09/07/2026
🚢 Meet the USAV Yaquina: The Little Dredge Rebuilding Sauvie Island’s Ecosystems! 🌾🐢
Ever wonder how the shipping lanes around Sauvie Island stay deep enough for massive cargo ships, while the island's beaches and wetlands remain so vibrant? Meet the USAV Yaquina, a 200-foot trailing suction hopper dredge operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Because the Columbia River naturally slows down and drops massive amounts of sediment as it curves around Sauvie Island, the shipping channels constantly risk filling with sand. That’s where the Yaquina comes in, and its relationship with the island is a perfect example of engineering meeting environmental restoration.
Here are a few fascinating facts about how this powerhouse ship impacts Sauvie Island:
The Ultimate Underwater Vacuum: The Yaquina lowers two massive 20-inch "drag arm" suction pipes to the riverbed, vacuuming up 1,042 cubic yards of sand and silt in just 45 minutes! That's equivalent to about 100 dump trucks of material in under an hour.
Building a "Mow" Job on Sandbars: Unlike giant dredges that stay out in the deepest ocean channels, the Yaquina's compact size allows it to sneak into the shallower waters immediately surrounding Sauvie Island to "mow down" shifting sandbars before they block local river traffic.
Wetlands (Beneficial Use): Instead of just discarding the sand far out at sea, much of the clean sediment the Yaquina pulls from the river has historically been used for habitat restoration right off the island's shores. At projects like Willow Bar, channels were carved right through historical dredge sand to reconnect isolated freshwater wetlands back to the main stem of the Columbia River, restoring fish and tidal access to floodplain habitats.
The next time you're picking berries, birdwatching at the wildlife area, or relaxing on the sandy beaches of Sauvie Island keep an eye on the river, you might spot the Yaquina hard at work keeping the Pacific Northwest moving! 🌊
PacificNorthwest EcosystemRestoration
