It comes through best in the words of our staff.

It was a notable year for understory restoration on Green Island, with over 155 acres planted with native grass to rebuild the habitat for the birds, bugs, and all the wildlife that use this area. Also, we conducted a 45-acre controlled burn to prepare the land to be restored to upland prairie — a first for both Green Island and the land trust!

-Chris Vogel, Green Island Project Manager 

In 2011 we made great strides on four of our owned and protected properties: the Waite Ranch tidal estuary, the McKenzie Oxbow floodplain, the Coburg Aggregate Reclamation Area gravel ponds, and the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area floodplain forest and demonstration farm. We completed the initial assessments and planning, acquired grant funding and solidified the diverse partnerships necessary to implement successful restoration projects on these properties for many years to come. The Berggren Demonstration Farm partnership also hired a Farm Coordinator, and the vision is progressing for an educational site with numerous opportunities for students, farmers, and the public to engage in watershed stewardship and river-friendly farming.  

-Jodi Lemmer, Land Steward 

This year, the McKenzie River Trust acquired its first conservation easement in Ferguson Creek, a significant tributary of the Long Tom River. We also acquired important backwater channel next to our Coburg Aggregate Reclamation Project on Green Island.

-Ryan Ruggiero, Land Protection Manager 

This has been an exceptional year of growth for the McKenzie River Trust. We are meeting more and more landowners throughout our service area in western Oregon, with a special focus on the Willamette River downstream of Eugene/Springfield. We have had numerous conversations and visits with this community and look forward to more protected land in the Upper Willamette Basin in the months and years ahead.

-Nicole Nielsen-Pincus, Willamette Field Representative

It was wonderful to connect with so many of you out on our properties for tours of Green Island and the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area this year. Seeing your passion, enthusiasm, and interest in learning about the special places you’ve helped us protect inspired us to expand our tour offerings in 2012.

-Liz Lawrence, Operations Manager 

The donations you’ve given in the last year have leveraged over a million dollars in grants, helping to restore floodplains, protect streams, meadows and forests, and preserve habitat for sensitive species of birds, fish, frogs and turtles. Thank you so much for your support to protect and care for these special places!

-Stephanie Detwiler, Controller

More than 700 of you attended our Living River annual event, which this year featured the spine-tingling rhythms and harmonies of the band Misty River. Thank you for being there for us, and for purchasing the Oakshire and Ninkasi beers created this year to celebrate EWEB’s 100th anniversary. Sales of these beers have raised more than $10,000 for our land conservation efforts in western Oregon. As the year comes to a close, we raise a glass to you – our donors, corporate supporters, and public and private grant partners –  for your commitment to protect and care for the cherished landscapes that surround us!

-Brandi Ferguson, Development Manager

Thank you for a great year of land protection and stewardship!

In 2012, we will continue to build on these successes. Like seeds that take cultivation and care to sprout and grow, conservation projects often require our resources for many years before they bear fruit. We have some exciting projects in the works. I look forward to sharing their great stories with you in the months ahead.

But you can help these efforts right now. Your gift today will make a real difference for what we can accomplish in 2012.  

Please invest in land conservation in western Oregon by making a tax-deductible year-end gift to the McKenzie River Trust today.

Whether you’re just beginning your shopping or looking for that last present for a special someone, we’ve got some suggestions to make your holidays brighter! Here are 5 ways you can give a gift that supports the stunning natural landscapes around us.

#1: Buy a Bottle. Skookumchuck Wild Ale, Oakshire’s 3rd beer brewed to celebrate EWEB’s Centennial year of service is on sale now! All proceeds from the beer go to the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area, an MRT-owned and protected property on the Lower McKenzie River. This very special brew is $20 for a 750 ml bottle and perfect for beer lovers. On sale only at Oakshire’s tasting room.

Want to try before you buy? Join us for a special FREE tasting of Skookumchuck Wild Ale!
Thursday, December 8th from 5:30 to 7 pm at the Oakshire Brewery – 1055 Madera St in Eugene

#2: Enjoy Art. Local acclaimed watercolorist Larry McQueen has designated MRT as the recipient of 5% of proceeds from several of his stunning paintings and prints depicting native birds from western Oregon and the world. You can see all of Larry’s work and check out other artists supporting conservation at natureartists.com.

