the middle section of the island. In some locations, up to of the island's material on its eastern side has been removed by the river since 1996. The slump began sliding into the river in the 1970s, but has not moved appreciably since 1998. This erosion threatens the cultural artifacts left by millennia of human habitation before European settlement as well as

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

spawning sites downstream.

Ecology

Locke Island is located in the shrub-steppe region in the

rain shadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from water bodies (such as oceans and large lakes) is carrie ...

of the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. As such, its climate is characterized by low precipitation and extreme temperatures. While this was once an important salmon habitat, no salmon were observed to be spawning around the island as recently as 1999. Up to 81% of the area around the island seems conducive to spawning salmon.

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

were also once abundant on Locke Island, with 129 nests having been counted on the island in 1957.

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans'') is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecologica ...

s have limited the goose population in recent years so that numbers of successful nests have been kept to less than ten per year for several decades. The coyote population on Locke Island is unique among other islands in the Hanford Reach in that coyotes reside on the island rather than just being visitors. The island also supports deer and eagles. Flora on the island are similar to other regions of

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanfor ...

and consist primarily of native grasses and short shrubs like

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

. This vegetation provides habitat for animals living on the island and is threatened by

invasive species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

References