In 2016, the Gorge faced numerous challenges and opportunities. The following is an overview of the advocacy, conservation, and legal accomplishments of Friends of the Columbia Gorge and its allies in 2016 - work that could not happen without the support and engagement of our members and volunteers.   

With numerous threats to the Gorge still on the table and a newly challenging political climate, the Gorge will need more friends than ever in 2017. If you are not a Friends member, we invite you to join today. If you are a member, please consider making an additional end-of-year gift. Thank you for your continued support for the Gorge! 
 

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January

• With a coalition of groups including Friends intervening in the permit process, the developer of the controversial Troutdale Energy Center, a gas power plant proposed at a site at the western boundary of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, abandons the project.
• The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) public review period for Tesoro Savage's proposed oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver ends late in the month. Friends and allies work to help generate a record 289,000-plus comments submitted to the Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC), with the overwhelming majority opposing the project. Approximately 2,000 people attend three public hearings (two in Clark County, WA, one in Spokane), also with a large majority in opposition. Further hearings are held later in 2016 (read Friends and allies' final adjudication brief). Sometime early in 2017, EFSEC will issue a final EIS along with a recommendation to the Washington Governor to either approve or deny the project. 

March

• Friends member Laura O. Foster publishes Columbia Gorge Getaways: 12 Weekend Adventures from Towns to Trails. Created in conjunction with our Gorge Towns to Trails project, the book brings Friends' vision to life and becomes a popular must-read for Gorge enthusiasts.

May

• The Gorge Tourism Studio planning process concludes and “bringing Gorge Towns to Trails to life” becomes a top priority of soon-to-be created Gorge Tourism Alliance.
• The Power Past Coal coalition, of which Friends is a member, claims a huge victory. The Army Corps of Engineers, citing Lummi Nation treaty rights, denies a needed permit for a new coal export terminal at Cherry Point, WA, effectively ending a project that would have shipped an additional 48 million tons of coal through the Columbia Gorge each year.
• In response to Nestlé's plans to open a bottled-water facility in Cascade Locks, OR, using springwater from Herman Creek, Hood River County voters approve ban on new commercial bottled-water facilities. Friends was among the groups arguing the transfer of water rights that would enable the project was not in the public's interest.
• The first public hearing is held on the Draft Environmental Impact Study for the only remaining coal export proposal in Washington, the Millennium terminal in Longview. Most of the thousand-plus in attendance and giving testimony to Washington Department of Ecology regulators are opponents of the terminal, which would handle for shipment to Asia 44 million tons of coal annually, all of it arriving on open-top coal trains that pass through the Columbia Gorge. (The public comment period for the federal review of the proposal, by the Army Corps of Engineers, is conducted in the fall.)

June

• After lobbying by Friends and allies in the wake of the an oil train derailment and fire on the Union Pacific railroad in the Gorge town of Mosier, OR, on June 3, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee publicly calls for a moratorium on oil shipments on Union Pacific lines in Washington. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and most of the Oregon and Washington congressional delegations soon follow with similar calls.

September

• Friends and Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) team up to support a U.S. Forest Service acquisition of land stretching one-mile along the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. The trail ran along a ten-foot easement and the acquisition protects against future mining and logging. Friends and PCTA gathered letters of support from over 30 local businesses touting the value outdoor recreation has on the local economy.
• The result of a productive partnership between the Port of Camas-Washougal, Friends, and other community stakeholders, the Washougal Waterfront park and trail, promoted as the gateway to Gorge Towns to Trails, is dedicated in a ceremony featuring remarks by Friends' Renee Tkach. 

October

• Shell withdraws its controversial proposal to expand its oil refinery at Anacortes, WA. The expansion, which was opposed by a coalition of advocacy groups including Friends, would have resulted in an additional 60,000 barrels a day of crude oil being shipped by rail through the Columbia Gorge.
• The Morrow Pacific coal export project, which would have resulted in an additional eight million tons of coal annually shipped on open-top barges on the Columbia River from the Port of Morrow, formally ends as the project applicant withdraws the proposal.  

November 

• In an unexpected decision, the Wasco County Board of Commissioners, citing Yakama Nation treaty rights, votes unanimously to deny Union Pacific's application to add an additional rail line through Mosier. Friends was among the groups that had appealed the Wasco County Planning Commission's earlier vote to approve the rail expansion project. (The Board of Commissioners' decision is pending appeal in front of the Gorge Commission.) 
• Friends and allies reach a settlement with rail shipper Burlington Northern (BNSF) in a lawsuit alleging violations of the Clean Water Act from coal dust blow-off from trains traveling along and over Columbia Gorge waterways. 
• On Nov. 17, Friends and Columbia Gorge lovers everywhere celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act being signed into law, an event that fulfilled Friends and allies' original objective: federal protection for the Columbia Gorge.