Siuslaw Award for Non-Profit Achievement

This year we were honored to receive the Non-Profit Achievement Award from the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce at their annual Siuslaw Awards event. With the strong support of our membership, and the collaborative work of all of our partners, we were able to demonstrate how our work not only helps to build a more resilient environment and improve river and salmon health, we were able to tell a compelling story of how our work bolsters our local economy, supports local jobs and impacts our local youth. Over the last two years, we invested over two million dollars in contracted services to support our work. We know that for every one million dollars we spend, it supports 15-18 local jobs, and like water,  trickles through our local economy generating 1.6x that amount in local economic output. We’re proud to have supported local contractors who apply their valuable skills to restoration work—contractors like Bob Bateman from Bateman Forest Management, who you can learn more from in the following video:

Supporting a Vibrant Restoration Economy

Due to the support of local businesses including PeaceHealth, Banner Bank, and Oregon Pacific Bank, as well as grant funds from the Chambers Family Foundation, Trust Management Services, Inc., the Weyerhaeuser Giving Fund and the generous donations of our membership we were able to hire an education and outreach program coordinator last month! This has been a goal of the Watershed Council since 2009, when we recognized the need for a comprehensive education program to assist local schools in providing ecology education and field experience opportunities.  This is one area of growth we’ve had over the last year, and an area where we need additional funds to continue growing the program. Consider supporting our education and outreach program by donating today!

We’re proud to be recognized as a non-profit leader in our community and honored by the recognition of the Florence Area Chamber of Commerce. We couldn’t do any of our work without the support of our members, our community, and the partners we work with to help restore salmon habitat in our river. In the 1800’s, we had an average of 250,000 Coho Salmon return to our river each year, which declined to less than 500 in the 1990’s. We’re working to ensure that salmon may thrive here once again by restoring habitat for salmon in our rivers and lakes, and ensuring we have cool, clean water in the future. We secured nearly $1.6 million in grant funds to support this work in 2019, and we look forward to implementing projects with those funds this year and beyond. Securing these funds ensures we’ll be able to continue our work to steward the lands and waters of our region, and to inspire the next generation of Siuslaw Watershed stewards. Thank you to all who have supported our work, and have helped build momentum toward  a watershed ecosystem that supports healthy, diverse communities now and into the future.