| Engaging the Community |
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| Building Community Stewardship with Green Infrastructure |
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Thursday 1:15-2:15 p.m. (Repeats at 2:30 p.m.)
Thursday 2:30-3:30 p.m. (Repeat of 1:15 p.m.)
Green infrastructure requires an outreach strategy characterized by community-based understanding of thoughtful land stewardship and appropriate stewardship actions, created in the context of the landscape. Connectivity is at the center of this concept. Participants will explore a community stewardship framework template to help guide actions in the green infrastructure vision and apply it to their own communities. They will discover how people can work together while contributing within their own areas of expertise.
Participants will:
- Be able to describe what is meant by a "community stewardship framework."
- Feel inspired by the successful projects and stories of others.
- Be able to construct a set of actions to undertake in their own communities.
- Be able to identify and utilize tools that will help them draft an outreach strategy for their community.
Presenters:
Bill Hastie is an educator with extensive experience in natural resources and science education, outreach, and program management, as well as writing and teacher-training. He serves several organizations including: Oregon Natural Resources Education Program, Salmon-Trout Enhancement Program, Oregon Youth Conservation Corps, and is president-elect of Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators. Hastie' s career includes Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Governor' s Natural Resources Office, SOLV, Washington State University Extension, and Friends of Netarts Bay. He is a former classroom teacher and holds a master’s degree from Western Oregon University.
Neil Maine has spent a lifetime connecting communities with their natural resources—as a high school ecology and marine science teacher, helping K-12 classroom teachers link their classrooms to the local landscape. During the last decade he has helped develop community-based green infrastructure programs as the executive director of the North Coast Land Conservancy. Maine’s partnership approach to working with landowners, county governments, public agencies, cities, and private landowners has helped advance the vision of establishing community resource plans that focus on insuring the long-term functions of coastal ecosystems in a planning context. Maine helped bring the “green infrastructure” concept to the coast and has been recognized at the state and national level for his conservation work.
Patrick Willis has been involved in education and natural resource efforts for 25 years. He was a high school teacher, outdoor educator, and interpreter with the National Park Service. The first job he stuck with more than a year was with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry as the manager of marine education. He was the director of Jackson Bottom Wetlands for 16 years. He implemented habitat restoration, research, K-20 education, and community involvement programs. Willis is a science instructor at Marylhurst University and a partner with NSF-Center for Informal Learning and Schools in San Francisco. He has as master’s degree in biology from Portland State University.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
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| Engaging Landowners |
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Thursday 1:15-2:15 p.m.
Encouraging and rewarding good stewardship to promote species recovery can
be challenging. Landowner recruitment and community participation through
well-planned outreach and education programs has clearly become critical in
local and regional efforts to regain ecosystem resilience.
Participants will:
- Learn several outreach methods for reaching landowners, particularly those who have historically been hesitant in their involvement in local restoration or conservation efforts.
- Learn the benefits and challenges of various landowner outreach methods.
- Identify which specific tools would be most useful and effective to employ in your area.
Presenters:
Erika Lang has been working with the North Santiam, South Santiam, and Calapooia watershed councils for three years, first implementing an education and outreach program and now implementing a Landowner Recruitment for Restoration Program. With this program, she is currently working with private landowners on streamside restoration projects, while also organizing restoration tours and workshops to generate interest and raise awareness for watershed health. Lang has a master's degree in natural resources management and has worked with landowners in Minnesota and Montana.
Anne Nelson works on a variety of community engagement and multi-bureau partnerships with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services. Along with bureau and community partners, she focuses on linking watershed health projects and policy needs to community initiatives to help build long-lasting success to green storm water infrastructure projects and community-jurisdictions partnerships. She holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.
Carolyn Sharp has spent the last eight years as a watershed planner and public participation specialist in the Portland metropolitan area working with businesses and property owners on a variety of issues. She spent much of that time working for the City of Portland, including Environmental Services, Planning and the Portland Development Commission. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from Florida International University and a master’s in urban and regional planning from Portland State University.
Laura Van Riper serves as a social scientist with the Bureau of Land Management’s National Riparian Service Team in Prineville. She received a dual degree in biology and human and natural ecology from Emory University and spent time in East Africa studying community-based natural resource management. She completed her master’s and PhD in resource conservation from the University of Montana. Her dissertation research focused on evaluating the NRST and their approach to cooperative riparian restoration; she worked with the team to revise their approach based on research findings.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
Read survey results.
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| Engaging Policy Makers |
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Friday 8-9:30 a.m.
How do you influence policy makers to value the role of healthy, resilient watersheds; especially in a changing climate? Challenges are significant: sidelining happens; misperceptions about an organization’s roles and responsibilities may make elected officials less receptive. The technical language used in restoration work and community presentations may not match that of the community leaders or their constituents.
