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50-868: The river's headwaters are in Clackamas County , near the Table Rock Wilderness , in the Cascade Range . Flowing generally north-northwest from the mountains, the river enters the Willamette Valley and flows past the city of Molalla . It is joined by the Pudding River shortly before entering the Willamette near the city of Canby . The confluence is about 36 miles (58 km) from the Willamette's mouth on

100-406: A first-order tributary of that river. The tributary with the longest course downstream of the headwaters is regarded as the main stem . The United States Geological Survey (USGS) states that a river's "length may be considered to be the distance from the mouth to the most distant headwater source (irrespective of stream name), or from the mouth to the headwaters of the stream commonly known as

150-639: A state by state basis and determines which areas and how much land in each area will become part of the WPS. There have been multiple occasions in which Congress designated more federal land than had been recommended by the nominating agency. Where as the Wilderness Act stipulated that a wilderness area must be "administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such a manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness",

200-438: Is marshland . The furthest stream is also often called the head stream. Headwaters are often small streams with cool waters because of shade and recently melted ice or snow. They may also be glacial headwaters, waters formed by the melting of glacial ice . Headwater areas are the upstream areas of a watershed , as opposed to the outflow or discharge of a watershed. The river source is often but not always on or quite near

250-415: Is "in a location that is the farthest, along water miles, from where that river ends." Under this definition, neither a lake (excepting lakes with no inflows) nor a confluence of tributaries can be a true river source, though both often provide the starting point for the portion of a river carrying a single name. For example, National Geographic and virtually every other geographic authority and atlas define

300-795: Is coordinated by the National Wilderness Preservation System. Wilderness areas are managed by four federal land management agencies: the National Park Service , the U.S. Forest Service , the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service , and the Bureau of Land Management . The term wilderness is defined as "an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" and "an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which

350-574: Is customary to regard the longest tributary or stem as the source, regardless of what name that watercourse may carry on local maps and in local usage. This most commonly identified definition of a river source specifically uses the most distant point (along watercourses from the river mouth ) in the drainage basin from which water runs year-around ( perennially ), or, alternatively, as the furthest point from which water could possibly flow ephemerally . The latter definition includes sometimes-dry channels and removes any possible definitions that would have

400-549: Is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions". As of 2023 , 806 wilderness areas have been designated, totaling 111,889,002 acres (45,279,873 ha; 452,798.73 km ; 174,826.566 sq mi), which comprise about 4.5% of the land area of the United States . During the 1950s and 1960s, as the American transportation system was on the rise, concern for clean air and water quality began to grow. A conservation movement began to take place with

450-664: Is under federal ownership and management, (2) the area consists of at least five thousand acres of land, (3) human influence is "substantially unnoticeable," (4) there are opportunities for solitude and recreation, and (5) the area possesses "ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value." Wilderness areas are subject to specific management restrictions; human activities are limited to non-motorized recreation (such as backpacking , camping , hunting , fishing , horseback riding, etc.), scientific research , and other non-invasive activities. During these activities, patrons are asked to abide by

500-601: The Columbia River . The Molalla River is the largest free-flowing tributary of the Willamette. Named tributaries from source to mouth are Henry, Ogle , Mining Iron, Lake, Scorpion, Hay Barn, Minnette, Dungeon, Avalanche, and Bull creeks, followed by Table Rock Fork. Below that are Horse, Gawley, Cow, Bear, Shotgun, Pine, and Trout creeks followed by the North Fork Molalla River. Then come Russell, Cedar, Dickey, Woodcock, Milk, and Gribble creeks, then

550-591: The Eastern Wilderness Areas Act of 1975, which added 16 national forest areas to the NWPS, allowed for the inclusion of areas that had been severely modified by human interference. The Wilderness Act provides criteria for lands being considered for wilderness designation. Though there are some exceptions, the following conditions must be present for an area to be included in the NWPS: (1) the land

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600-623: The Leave No Trace policy. This policy sets guidelines for using the wilderness responsibly and leaving the area as it was before usage. These guidelines include: Packing all trash out of the wilderness, using a stove as opposed to a fire, camping at least 200 feet (61 m) from trails or water sources, staying on marked trails, and keeping group size small. When closely observed, the Leave No Trace ethos ensures that wilderness areas remain untainted by human interaction. In general,

650-582: The National Wilderness Preservation System in 1984, is 19 miles (31 km) southeast of Molalla along the headwaters of the river. Overseen by the Bureau of Land Management , it has four trailheads—Table Rock, Old Bridge, Rooster Rock, and Bull Creek—linked to a 16-mile (26 km) network of hiking and horse-riding trails. Whitewater enthusiasts sometimes run the upper reaches of the Molalla River as well as

