Talk:Willamette Valley

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[edit] Extent of valley?

Hello. This is a very nice article! I grew up in Salem and later lived in Portland, but I'm not familiar with the notion that the valley ends at Oregon City. Do we have some references to substantiate that? Happy editing, 128.138.86.139 16:35, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)

I'm also puzzled about this distinction, unless it is based on the perception that the upper Willamette Valley must needs be distinct from both the Tualatin Valley & Portland. -- llywrch 23:05, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Me too. I say we change it. (Willamette U. class of '88) -- Decumanus | Talk 23:45, 4 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Done. Note: while Multnomah county is clearly drains into the Columbia River, not all of it drains by way of the Willamette river, such as the land my house sits on. -- llywrch 17:32, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Just for fun, I'm guessing you mean the Sandy? -- Decumanus | Talk 18:41, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)
No, my property more or less directly drains into the Columbia (there are a number of sloughs between my house & that river). Remember, if you look at a map of the catchment for any river, you'll see how it narrows as it approaches the mouth/confluence of that river. But I forgot about the Sandy -- which is another good point. -- llywrch 23:12, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Most productive agricultural area?

FYI that assertion seems to stem from the original script conversion. I'm sure almost everyone who has grown up here has heard and believes this. I'm sure it's true, but where are the sources? Here are a couple we can use to provide refs for the article.

Here is a very recent and (what I would consider) reliable citation from the Oregon Department of Agriculture about caneberries (actually uses the phrase "one of the most productive areas of the world"): [1]

Here is another good resource from ODA: [2]

I'll keep looking. Perhaps we can ask someone at OSU. I'm not having the best luck googling for the info. And BTW, no article about the Willamette Valley is complete without a mention of hops (Willamette hops are mentioned in the Hops article). Katr67 03:57, 28 June 2006 (UTC)


Wow! This is a hard subject to research. 99% of the articles relate to a comparison of soil fertility among parts of small regions, for example Arkansas or Uganda. Here is one that approaches the right sort of information, but it's only for the U.S. and it regards each state as a single unit:

This is a grossly simplified world survey which, for example, treats the U.S. as a single unit:

I read many articles hoping to find clues of what or how to look for the right information. It seems to be a politically charged topic. Some groups are saying strong government measures must be taken to improve soil. Others are saying "here are our accomplishments." Neither camp would seem to be a source of objective rational data. Of the few articles which thoroughly evaluate soil fertility, they are typically soil science thesis work for a particular plot of land in farm country, often experiments with fertilizers. — EncMstr 21:43, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Photo request

I moved the {{reqphoto}} tag to the top. What kind of photos would you like to see? There are lots of photos of various locations around the valley that could be added to the article. And be sure to check out what's available in commons. Katr67 20:11, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

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