Participants will:
- Be able to describe some of the essential elements of getting a foot in the door with community leaders.
- Be able to describe a strong council/district – policy maker relationship and use those characteristics to start out on their own or to further develop current efforts.
Presenters:
Linda Modrell, chair of the Benton County Commission, is nearing the end of her second term of service on the commission. She has years of management and policy development experience, including six years on the Benton County Budget Committee, board member of the Association of Oregon Counties, member of the Area Commission on Transportation, Corvallis Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, and the West Coast Corridor Coalition, member of the Linn-Benton-Lincoln-Lane Regional Investment Board, Board of the Business Enterprise Center, chair of the Local Government Advisory Committee for the Oregon Department of Human Services and Accountable Behavioral Health Alliance Board, and board member of the Cascades Pacific Resource Conservation and Development Area, Inc. Modrell received a master’s in business administration from Oregon State University with a minor in community health with an emphasis on gerontology and a bachelor’s in accounting with a minor in social sciences.
Gail Grogan Perrotti has been the watershed coordinator for the Seven Basins Watershed Council since October 2005. The council focuses on fuels reduction, riparian, fish habitat and noxious weeds projects. Perrotti facilitates all of their outreach, education and collaboration-building efforts. She was one of the founding board members of the SBWC and after three years as coordinator for the Seven Basins Neighborhood Fire Planning Project for OSU Extension she returned as the Seven Basins coordinator in October 2005.
Brian Wegener has been watershed watch coordinator for Tualatin River Keepers since 2003. His work includes public policy review, public involvement, communications and advocacy. For the past three years, a primary focus of his work has been reducing impacts of urban storm water runoff through low impact development. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Portland State University.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
Read survey results.
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| Engaging Students |
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Thursday 8-9:30 a.m.
Kids today lack a sense of place. They can identify exotic animals such as lions, tigers and elephants, but they are unaware of the wildlife and natural history of their local communities. Links have been made between decreased time spent outdoors and the rising rates of childhood obesity, attention disorders and depression in today’s youth. Watershed councils and natural resource agencies can fill this need, providing opportunities for youth and their parents to reinvigorate their interest in outdoor recreation, while simultaneously helping them become more aware of watershed issues, and creating the next generation of engaged watershed stewards.
Participants will:
- Evaluate the suitability of developing student programs modeled on examples of successful youth engagement programs—occurring both in-school, and during out-of-school time.
- Obtain tools to engage underserved student populations in local watershed activities; such as student monitoring, riparian restoration, and storm water management.
- Be introduced to regional networks of informal and formal natural resource educators.
Presenters:
Frances Oyung has worked with natural resource issues all her life, including jobs as a back-country instructor, owl hooter and water quality monitoring coordinator. She is currently the coordinator of the Bear Creek Watershed Council based in Medford. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Linda Rhoads gained extensive management experience and led company-wide strategic planning processes during her 10-year employment with a Global 500 corporation. In the North Carolina Office of Environmental Education she directed a statewide program involving government agencies, businesses, non-profits, environmental education centers, teachers and schools. Her teaching roles include educational forest ranger and non-formal environmental educator. Rhoads provides leadership for the Environmental Education Association of Oregon by facilitating a shared vision and strategic direction, guiding activities to advance the environmental education profession, and promoting environmental education as an integral component of effective education. Her degrees include a master’s in adult education and bachelor’s degrees in geography and psychology.
Debbie Spresser is an environmental specialist with the Eugene Water & Electric Board where she has worked for the past 17 years on a wide variety of environmental issues. Over the past five years, her focus has been on habitat restoration and enhancement projects associated with the utility's hydroelectric facilities. She has a degree in natural resources management from the University of California, Davis, and has worked in the environmental field for more than 30 years.
Sam Whitridge is a master's degree student at Southern Oregon University in the Environmental Education Program. In addition, he runs the "Youth Natural Sciences" program at Oregon State University Extension-Jackson County along with a non-profit organization called the Bear Creek Watershed Education Partners.
Kolleen Yake is an education coordinator with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council and Oregon Trout’s Healthy Waters Institute. Yake has led environmental education courses for educators, community leaders, and students throughout the Pacific Northwest for 10 years. With a background in environmental writing and experiential education, Yake has coordinated staff and volunteers in watershed education and restoration. Partnering with Oregon Trout in 2005 as an education coordinator for the Healthy Waters Institute, Yake played an integral part in developing science-based curriculum for students around Oregon. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master’s in English studies with an emphasis in ecocritical analysis from Western Washington University.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
Read survey results.