700-664: The Pelican Island Wilderness in northern Florida , which measures just 6 acres (2.4 ha) total. The smallest area preserved in the system was formerly the Rocks and Islands Wilderness in Northern California at 5 acres (2.0 ha), but after a reassessment by the Bureau of Land Management in 2006 it was officially expanded to 19 acres (7.7 ha). On November 7, 2009, an agreement between

750-857: The Forest Service's Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE) process. The Bureau of Land Management was not required to review its lands for inclusion in the NWPS until after October 21, 1976, when the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 was signed into law; designation of wilderness areas on BLM lands began in 1978. Over 200 wilderness areas have been created within Bureau of Land Management administered lands since then, consisting of approximately 8.71 million acres (3,520,000 ha) in September 2015. As of August 2008, 704 separate wilderness areas, encompassing 107,514,938 acres (43,509,752 ha), had become part of

800-470: The Molalla, Pudding, and Willamette rivers converge, 2 miles (3 km) north of Canby. Used mainly for recreation by local residents, its attractions include fishing, boating, water-skiing, picnicking, and wildlife viewing. It has a 0.75-mile (1.21 km) nature trail, restrooms, a boat launch, and an area for flying radio-controlled aircraft . Among its features is a rookery for great blue herons , among

850-445: The Molalla. Headwaters The headwater of a river or stream is the point on each of its tributaries upstream from its mouth / estuary into a lake / sea or its confluence with another river. Each headwater is considered one of the river's sources , as it is the place where surface runoffs from rainwater , meltwater and/or spring water begin accumulating into a more substantial and consistent flow that becomes

900-521: The NWPS included 34 areas protecting 9.1 million acres (37,000 km ) in the national forests. As of 2023, there are 806 areas in the NWPS, preserving 111,889,002 acres (45,279,873 ha). This is approximately 4.5% of the entire United States , though only about 2.7% of the 48 contiguous states. However, most of that acreage is located in a handful of states. The states with the highest number of wildernesses are California , Arizona , Nevada , Alaska , and Oregon . However, when measured in acres

950-747: The NWPS, much of the wildlife in the U.S. also has an area in which to exist without significant human interaction. In late 2011, a full wilderness review was requested of the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain in Alaska. One of the major qualifications for this area to be considered as a possible wilderness area was its diverse wildlife population, many of which are on the endangered species list. In this potential wilderness area alone, whales , seals , wolves , polar bears , grizzly bears , muskoxen , caribou , and over 200 species of migratory birds call this one area home for at least part of

1000-579: The National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service review all federal lands under their jurisdiction for wilderness areas to include in the NWPS. The first national forest wilderness areas were established by the Wilderness Act itself. The Great Swamp in New Jersey became the first National Wildlife Refuge with formally designated wilderness in 1968. Wilderness areas in national parks followed, beginning with

1050-627: The National Wilderness Preservation System. On March 30, 2009, President Barack Obama signed into law the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 . The legislation designated an additional 2 million acres (810,000 ha) in nine states as wilderness, representing the largest expansion of wilderness lands since 1994. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act of 2019 added another 1.3 million acres (530,000 ha) in 43 new and expanded wilderness areas. On federal lands in

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1100-539: The Pudding River. The average discharge of the river at the mouth is 2,377 cubic feet per second (67.3 m/s). Above the confluence with the Pudding River, the average discharge is 1,142 cubic feet per second (32.3 m/s), about half of the flow at the mouth. During the early 19th century, the area around the river was populated by the Molala people. During that time, an extensive system of trails along

1150-464: The United States, Congress may designate an area as wilderness under the provisions of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Multiple agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management , the National Park Service , the Fish and Wildlife Service , and the U.S. Forest Service , are responsible for the submission of new areas that fit the criteria to become wilderness to Congress. Congress then reviews these cases on

1200-532: The United States, Canada, and Mexico entitled the "Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation for Wilderness Conservation" was made. This agreement created a new entity, the North American Intergovernmental Committee on Cooperation for Wilderness and Protected Areas Conservation, that would streamline the process for open communication between international agencies for the purpose of wilderness preservation. This committee

1250-579: The confluence of the Madison and Jefferson rivers, rather than the source of its longest tributary (the Jefferson). This contradicts the most common definition, which is, according to a US Army Corps of Engineers official on a USGS site, that "[geographers] generally follow the longest tributary to identify the source of rivers and streams." In the case of the Missouri River, this would have

