An Entry Grove and sculptural Welcome Gate are on the river side of the Land Bridge, as if to welcome visitors arriving by canoe. Native hardwood trees represent the original riparian (riverside) forest. The Entry Grove is the first of four native ecosystems planted in a continuum from one side of the Land Bridge to the other.

Two cedar logs topped with two crossed cedar canoe paddles form the Welcome Gate, created by Native artist Lillian Pitt. A cast-glass face of a Chinook woman is set into the blade of each paddle.

From the Welcome Gate, a walkway at ground level leads to the ramp of the bridge. Native forest plantings bend into the curving walkway, with red alder, redosier dogwood, vine maple and ferns. They are watered by a gutter system that channels rainwater from the bridge. Where a ramp begins the bridge ascent, forest plantings shift to a native wet prairie of lupines, sedges, meadow rushes and camas lily.