#3: Step Up. Footwise and Patagonia are donating $10 from every pair of Patagonia shoes sold at the Footwise Eugene store from December 1st to 17th to the Trust! The promotion is tied to 1% for the Planet, an organization that encourages businesses to give 1% of their profits back to environmental organizations. Footwise is located at 181 East Broadway in Eugene.

#4: Get Outside. REI Eugene has designated MRT as their charity of choice this holiday season. You will have the opportunity to donate to the McKenzie River Trust when you check out. You can conveniently make a donation to land conservation at the REI register. Consider rounding up your purchase to the nearest dollar, or adding on $5… $10… or more! 100% of your donation will go directly to MRT.

#5: Give the Gift of Land Conservation. For the person who already has everything! Introduce our local conservation work to someone special – someone who appreciates the outdoors and the natural world that surrounds us! A donation in someone’s name is the perfect gift for the holidays.

For more ways to support the McKenzie River Trust, visit Ways to Give.

You are being redirected to “Support Us.”

Thanks for your interest in the McKenzie River Trust! We recently updated the look and feel of our website, as well as the organization of information to make it more accessible to you. We’ve been hard at work to make the site more user-friendly and accessible. New content is being added every day.

Please let us know what you think of the new site!

Here are some elements to explore:

– New property pages highlighting the most important and exciting elements of our 3,300 acres of conservation lands. Expect more information to be added to these sections in the coming days and weeks.

– Information about how you can protect your land with a conservation easement, land donation, or voluntary sale to the McKenzie River Trust.

– Four ways you can support the McKenzie River Trust.

– An expanded events section with a page detailing our Living River Annual Event.

– A written and visual history of the McKenzie River Trust.

As we enter our 23rd year of protecting special lands in western Oregon, we thank you for your support and interest in our work.

Sincerely,

All of us at the McKenzie River Trust
Contact Us

Please consider making a donation to help us continue our work!

As our region grows, so must our conservation efforts. We hope you will join us as a supporter of the McKenzie River Trust.

The Berggren Watershed Conservation Area is a 92-acre property on the Lower McKenzie River purchased and protected by the McKenzie River Trust in 2010. The property is the site of a developing Demonstration Farm which will showcase sustainable techniques for farming in an active floodplain, while integrating educational opportunities and native habitat restoration. The links between local foods and watershed protection on this property motivated Oakshire to invest proceeds from the sales of three beers.

Skookumchuck Wild Ale celebrates 100 years of EWEB’s work to deliver clean water from the McKenzie River to Eugene and Springfield. The McKenzie is one of the cleanest rivers in the nation, and water from the river is the #1 ingredient in Oakshire’s beer. Skookumchuck means “powerful water” in Chinook. The name was selected by EWEB employees.

Skookumchuck Wild Ale is the first of Oakshire’s new “Brewers Reserve Series Beers,” beers in very small quantities, matured with love in wine barrels. This blend of three different beers from 5 different barrels will only be available from Oakshire’s sales dock. This delicious beer makes a great gift, so consider it for the holidays!

Skookumchuck Wild Ale tasting and Brewery Tour

Thursday, December 8^th from 5:30 to 7pm

Oakshire Brewing Co., 1055 Madera St in Eugene

Sample Skookumchuck Wild Ale with the McKenzie River Trust! Pick up a case or a bottle of the beer that benefits the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area. You can also tour the Oakshire Brewing Co. facilities and meet brewmaster Matt Van Wyk at this special event. All are welcome!

The Tenmile Creek watershed south of Yachats is one of western Oregon’s most treasured places. Surrounded by Wilderness Areas, the watershed is part of the largest coastal temperate rainforest remaining in the lower 48 states. Filled with towering Sitka spruce that harbor spotted owls and marbled murrelets and coastal streams that still support strong runs of native salmon, trout, and lamprey, Tenmile is a window to a more abundant past in the Coast Range.

“I used to catch a lot of fish here,” Hans Radtke admits with a wry smile.

And that connection to water led him and his family to make a home for themselves on a bluff high above Tenmile Creek. With an eye to the forest and its distinctive natural wealth, the Radtkes looked for alternatives to logging and raising cattle.

That’s when a different take on land stewardship came to light.

Hans and his wife Karin emphasize the importance of the next generation of landowner stewards: the Radtke children. "This land is in an irrevokable trust for them," Hans says. "It's really their decision what to do from here on out."

