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
Birding By Ear – Songs of Spring with Charlie Quinn
In 1995, I was volunteering at The Nature Conservancy as a bird researcher and hike leader, just before getting my first paid job as a field trip coordinator that fall. My first volunteer project in Oregon was working on the production of a birding by ear guide. This guide was created to teach high school students how to aurally identify birds in bird surveys for the Audubon Society of Portland’s Green City Data Program. Now, nearly thirty years later, this guide as been transferred from cassette to cd, cd to mp3, and is now matched with photos of each species to continue sharing my love of birding.
Lessons from a Beaver on International Beaver Day
Beavers have important lessons to teach us about how to care for the living rivers in our backyard. As we celebrate the start of the 54th annual Earth Month, we also celebrate one of our area’s most incredible caretakers of land and water, the North American Beaver.
A Living Legacy at Sweet Creek Forest
When Mat Purvis moved to Oregon in the early 1970s, he was excited to spend more outdoors. Growing up in urban Atlanta, Mat was accustomed to camping, hiking, and fishing but had always dreamed of owning a wilderness property. As a young physician with spare time, Mat leapt at an opportunity to pursue his dream when a colleague offered to sell him a tract of forest
on Sweet Creek.