McKenzie River Trust and partners broke ground on a major floodplain restoration project on Quartz Creek this May. The project aims to reconnect the creek with its historic floodplain, benefiting the ecosystem and the plants, animals, and people who rely on it.
Almost all of Oregon’s coastal communities face water insecurity. Since 2020, we’ve been working with a broad coalition of partners to identify solutions to the coast’s drinking water challenges. These efforts are being uplifted across Oregon’s coastal communities, with Land Trusts at the table as transaction specialists who can support communities in acquiring land or protecting it through conservation easements.
At times, the uncertainty of changing environmental and political climates can feel insurmountable. Still, across our country, sustained efforts to safeguard land and water have resulted in widespread improvements in the health of our communities. Since the first Earth Day in 1970, these efforts have led to a 78% drop in common air pollutants and widespread improvements to water quality nationally. These changes did not happen because of government regulation alone. They happened because of people like you who have continued to show up, knowing that every action can bring us closer to a better future.
Each spring, a hidden migration unfolds beneath the forest canopy as salamanders emerge to breed, forage, and continue life cycles that have persisted for millions of years. From the familiar rough-skinned newt to the elusive Oregon slender salamander, these remarkable amphibians reveal just how much life depends on cool, moist forests. Discover the surprising adaptations of Oregon’s salamanders and why protecting healthy forests is essential to their future.
Thanks to the care of local landowners Trey and Tammie Hagen, 150 acres of riparian habitat and working lands, including roughly 45 acres of farmland and 50 acres of timber, have been protected forever through a working lands conservation easement with McKenzie River Trust.
The On This Land winter writers series weaves stories of connection between people and place. From family homes to prairies, hidden lakes, and faraway lands, nature becomes a venue to explore our collective humanity.
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Each of the pieces within this collection was generously contributed by local writers and supporters of McKenzie River Trust. We hope you will join us in celebrating the deep and nourishing connections that are formed on this land.
Celebrate your connection to place through our annual winter writers series. On This Land showcases local poets and nonfiction authors as they probe what it means to be “on this land.” Submissions are due by Wednesday, January 22nd for consideration for our public reading on Sunday, February 23rd
Most of us never think twice about shrews. We certainly didn’t—until one tiny discovery on Green Island led us down one of the most fascinating wildlife deep dives of the year. It turns out these tiny mammals can walk on water, use a form of echolocation, shrink their brains in winter, and even produce venom. Read the story behind our discovery and meet one of Oregon’s most remarkable native mammals.
35 years ago, a small group of neighbors who cared deeply about the health of the McKenzie River came together to preserve its exceptional water quality, founding McKenzie River Trust in 1989. At that time, local couple Ann and Dave Fidanque were busy raising their family. On weekends, they would immerse their children in nature, regularly spending time at a US Forest Service cabin on the upper McKenzie River. By the early 1990s, the family considered the upper McKenzie an extension of their home, so when a clearcut was proposed for a hillside just across the river, Ann and others were concerned about the area’s future and what such actions may mean for the river’s health.
In a historic land transaction, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians regained ownership of 27 acres of their ancestral homelands at Cape Foulweather on the central Oregon coast. The return of the land capstones a multi-year collaboration to protect the land’s ecological, cultural and scenic values.
In early September McKenzie River Trust ensured the permanent protection of 243 acres of rare oak woodland and savanna habitat just outside Eugene, OR. The project builds on initial conservation efforts in 2022, which leveraged membership donations to protect 40 adjacent acres for fish and wildlife habitat. Long identified by area partners as a potential “anchor” site in the ridgeline area, the South Fork Spencer Creek conservation area builds on the City of Eugene’s open space protection efforts, contributing significant habitat to the wildlife corridor.
McKenzie River Trust took a major step forward to safeguard our namesake river last week by purchasing 636 acres of former timberland in Finn Rock, OR. The protection project, which begins near the town of Blue River and ends near Nimrod, returns three parcels to a growing mosaic of conservation lands in the middle McKenzie River Valley.
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