Residents of our watershed love their urban creek-and we felt that loud and clear at the 21st Watershed Wide Event. Gathering together to improve our natural areas is a beautiful act of solidarity, community building, and restoration of the creek and ourselves. Thank you for your part in making the day both fun and meaningful!
There are so many jobs putting on Watershed Wide. 50 behind the scenes volunteers helped organize and manage the event as interns doing outreach and donations acquisition, board member site leaders, errand runners preparing for the big day, buying, cleaning and organizing tools, and inviting friends and family to come take part. An extra shout out to our FABULOUS team of volunteer Creek Crew leaders who trained up in January to help lead events like this all year round. Thank you all so much for all of your work to make this a phenomenal day.
Help us make our events better and better! Please fill out our survey HERE
Other ideas for how we can improve? Reach out anytime-shoot an email to courtney@jcwc.org or phone call at 503-652-7477 ext 101
Together we were able to
-Plant 5,000 native trees and shrubs
-Remove 5 acres of invasive species
-Make new friends and connections with 450 volunteers

See the pictures and feel free to brag and tag yourself on Facebook HERE.

A little history on the event:
This event began in 1999 after former Governor Kitzhaber created the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds to prevent the listing of coho salmon on the Endangered Species List. One of the biggest threats to coho and other salmonids in the Metro area–and throughout much of Oregon–is high stream temperature. 20 years later, our organization and many other public and non-profit agencies have made huge investments in reforesting streams, wetlands, and other natural areas to provide much-needed shade in Portland. As our climate continues to heat up, stream shading becomes ever more important in the effort to cool our streams so they can continue to be salmon-friendly. This is especially important because Johnson Creek is the only free-flowing stream in Portland that still supports a salmon population.
Thanks to all of the volunteer groups who came out to participate:
Moda Health
Modern Times Beer
Environmental Science Associates
Treecology
KLiK Concepts
Sound Native Plants
WSP Engineering Consultants
Rotary Club of Clackamas
City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services
Cub Scout Pack 6
Girl Scout Troop 10631

Clackamas County Women’s Correctional Facility
Volunteers of America
OTAK
Brown and Caldwell
NuStar Energy
Lewis and Clark Montessori School
PGE

Thanks to our food donors:

Henry Higgins Boiled Bagels

Coava Coffee Roasters

Heavenly Donuts

Moonlight Coffee

First Cup Coffee House

Sacred Summit

Big Ben Donuts

Einstein Bros Bagels

Space Monkey Coffee

Starbucks

Sesame Donut

Spielman Bagels and Coffee Roasters

Little T Baker

Crema Bakery

Sweetpea Bakery

And a BIG THANKS to our amazing photographers and videographers Carol Caz Zyvatkauskas, Dakota Hufford, Sam Friedman, Josh Betts, Colin Durfee, Valentina Lumpkin, Alexis Barton, and a team from KLiK Concepts.

And BIG thanks again to our partners for making this event possible:
The Mintkeski Family Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation, Clackamas County’s Water Environment Services, Portland General Electric, East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District, Portland Parks & Recreation, City of Gresham, Crystal Springs Partnership, Friends of Tideman Johnson, Friends of Powell Butte, Freeway Land Company II, Overland Park Coalition, and the City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services.

Throughout January, nearly 200 students traveled to Powell Butte Natural Area to steward and learn about the beautiful park. Johnson Creek Watershed Council partnered with Friends of Trees and Portland