Pacific Rivers Council
Phone: (503) 228-3555 | Fax: (503) 228-3556
http://www.pacificrivers.org | info@pacificrivers.org
Born from a commitment to protect Oregon's free-flowing rivers, the Oregon Rivers Council was founded as a statewide non-profit organization in 1987 with a volunteer staff.
By 1993 we had become the Pacific Rivers Council (PRC), reflecting our expanded sphere of influence in aquatic conservation. Today, more than twenty years after its inception, PRC is one of the most influential river conservation groups in the country.
The integrity of aquatic systems depends on the ecological health of the entire landscape and, in turn, healthy aquatic systems benefit the basins they drain. This relationship between land management activities and watershed health underlies all of PRC's work.
Our projects are based on the recovery strategy of protect the best, restore the rest, as the first step towards natural resource management based on conservation biology. PRC promotes the protection of the best remaining aquatic habitat, or refuges, to provide anchors for restoration of more degraded systems. PRC advocates a whole watershed approach to land management. By convening scientific panels and sponsoring research to address crucial aquatic conservation issues, we have established a respected reputation as a credible, effective advocate for the protection and restoration of aquatic resources throughout the nation.
PRC is now embarking on an ambitious program to identify, build support for, and gain permanent protection for some of our nation's healthiest rivers and their watersheds. We call these Legacy Rivers because they are worthy of recognition, celebration and protection as part of our freshwater heritage. This program is a product of twenty years of evolution of the organization and as we continue to defend the intent of such laws as the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, so will we aim to leave a Legacy of healthy watersheds for generations to come.
Two recent accomplishments:
- PRC, along with the McKenzie Flyfishers filed a legal challenge to drop the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR), which would have weakened protection for streams and salmon on 2.6 million acres of public forestland in Oregon. The WOPR was dropped by the Secretary of the Interior and PRC is keeping a watchful eye over new plans that may surface that threaten watershed health.
- PRC and members of the Washington Watershed Restoration Initiative (WWRI) received the Forest Service's Rise to the Future award for public awareness of the problem of old forest service roads, and helped bring almost $200 million of Federal money to the Northwest to address this issue.
