Columbia County
Columbia County of Oregon is located in the northwest portion of the state, bordered by Washington State and the Columbia River on the north and east. It has a total land mass of 420,301 acres (657 sq. miles) with an additional 32 sq. miles of water, primarily the Columbia River. Columbia County has over 62 miles of Columbia River shoreline, the most in the state. The elevations range from sea level near the river to 2240 ft at Buck Mountain in the Coastal Range Mountains. Precipitation ranges from 40 inches near Scappoose to more than 100 inches in the interior Coastal Range.
Columbia County is divided by the Coastal Range into two major watersheds, the Lower Columbia River Watershed and the Upper Nehalem River Watershed which flows west to the Pacific Ocean.
94% of Columbia County is private land. The remaining 6% is federal and state lands. 77% is forestland with some of the most productive Douglas-fir forests in the world. The remaining 23% includes urban/residential, industrial, pasture, cropland and wildlife lands
The NRCS office, located in St. Helens, provides voluntary conservation planning and program assistance to private land operators interested in conservation improvements.
Current Financial Assistance Opportunities for Farmers, Ranchers and Forest Owners in Columbia County
The following Conservation Implementation Strategies are available to help Columbia County agricultural producers address targeted resource concerns identified in the Long Range Plan. Click the project names below for more information:
- Columbia Corridor Soil Health
- Climate-Focused Sustainable Livestock Production in Oregon
- Forest Management Planning
- Forest Resiliency in the Face of Climate Change
- Lower Willamette North Coast Animal Feeding Operations
- Soil Health Restoration and Management North Coast/Lower Willamette Basin
Additional Funding Opportunities...
In addition to the local projects above, producers may also apply for statewide programs such as the Conservation Stewardship Program, the Organic Initiative, Seasonal High Tunnel Initiative, On-Farm Energy Initiative, and conservation easement programs. Visit with your local District Conservationist for more information on these and other programs, or visit the NRCS Programs webpage.
Local Work Group Meetings
Every year, NRCS hosts a Local Work Group meeting where farmers, landowners, conservation partners and other members of the community discuss the natural resource needs for the county. Based on feedback from those meetings, NRCS updates the county's Long Range Plan and develops new Conservation Implementation Strategies to address those resource concerns. You may contact us anytime to express concerns or comments about conservation needs in the county, and we encourage you to attend the next Local Work Group meeting in your county. For more information about Local Work Group meetings, contact your local NRCS office.