He’d undergone open-heart surgery eight months earlier. Hiking along the river’s edge helped him recover.

He watched as the water stretched on forever.

“I made a promise that at some point I would do something to honor the Columbia and thank the river for its role in helping me heal,” Marbach recalls. “So I said, ‘Someday I’m going to do something.’ But that someday took a long time.”

It took him more than 10 years to “do something big” and finish his book Healing The Big River: Salmon Dreams and the Columbia River Treaty. In that time, he’s traversed the Columbia, from its headwaters in British Columbia …

Peter Marbach has been photographing his favorite subject for decades – the Columbia River Gorge. Now he has expanded his work with a new book, Healing the Big River. This project traces the 1200 miles of the mighty Columbia from its headwaters in British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria. Hear the podcast.

From its headwaters in Canada to its estuary at the Pacific, the Columbia River is central to the cultural history and day-to-day life of many tribal and First Nations communities. Dr. Michel of the Upper Columbia United Tribes joins us to discuss what the river and its resources mean to tribes today. We also speak with Oregon landscape photographer Peter Marbach, who’ll be joining Michel and others to present his photo series on the Columbia River at a show and panel discussion tonight in Hood River.