After the Willamette Falls Trust leaders persuaded Oregon Governor Tina Kotek that they would use the funds effectively, the governor indicated yesterday that she won’t veto the $45 million award to the trust for a project to expand public access at the iconic waterfall, despite the intense intertribal conflict around the site.

Willamette Falls Trust Project To Go Ahead

Lawmakers included an award to the Willamette Falls Trust, a nonprofit led by former Gov. Kate Brown that has among its members four tribes with ancestral ties to the falls, in the final days of this year’s legislative session.

The award will help the nonprofit purchase dozens of acres of land near Willamette Falls.

The site has been hotly debated. The Grand Ronde Tribe, which is not a member of the Willamette Falls Tru

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