1300-666: The designation of wilderness in part of Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho in 1970. A dramatic spike in acreage added to the wilderness system in 1980 was due in large part to the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act , signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. A smaller spike in 1984 came with the passage of many bills establishing national forest wilderness areas identified by

1350-708: The edge of the watershed, or watershed divide. For example, the source of the Colorado River is at the Continental Divide separating the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean watersheds of North America . A river is considered a linear geographic feature, with only one mouth and one source. For an example, the Mississippi River and Missouri River sources are officially defined as follows: The verb "rise" can be used to express

1400-546: The first half of the run. Below that come 6 miles (10 km) of class I (beginner) water from Freyer Park to the Oregon 213 Bridge. The river supports populations of smallmouth bass near the confluence with the Willamette River and of wild cutthroat trout in the upper reaches and tributaries. Trout fishing is limited to catch and release as is angling for wild steelhead or Chinook salmon , which also frequent

1450-536: The future of both the U.S. system and North American preservation efforts as a whole. One of the major goals of the Wilderness Preservation System is to provide undeveloped habitats for threatened or endangered species . Many of the species found in the United States are represented in wilderness areas. There are 261 basic ecosystems in the U.S., and 157 of them are represented in the system. With 60% of all ecosystems somewhat protected by

1500-503: The general region of a river's source, and is often qualified with an adverbial expression of place. For example: The word "source", when applied to lakes rather than rivers or streams, refers to the lake's inflow . National Wilderness Preservation System The National Wilderness Preservation System ( NWPS ) of the United States protects federally managed wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. Activity on formally designated wilderness areas

1550-441: The influx continued, and by 1860 there were 75 households in the Molalla area. Wheat was the most common crop, and these early settlers also cultivated potatoes and root vegetables such as turnips and cabbages, and planted apple trees. They fished, hunted, gathered huckleberries, and kept sheep, cows, pigs and chickens. Gold mining occurred along the Molalla after the discovery of placer gold in 1860. Many claims were filed during

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1600-411: The intent of establishing designated wilderness areas. Howard Zahniser created the first draft of the Wilderness Act in 1956. It took nine years and 65 rewrites before the Wilderness Act was finally passed in 1964. The Wilderness Act of 1964 (Public Law 88-577), which established the NWPS, was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964. The Wilderness Act mandated that

1650-650: The largest amount of wilderness land is administered by the National Park Service. The largest contiguous wilderness complex in the United States is the Noatak and Gates of the Arctic Wildernesses in Alaska at 12,743,329 acres (5,157,042 ha). The largest wilderness area outside Alaska is the Death Valley Wilderness in southeastern California. The smallest area protected by the WPS is

1700-492: The largest in the Willamette Valley. Feyrer Park, a county park, is along the river 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Molalla at Dickey Prairie. It has 20 sites for camping in tents or recreational vehicles (RV)s, all supplied with water and electric hook-ups. Other amenities include picnic tables, horseshoe pits, and access to fishing. Table Rock Wilderness, 6,028 acres (2,439 ha) of rugged forest land added to

1750-438: The law prohibits logging , mining , motorized or mechanized vehicles (including bicycles ), road-building, and other forms of development in wilderness areas, though pre-existing mining claims and grazing ranges are permitted through grandfather clauses in the Wilderness Act. Wilderness areas fall into IUCN protected area management category Ia (strict nature preserves) or Ib (wilderness areas). A special exemption to

1800-572: The list changes dramatically, as Alaska contains many of the largest areas protected under the act. In terms of total acres, Alaska , California , Arizona , Idaho , and Washington are the top five states for wilderness, containing almost 80 percent of the acreage in the system. Wilderness totals in most eastern states are modest, with the exceptions of Florida and Minnesota . Wilderness areas exist in every state except Connecticut , Delaware , Iowa , Kansas , Maryland , and Rhode Island . Most U.S. wilderness areas are in national forests, but

1850-504: The lower. Under certain conditions, the 5.1-mile (8.2 km) stretch from Copper Creek to Table Rock Fork can be navigated by boaters capable of handling technical class III (intermediate) to IV (advanced) water on the International Scale of River Difficulty . Below that comes a stretch, about 5 miles (8 km) long, of class III to III+ water. Hazards on these upper miles may include narrow chutes, sudden drops, and logs in

