Gail Achterman Wildlife Area

A force of nature permanently changed the fate of Hayden Island on the Willamette River. But that force of nature wasn’t a storm or flood; it was Gail Achterman, a conservation trailblazer, environmental lawyer, transportation expert, scholar, athlete, and outdoorswoman. Hayden Island, once slated to be logged and mined for gravel, is a rare 270 acres of wild, intact nature near Achterman’s childhood home of Salem, Oregon.

In a career spanning four decades, Achterman was the driving force behind some of Oregon’s bedrock environmental laws. She was still working to protect Willamette Valley forests and streams when she was diagnosed with cancer; she died in 2012 at age 62.

Gail’s friends and family worked with Trust for Public Land to carry on her conservation legacy, and in 2016, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife established the Gail Achterman Wildlife Area as a new public preserve on Hayden Island.

“Gail was brilliant, fearless, and wouldn’t take ‘no’ from anybody,” says her brother Chris Achterman. “She had a unique ability to walk into a room of people who were not prepared to agree with each other on anything—highway contractors on one side of the table, salmon habitat folks on the other—and walk out with a deal.”

The Gail Achterman Wildlife Area is a haven for wildlife and a peaceful spot for paddlers to beach their kayaks along the Willamette River Water Trail. The wildlife area designation protects a significant block of forest that hosts wetland and riverside habitats. According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, it has potential habitat for Chinook salmon and winter steelhead, western pond turtles, bald eagles, Cooper’s hawks, and great blue herons, among many other species.

Now conserved in public ownership by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Gail Achterman Wildlife Area is being restored by Willamette Riverkeeper, a nonprofit dedicated to the health of the Willamette River. This special refuge is a fitting memorial to Gail Achterman and her extraordinary contributions to conservation in Oregon.