About Us

Our Vision

The McKenzie River Trust is committed to a future in which intact, functioning ecosystems provide clean water, abundant fish and wildlife, and productive natural landscapes throughout western Oregon.

Our Mission

The McKenzie River Trust protects and cares for special lands and the rivers that flow through them in western Oregon.

• Protecting special lands. The McKenzie River Trust acquires property interests in land with clear public benefits to ensure that those values will be available to people for many generations.
• Restoring natural systems. The Trust works to enhance and reestablish the native vegetation, water cycles and other functional ecosystem elements appropriate to the places we protect.
• Connecting people to places they care about. The Trust provides site tours, education events, demonstration and research sites, and information about the projects it manages to encourage public support for conservation efforts throughout the region.

Watch a 3 minute video about our work protecting special lands in western Oregon:

The McKenzie River Trust is a nonprofit land trust formed in 1989 to protect critical habitat and scenic lands in the McKenzie basin. In the year 2000, we expanded our service area to include the Long Tom, Upper Willamette, Coast and Middle Forks of the Willamette, Umpqua watershed, Siuslaw, and coastal streams and lakes from Reedsport to Yachats.

Throughout our history, the McKenzie River Trust has worked with landowners and diverse partnerships to protect, forever, over 3,400 acres of special lands in western Oregon.

The McKenzie River Trust acquires land through donation, purchase and conservation easements to provide the greatest assurance that sensitive lands are protected in perpetuity.

The Trust currently owns and protects over 1,600 acres in western Oregon. These lands are protected and managed by the Trust for clean water, fish and wildlife habitat, and productive natural landscapes. The Trust also holds conservation easements on about 1,700 acres of privately owned property. Conservation easements are tailored to each landowner’s needs, rewarding stewardship of natural resources with both protection and financial incentives.

View a map of our protected properties.