A real estate company that owns property along the Columbia Slough in Northeast Portland is facing $61,000 in fines from the city of Portland after the city says it repeatedly failed to correct code violations after removing 14 trees along the bank of the slough.
The trees in questions included black locusts, cottonwoods and ash trees, and the city in documents obtained by WW explained that the trees not only were removed in violation of city tree and environmental zoning codes, but were also part of the slough’s riparian zone—or the greenery that lies on the bed of a river that’s critical to maintaining the delicate ecosystem.
The Columbia Slough is a channel of water that flows—very slowly—westward for 19 miles parallel to the Columbia River through North and Northeast Portland…