The Willamette River Network board is excited to welcome Jesse Cruz Richards as the Network's new co-director. He will serve as Director of Development and Policy. We’re grateful that Jesse has agreed to bring his commitment to fundraising and coordinating policy efforts to support the Network’s emerging fundraising vision.
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We're in an unprecedented, uncertain time filled with hope and anxiety, challenges and the opportunity for real change. That's why we believe it's so important to foster greater connection, trust and collaboration, now more than ever. We're stronger when we help each other and have each other’s backs.
A year ago, partners in the Willamette River Initiative (WRI) celebrated ten years of successful collaboration working to improve the health of the Willamette river basin. Knowing the WRI would sunset at the end of 2019, Meyer Memorial Trust convened a board to lead creation of a new Willamette River Network (WRN) to continue and evolve the impressive work accomplished during the WRI, expand the community of people and organizations engaged, and center equity and inclusion. Creating a new Willamette River Network was envisioned by an exceptional, committed team of advisors over the last several years to engage a broader network of partners and communities to work together to ensure people and rivers thrive together in the basin. We want to share where we’ve been, and invite you to engage and help shape what comes next. The Willamette River Network board is excited to welcome Tana Atchley Culbertson as its founding Director of Network Coordination. We’re grateful that Tana has agreed to bring her commitment to environmental justice and her expertise in multicultural program coordination, communication and relationship building to guide the Network’s vision for regional collaboration toward healthy rivers and thriving communities in Oregon’s most populous watershed.
Many of us have a story about what makes the Willamette special to us. At December’s Within Our Reach conference, dozens of members of the Willamette community shared theirs on-camera.
Their stories reflect the many benefits provided by the largest waterway within Oregon’s borders. The Willamette is sustenance for family farms. A place forearning. A source of cultural and spiritual connection. A good spot for a summer swim. Watch the video below to hear four Willamette Basin residents discuss why this river system matters to them. Then, tweet @WillametteNet or tag us on Facebook with the hashtag #whythewillamette to share your own reasons why in one to two sentences. You can also email us your response if you’re not the tweeting type. We’ll share responses on social media as part of a public effort to spread love for the Willamette. 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:
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. |