The Estuary plays host to a plethora of species of marine and terrestrial flora and fauna, and multiple conservation organisations exist that maintain the area.

[1][2] The Columbia River (Chinookan: hayásh-tsəqʷ, meaning “great water”)[3] was a bustling hub of trade for Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest for centuries.

[4][5] Today, the traditional owners and first people of the Columbia River Estuary are the Chinook Native Americans, who occupied a large stretch of the Northern shore.

Wishpoosh and Speelyei fought on, until the new lake extended West all the way to the junction of the Yakima, Snake and Columbia Rivers, which had for a long time been dammed by the Umatilla Highlands.

The fighting did not cease, and ultimately, the enormous Cascade Mountains were breached, and the water that had accumulated raced to the sea, creating the Columbia River Estuary.

Thus the “Great Water” assumed the flow that it follows today, and Speelyei finally killed Wishpoosh out in the open ocean; his body washed up south of the Estuary.

[8] After colonisation, the Chinookans signed a treaty with Anson Dart in 1851 to grant their people the right to stay on their traditional lands at the Estuary rather than be moved to a reservation east of the Cascade Range.

[11] In 1788 a fur trader named John Meares came within kilometres of discovering the Estuary; however, his ship could not navigate the rough breakers at the bar, and he ended up deciding that there was not a river behind it at all.

Despite hosting a myriad of life, in the modern era the Estuary has been subject to major changes due to human impact, such that it has undergone many physical changes regarding both the land and water in and around it.

Though beneficial for marine fauna, this project was significant as large quantities of invasive plants were removed and replaced by local vegetation that currently supports an abundance of animals that live in the land around the estuary.