ENVIRONMENT

Our region is endowed with a wealth of natural resources – rivers, ocean, clean air, forests, mountains, desert. The city of Portland was the first U.S. City to adopt a carbon dioxide reduction strategy to try and protect and preserve this endowment. Our community is also the first major urban area in the nation directly affected by the Endangered Species Act. The decline in salmon and steelhead populations here, and throughout the Pacific Northwest, is the result of many activities that are part of our daily lives – electricity from dams, forestry, agriculture, roads, industry, and urban development. This is a challenge for all of us to share in solutions to preserve our natural riches. (115 words)