Wanted: Stories of How You Help Our Rivers

River Renaissance wants to know how your work helps the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.

Each year, the City’s River Renaissance Initiative issues an annual State of the River Report that highlights accomplishments, needed actions and progress that’s been made.

The report gives City leaders and the public an easy-to-view snapshot of all the activities in Portland that protect and restore our river ecologies and economies.

For certain activities—such as building the Big Pipe, the Superfund clean-up, or Willamette Greenway management—it’s easy to see how what’s being done benefits streams and rivers.

But there are lots of other activities in the City that have big impacts on our rivers. In fact, any work that advances any of the five river goals the City adopted in 2001 is important:

•  Ensure a clean and healthy River

•  Maintain and enhance Portland’s prosperous working harbor

•  Embrace the river as Portland’s front yard

•  Create vibrant waterfront districts

•  Promote partnerships, leadership, and education.

These goals cover a lot of potential efforts—but that’s the point: an awful lot goes into creating a river that’s good for both fish and people.

River Renaissance is interested in telling the stories behind all these efforts. Some can be huge (like the Big Pipe), some small (like a neighborhood stormwater project); some actions warrant big ribbon-cutting fanfare, most won’t; in any year, some get done, many others are on-going.

The report attempts to capture the full range of actions leading to better rivers—and River Renaissance staff are always on the look-out for activities to include.

Basically, we’d like to learn more about anything you do that:

•  improves watershed function and water quality (preventing spills, installing ecoroofs, green streets, sumps, low-impact pesticide and herbicide management, streamside plantings,

•  protects or restores natural areas (acquiring new lands, natural resource inventories or assessments, controlling invasive species, new mitigation programs, new revenue sources for protection)

•  increases the capacity to connect people to rivers and streams, key river access points or developments by…

o  getting people out on the water (boat docks, boat ramps, lessons/training on safe boating,)

o  getting people next to the water (walking trails, bike trails, adding bike lanes along key river avenues, providing for non-motorized use of bridges, tours that feature the river or go by the river, promenade construction, signage about river history or ecology, etc.)

o  outreach and education (classroom presentations, professional workshops, tours)

•  helps grow our river-based economy by

o  keeping harbor industries a vital part of Portland’s economy

o  increasing river tourism and recreation

o  providing more chances for people to enjoy riverfront settings

o  increasing uses or value of riverfront lands (returning areas to productive use);

o  improving efficiency of approval processes relating to any of the above (e.g., streamlining processes for state and federal in-water work permits; ------)

We’re especially interested in your partnerships with other bureaus or groups.

And River Renaissance respects the full arc of work that makes this a better river place—from beginnings to ends. We’re as interested in plans that have been completed, designs that are finished, and agreements that have been signed, as we are in more concrete “dones”—number of kids taught; feet of trail added, workshops held, bridges built, docks opened, etc...

Lastly, you don’t necessarily have to write anything new. Just give us a web link, pdf, existing report—or a phone call so we can interview you, and you can let us worry about writing a draft for your review.

“Headlines” from previous State of the River Reports.

To illustrate the kinds of activities River Renaissance is interested in, this table shows topics from the past two Reports, organized by contributing Bureaus.

For more information, contact Rick Bastasch, River Renaissance Coordinator, rick.bastasch@ci.portland.or.us; or visit www.portlandonline.com/river.