“In 2002,” Hans remembers, “I heard what was going on along the John Day River. There was an older homestead family working on a conservation easement there with the Bonneville Power Administration. They wound up dedicating a lot of their acreage and some water rights to Chinook salmon run conservation. It was impactful, their decision to do an easement.”

The commonsense, incentives-based approach to stewardship impressed Hans – a respected natural resource economist by trade – just as it had the John Day ranchers. “Conservation easements make economic sense. Putting things aside can provide a good economic return.”

The Radtkes and other neighbors sought out the McKenzie River Trust in 2004 to develop conservation easements, eventually protecting more than 430 acres of streamside forest and meadow.

By collaborating with the McKenzie River Trust, the Radtke family gained economic value from their land while protecting what makes it so special. Since then, their home has become a gathering place for people from around the world interested in how financial incentives can protect healthy forests and wild fish runs.

As an angler, Hans’ eyes light up at the thought of all those fish returning each year. “I always put them back,” he says. That gesture, like the Radtke Family’s commitment to conservation, is a both a nod to the past and an investment in the future.

Land Trust Lager gets its name from the unique partnership between EWEB, Oakshire Brewing and the McKenzie River Trust. Land trusts are nonprofit organizations directly involved in the permanent protection of land and natural resources for the public benefit. The McKenzie River Trust (MRT) is a local land trust working to protect land in eight different watersheds in Western Oregon, including the McKenzie River watershed where EWEB draws the drinking water for all of Eugene.

All profits from the sale of the three brews will help fund the Berggren Demonstration Farm project, a sustainable floodplain demonstration farm on the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area.

“Oakshire Brewing is thrilled to help promote the Berggren Demonstration Farm project along the banks of the McKenzie River. Collaborative efforts like these are essential to protecting our drinking water here in the Willamette Valley. Much like the citizens who worked to protect the drinking water of Eugene 100 years ago, the McKenzie River Trust and EWEB continue to work on innovative projects that will ensure the high-quality drinking water we have today will be around for our future generations to enjoy,” said Cameron Langham of Oakshire Brewing.

“Protecting the purity of the McKenzie River is not only good for the health of EWEB customers, it’s also essential to small but growing businesses like Oakshire,” said EWEB’s Joe Harwood. “You need great water to make great beer.”

“It is always a great pleasure to work with locally owned businesses like Oakshire Brewing, said Brandi Ferguson, Development Manager with the McKenzie River Trust. “Oakshire is a business that wants to reinvest in our community by helping to protect our local watersheds.”

Look for Land Trust Lager on sale at Eugene area grocers and on draft at select local restaurants and pubs. Look for the third and final brew, Skookumchuck Wild Ale in bottles and on draft in November.

Watch a short video made to promote the collaboration between EWEB, Oakshire, and the McKenzie River Trust, filmed on site at the Berggren Watershed Conservation Area.

Sunday, October 2, 2011
9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Home to the Berggren Demonstration Farm, the property also contains a highly intact floodplain forest and backwater sloughs of the main stem of the McKenzie River. Bring your binoculars! This tour is open to all skill levels. Only an interest in nature is necessary.

About your tour leader: Dan Gleason is the author of Birds! From The Inside Out, an introductory textbook about birds, richly illustrated by his wife, Barbara. He is a retired faculty member of the Biology Department at the University of Oregon, where has taught Field Ornithology for many years. Dan has been actively involved in environmental education throughout the Eugene area leading field trips, workshops and volunteer guide training. Each month, he writes a column, Backyard Habitats, for The Register Guard and he is a frequent guest speaker at schools, bird festivals, and organizations throughout the Pacific Northwest where he enjoys sharing his knowledge and interest in birds and the natural world.

This tour is now full. Please contact Liz via phone or email (541-345-2799 or llawrence@mckenzieriver.org) to be added to the wait list.

Saturday, September 17, 2011
9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

About your tour leader:
Margie Paris is a faculty member at the University of Oregon School of Law, where she teaches and writes about criminal law and criminal procedure. She also served as the law school’s dean for five years. Born and raised in Chicago, she has lived in Eugene since 1992. Her membership on the MRT Board enables her to drawn both on her legal expertise and on her passion for the natural world. She has been an avid birder since childhood and spends her free time birding, hiking, and biking.

Please note: This tour is full. Please contact Liz via phone (541)-345-2799 or email to be added to the wait list.