Making an Impact
Small steps make big differences
Your support is making a difference for the lands and waters of western oregon.
Protecting Land, Together
McKenzie River Trust works with willing landowners to help protect and care for Oregon’s lands and rivers. As a local land trust, we offer several tools to help landowners protect their land from the Cascades to the Coast in Lane, Douglas, and Lincoln counties.
A Caring Community
Simply put, our volunteers are amazing. Each year, hundreds of community members like you join in to help protect and care for land and water from the Cascades to the Coast. Volunteers plant trees, remove invasive plant species, lead tours on protected lands, conduct species surveys, and more. Individuals, families, groups, and business groups are all welcome to volunteer!
Investing in our Future
As a nonprofit organization, McKenzie River Trust relies on the generous support of members like you. Each year, nearly 2000 households across western Oregon make the incredible choice to invest in clean water, abundant fish and wildlife habitat, and thriving communities. We invite you to join us in the good work by becoming a member of McKenzie River Trust today.
Restoring Natural Systems
McKenzie River Trust cares deeply for the land, water, animals, and people in our communities. We take an innovative approach to restoration working with experts from across the field to design and implement large-scale projects that benefit fish and wildlife. From upland oak prairies to streams and coastal estuaries, we’re working to enhance habitat for Oregon’s threatened and endangered species.
From the Field
News from the Field
Submit Your Story – On This Land 2025
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
35 Years Caring for Oregon’s Lands and Rivers
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.
27 Acres Returned to the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians at Cape Foulweather
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.