Thoughts on Northwave/new park launch

[tmayer_h2o]

[CUSalin]

[CUSalin]

[CGW2]

CGWA mails two newsletters per year to our members. The winter newsletter includes a financial wrap up for the year. You can review the 2008 information below.

If you'd like to see this information as it comes out, please help us improve Gorge windsurfing by becoming a member of the Columbia Gorge Windsurfing Association.

In addition to recieving information about upcoming events and issues, you'll also recieve a membership card that can save you money at local shops and even national ones (like Enterprise Rental Cars)!

Here are some of the projects membership donations have funded over the years:
- Building the Hook changing room and those nice new ramps around the Hook
- Creating Jensen beach
- Hosting windsurfing camps and clinics for local kids, including participants of Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and Betties 360
- Free supervised drop in sessions for kids inside the Hook (check it out tonight, from 5-7pm, inside the Hook! All the gear is provided, just drop off your kid to meet fellow youth windsurfers and have fun!)
- Working with regional entities to build & maintain Rowena, Viento, the Event Site, Doug's Beach, the Hatchery

CGWA opened its doors in 1987, when windsurfers were relatively new to the Gorge and needed a united voice to represent their need for beaches. Many of the beaches in the Gorge would not have been built had it not been for some of the original CGWA Board members who put in time and labor, both testifying to regional government groups and digging out holes for bathrooms and parking lots. Most notably is Fred Noble, who even has a bathroom named after him at Viento for all the time he's put into Gorge windsurfing and CGWA.

Thank you to Fred, all past and current Board members and staff, and to all the members who have allowed CGWA to thrive for so many years! While the possibility of developing new launch sites in the Gorge is somewhat limited due to other cultural, natural, and economic restrictions, we keep this door open by maintaining positive relationships with regional partners. And in the meantime, we work to improve the existing beaches and build the youth windsurfing community in the Gorge.

Chances are, if you windsurf in the Gorge you've benefited from CGWA's services. If you'd like to make a donation or join our membership, click here.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly, either through an iwindsurf pm or email cgwa@gorge.net, or come on by the office (202 Oak St, Suite 150).

Thanks! Have fun in the cool breeze today.

-Katie Crafts
Executive Director

P.S. If the picture below is hard to read, please email cgwa@gorge.net and I'll email you a picture directly.

[dghmiel]

I served on the Park Development Committee when we applied for the in-water permits. 3 things we did right:

We hired a landscape team that is familiar with state and federal permitting issues and designed the waterfront to enhance fish habitat -- cut the bank rather than extend out into the river, add plants etc.

Included hydro engineers who worked with the corps throughout the design process to get their buy in early.

Allowed enuf time for permit processing to get approvals for construction during the limited 3 month 'fish window' in the early spring.

The HR waterfront park project didn't cost a great deal for permitting because it was deemed habitat improvement as compared to the Event Site which required extensive off site mitigation as part of the permitting process.

It takes a while but it can be done


Christine Knowles

[scottwerden]

[ascott72]

I agree. I would love to see the funding go towards improving access at Lyle/Klickitat . That's just an on-going issue there. A crossing over the railroad tracks like they have at Doug's could be a solution. Alternatively, a path underneath the bridge.