1900-520: The next 40 years. Four mining companies, of which the Ogle Mountain Mining Company was the biggest, had operations in the watershed by the early 20th century. The company operated a mine along Ogle Creek, a Molalla tributary, between 1903 and 1915. In the 20th century, the watershed became an area of intense logging . Timber companies built forest roads and a spur railroad, set up timber camps, constructed splash dams , and used

1950-577: The river allowed trade between the peoples of the Willamette Valley and eastern Oregon. As late as the 1920s, the trails were used by Native Americans from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation to reach huckleberry -picking grounds near Table Rock. Starting in about 1840, European-American settlers began farming in the bottomlands along the lower Molalla. Spurred by passage of the Donation Land Claim Act ,

2000-473: The river and Milk Creek for transporting logs. Between 1941 and 1945, hundreds of log trucks passed through Molalla every day. Download coordinates as: This is a list of bridges and other crossings of the Molalla River from its confluence with the Willamette River upstream to its source in the Cascade Range. Knight's Bridge was a wooden covered bridge built in 1877 over the Molalla River on

2050-641: The river changes names numerous times along its course. However, the source of the Thames in England is traditionally reckoned according to the named river Thames rather than its longer tributary, the Churn — although not without contention. When not listing river lengths, however, alternative definitions may be used. The Missouri River's source is named by some USGS and other federal and state agency sources, following Lewis and Clark 's naming convention, as

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2100-620: The river source "move around" from month to month depending on precipitation or ground water levels. This definition, from geographer Andrew Johnston of the Smithsonian Institution , is also used by the National Geographic Society when pinpointing the source of rivers such as the Amazon or Nile . A definition given by the state of Montana agrees, stating that a river source is never a confluence but

2150-480: The rule against mechanized equipment is made for wilderness areas in Alaska : limited use of motorized vehicles and construction of cabins and aquaculture are permitted. These exemptions were allowed due to the large amount of wilderness in Alaska and the concerns of subsistence users, including Alaska Natives . Wilderness areas are parts of national parks , wildlife refuges , national forests , and BLM lands; some units are managed by different agencies. Initially,

2200-603: The source be well upstream from Lewis and Clark's confluence, "following the Jefferson River to the Beaverhead River to Red Rock River , then Red Rock Creek to Hell Roaring Creek ." Sometimes the source of the most remote tributary may be in an area that is more marsh -like, in which the "uppermost" or most remote section of the marsh would be the true source. For example, the source of the River Tees

2250-639: The source of the Nile River not as Lake Victoria 's outlet where the name "Nile" first appears, which would reduce the Nile's length by over 900 km (560 mi) (dropping it to fourth or fifth on the list of world's rivers), but instead use the source of the largest river flowing into the lake, the Kagera River . Likewise, the source of the Amazon River has been determined this way, even though

2300-571: The source stream". As an example of the second definition above, the USGS at times considers the Missouri River as a tributary of the Mississippi River . But it also follows the first definition above (along with virtually all other geographic authorities and publications) in using the combined Missouri—lower Mississippi length figure in lists of lengths of rivers around the world. Most rivers have numerous tributaries and change names often; it

2350-429: The water. The next 8 miles (13 km), Turner Bridge to Glen Avon Bridge, are rated technical class III to IV with hazards similar to the upper reaches but also including scouting difficulties as well as a dangerous undercut at a rapids called Goldilocks. The lower reaches are much gentler. The 6-mile (10 km) run from Glen Avon Bridge to Freyer Park is rated class II (novice). Here the most difficult rapids occur in

2400-475: The western city limit of Canby. The bridge was destroyed in 1947. In 1964, a steel bridge with a concrete deck replaced the former crossing. It is 344 feet (104.9 m) long with a deck width of 31 feet (9.5 m) and carries Knight's Bridge Road, a two-lane thoroughfare, over the river. Molalla River State Park is a 567-acre (229 ha) day-use area, part of the Willamette Greenway , where

2450-524: The year. This vast assortment of flora and fauna is a major consideration for addition into the wilderness preservation system. Thousands of laws and policies have helped shape and manage the National Wilderness Preservation System in the United States. The following Acts of Congress either directly affect the wilderness system or help influence wilderness management: Some state and tribal governments also designate wilderness areas under their own authority and local laws. These are not federal areas, and

2500-403: Was formed to gain insight on the benefits of wilderness preservation, establish open channels of communication between international agencies, and examine the cultural differences and similarities behind preservation efforts in each country. Within the U.S. system, all of the agencies responsible for wilderness preservation will work in cooperation with their international counterparts to determine

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