Unveiling the blueprint for a Willamette River Network

Dear friends,

The successes our partners and grantees have achieved in WRI’s lifetime are impressive. But we have always known that restoring a river basin as large, complex and important as the Willamette will take a collaborative effort for decades to come.

Today, we are excited to unveil the blueprint for a new way to support that long-term effort: The Willamette River Network.

This community-driven Network will unite partners working toward a shared goal: ​A healthy Willamette River system with engaged, diverse leadership, in which communities and rivers thrive together. The Network will support our collective efforts to build upon the innovations of the past decade for even greater progress. At the core of this new Network will be a backbone organization to:

• Support collaborative planning & action
• Bring new funding into the basin
• Serve as a hub for information and learning
• Raise the profile of our shared enterprise

This blueprint brings into focus how the Willamette River Network will function. We’ve spent close to a year working with an advisory group to design it, beginning with feedback received from our partners and broader community over the last several years.

In it, you’ll find a visualization of the Network structure, information about the Network’s mission and how it will work in service to that mission, and a timeline of our plan to build the Network.

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