A former gravel mine near Ridgefield will now undergo environmental rehabilitation after it was recently acquired by Clark County.
The real estate transaction for the Ridgefield Pits, situated along the East Fork Lewis River, was finalized on July 27, following five years of negotiations and due diligence between Clark County and Cemex International, a news release by the county stated. The acquisition of the 124.86-acre property cost $625,000, the release added.
With the acquisition, the county plans to rehabilitate the natural land, help lamprey residing in the pits reach the East Fork Lewis River and reduce erosion and future flood risk to nearby properties.
“By purchasing the Ridgefield Pits property, the county has unlocked over $20 million in state and federal grants to make the East Fork Lewis River Reconnection Project a reality,” Elaine Placido, executive director for Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership, said in the release. “We commend Clark County leaders for their vision of a restored river that supports robust salmon and steelhead runs while reducing flood and erosion risks to homes and businesses.”
The former mine was filled by water when the East Fork Lewis River flooded, creating an irregular flow in the pits that has affected the local ecosystem. The land is central to the $20 million habitat restoration project.
The nonprofit Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership in 2025 will restore the land to its natural state as part of the East Fork Lewis River Reconnection Project.
“This real estate acquisition fulfills a key objective of the Legacy Lands program, which identifies critical habitats for conservation, public access and recreation,” said Denielle Cowley, lands coordinator for Clark County Public Works, in the release. “The Ridgefield Pits is a vital component of Clark County’s vision for a greenway trail along the East Fork Lewis River.”
Foreign and invasive species have taken hold among the area’s plant life, which the county and partners plan to tackle in the project. Nonnative species on the site include Japanese knotweed, butterfly bush, Himalayan blackberries and reed canarygrass, the latter of which becomes a sort of monoculture where it grows, Cowley said during a tour of the site in July of 2023.
The release added that historic maps from the 1850s depict this stretch of the East Fork Lewis River as a “complex, multi-channel river with extensive floodplain habitat, wetlands, alcoves and side channels.” Gravel mining in the early 20th century confined the river to a single channel. During the “500-year flood event” in 1995-96, the artificially constructed single channel broke through the river’s south bank into the nine abandoned gravel pits known as the Ridgefield Pits. The river continues to flow through these gravel pits, causing significant water quality issues as well as the proliferation of non-native plants and creating habitat for fish that prey on juvenile salmon. Additionally, this stretch of the river often forms a temperature barrier for migrating salmon and steelhead, delaying their upriver travel to spawn and potentially lowering spawning rates, impacting future generations of these fish as a result, according to the release.
For more information on the county’s Legacy Lands program, visit the county’s website at clark.wa.gov/public-works/legacy-lands-program. Information on Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership is available at estu arypartnership.org/.
