Human Access Project

Poet's Beach (pictured in 2020) was officially recognized in 2017

Audrey McCall Beach (pictured in 2020) was officially recognized in 2019

The Kevin Duckworth Memorial Dock debuted as a non-motorized swimming and fishing dock in 2020

In 2012, the organization spearheaded a plan to ask Portland Parks & Recreation to designate an official city beach at the southern end of Tom McCall Waterfront Park. HAP also organized a cleanup of Tom McCall Bowl Beach called "Unrock the Bowl", where volunteers lugged riprap stones from along the water line back up into the park.[31][32] The group successfully lobbied the city to add "swim at your own risk" signs to Tom McCall Bowl Beach in 2013. In 2014, HAP paid for larger signs to be created and installed at Tom McCall Bowl Beach and what would become Poet's Beach.[33]

In 2015, mayor Charlie Hales set aside $300,000 in the city's budget to study ways to boost river access, as a result of lobbying from HAP.[34] HAP also added a swim ladder to the Portland Fire and Rescue Station 21 Dock, effectively creating a new recreational access point to the river.[35] With the addition of a swim ladder the "Fire House" Dock became launching point of the River Hugger Swim Team.[36]

In 2017, HAP partnered with Portland Parks & Recreation to open the city's first officially recognized public swimming beach, Poet's Beach.[37] Additionally, HAP began work to mitigate a harmful cyanobacterial bloom that has become a regular occurrence in the summer inside the Ross Island Lagoon, in partnership with Oregon State University.[38][39][40] HAP also commissioned a dock swim study by landscape architectural firm M.I.G. to reimagine the Kevin Duckworth Memorial Dock as a non-motorized swimming and fishing dock.[41]

On July 5, 2019, HAP partnered with Portland Parks & Recreation to open Audrey McCall Beach as the city's second officially recognized public beach.[42] In 2020, HAP was successful in converting the use of the Duckworth Memorial Dock from motorized to non-motorized and implementing improvements including the addition of eight swimming ladders and bicycle parking racks.[43][44] In 2021, the group led an effort to remove 25 tons of concrete and rubble from the river's edge of Cathedral Park with help from partners and volunteers.[45] HAP and the landscape architecture firm GreenWorks P.C. also developed a concept for a park and ramp design in connection with the proposed Burnside Bridge replacement. On November 21, 2021, Portland City Council voted to further investigate this concept by spending $20,000 to do cost analysis and feasibility of adding a park and ramp to the bridge.[46][47][48][49][50]

In 2022, HAP and Portland Parks & Recreation designated six safer swimming areas on the Willamette River: Audrey McCall Beach, Cathedral Park Beach, Kevin Duckworth Memorial Dock, Poet's Beach, Sellwood Riverfront Park Beach, and Tom McCall Bowl Beach.[51][52][53]

In 2023 U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley championed $100,00 of funding for HAP for Ross Island Lagoon harmful cybobacteria bloom research through the United States Senate.[54] That year HAP also partnered with Green Anchors, other partner organizations and 200+ volunteers to remove 100 tons of concrete and rock from the south end of Cathedral Park Beach.[55] That year HAP also continued their work from 2012 at Tom McCall Bowl Beach "Unrocking the Bowl", where 100 volunteers lugged 20 tons of riprap stones from along the water line back up into the park and improved two trails to the river.[56][57]

In 2016, incumbent Portland mayor Ted Wheeler swam his ballot across the Willamette River with the River Hugger Swim Team,[58] and later joined HAP for the first annual Mayoral Swim.[59]

The group held the first annual The Big Float in 2011.[60] Over 25,000 participated over the ten years of the event.[61][62] The intent of the event was to demonstrate to the community that the Willamette River is swimmable. The event was described by the organization's Ringleader as "a movement disguised as a party".[63] The organization produced the last event in 2022 roughly 5,000 people attended.[64]

The first Mayoral Swim, 2016

As a way to lead by example and demonstrate to the people of Portland that the Willamette River is safe for swimming and recreation from a human health perspective, HAP organized an annual Mayoral Swim with Wheeler.[65] The first and second events were held on August 18, 2016, and July 27, 2017, respectively.[66] The event happened again in 2018[67] and 2019.[68]

The first Valentine's Dip, 2018

HAP had its first Valentine's Dip in February 2018. Twenty-five people braved 45 degree water to take their version of the "polar bear" plunge into the river. The event drew attention to the fact that people can swim in the Willamette River, even in the rainiest time of the year.[69] Approximately 60 people took the plunge in the second annual Valentine's Day Dip in February 2019. The event marked 110 consecutive days of no combined sewage overflows into the Willamette River.[70] Approximately 100 people took the plunge in the third annual Valentine's Dip in 2020. The event marked 180 days of combined sewage overflows into the Willamette River.[71] In 2022, HAP retired the Valentine's Dip to join forces with Special Olympics Oregon when they moved their annual Polar Plunge to the Willamette River from the Columbia River.[72]

The River Hugger Swim Team

Established in 2012,[73] the River Hugger Swim Team is an open water "recreational protest swim" bringing attention to the extreme deficit of water edge access in Portland.[74] The group's goal is to swim together as a pod and create awareness to commuters and people utilizing the Eastbank Esplanade that it is safe to swim in the Willamette River.[75] In 2018, Wheeler joined nearly 40 swimmers to kick off the HAP's swim season for its River Hugger team.[76][77] In early mornings, they swim across the river. In the afternoons, when river traffic is heavier, they swim from the Hawthorne Bridge to the Morrison Bridge and back, sometimes multiple times. Each length (bridge to bridge) is roughly one third of a mile.[78]