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| Getting your Board on Board |
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Thursday 2:30-3:30 p.m.
Great boards don't just happen. It can be a real struggle maintaining an active, engaged, and intelligent board of directors. Effective tried and true strategies work, but also take time and effort. Is it worth it? Yes! Are you up to the challenge? Yes! The different styles of boards run the gamut – find out which one is right for your agency and how to get it working for you.
Participants will:
- Draft volunteer board member job descriptions for their organization.
- Share ideas for what works best in identifying and recruiting the right new board members.
- Identify resources for developing critical board skills through trainings and other activities.
- Discuss tips for guiding boards to greater accomplishments.
- Explore techniques for mediating differences and uniting diverse boards to get things done.
- Define elements of a dynamic, productive board meeting format.
Presenters:
Dedee Wilner-Nugent is a seasoned major-gift fundraiser with experience working on over 25 capital campaigns and feasibility studies. She enjoys working with organizations of all sizes and inspires greater volunteer leadership and maximum giving from all sources. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Smith College.
Dianna Smiley moved to Oregon in 1984, and her first position was at Tektronix, which quickly led her into the field of philanthropy, directing corporate contributions at the company and eventually heading up the Tektronix Foundation. Smiley worked on the Campaign for Reed College in the mid-90s, and then joined The Oregon Community Foundation, where she started OCF’s Philanthropy Education programs. In early 1995, she was recruited by a national philanthropy organization in Washington, D.C., where she served as a vice president. Smiley joined SOLV as executive director in May 2008. She has served on the Howard Vollum Scholarship Committee, the board of the City Club of Portland, and the Education Committee of the Portland Chamber of Commerce. She earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and a master’s degree in vocational counseling from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
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Presentation Materials
PowerPoint Presentation
Stages of Board Development
Potential Board Committees
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| Harnessing the Power of Volunteers |
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Thursday 10-11:30 a.m.
Does your volunteer program need energizing? Do you keep finding excuses for not including volunteers in more aspects of your programs? In this session, you'll learn how to channel all of the great ideas and energy volunteers bring to your organization into something that truly fits your needs. Even when you've got so much to do you don't even know where to start. You'll find that a dedicated corps of volunteers allows you to achieve your mission in exciting ways. The relationships that develop between you and your wider community will pay off in increased support of your agency, both financially and politically.
Participants will:
- Be able to describe a few of the benefits of utilizing volunteers.
- Be able to describe common concerns of volunteer management and how to overcome them.
- Be able to draft at least one new volunteer job description for their organization.
- Gain at least two new ways to recognize the accomplishments of their volunteers.
- Be inspired to explore new ways of incorporating volunteers into their projects.
Presenters:
Carolyn M. Devine joined OWEB as communications coordinator in November 2007. Previously, she has worked with OSU Extension, Yamhill, as a consultant with Dean Runyan & Associates in Portland, and as associate director (and volunteer program manager) at The Berry Botanic Garden in Portland. Her volunteer experience started very young (her mother managed a 300+ volunteer program), and she volunteered all through high school and college–including starting the first volunteer guide program for Nichols Arboretum, Ann Arbor. She has more than 20 years of experience in outdoor education, and is a self-described native plant geek. She has two degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: a master’s in plant biology and a bachelor's in biology with a focus on biochemistry and cellular molecular biology.
Matt McRae began working for the City of Eugene in 2002 and has been a volunteer coordinator since 2004. He worked on trail crews in Yellowstone National Park from 1993-2001, and began working with volunteers in 1998. McRae has a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University.
April Olbrich has been the coordinator of the Tualatin River Watershed Council since 2004. Olbrich has a long volunteer history and has also recruited, coordinated and recognized volunteers in a variety of settings and activities. She has worked in the areas of real estate law, education, and natural resources and has a bachelor’s degree from Beloit College.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
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| Reframing Conflict |
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Friday, 8-9:30 a.m.
The Oregon Plan has provided Oregonians an opportunity to think and organize ourselves differently in ways that allow us to do innovative, place-appropriate work. Guided by a statewide goal that focuses on restoring health to salmon and watersheds over time, the Oregon Plan has shifted how we relate to the landscape and think about it, and how people with different interests and positions work together to craft workable solutions— ones that build community rather than disrupt it. In this session we contrast two ways to work together when we are in conflict and explore their lessons for work under the Oregon Plan and in response to climate change. We also explore some of the things that might be behind the conflict that help us understand how to work with it and past it.
Participants will:
- Have a clearer sense of sources of conflict—that conflict is normal and common; and how to work effectively with it to build something constructive and desired.
- Understand two distinct approaches to responding to conflict and what they offer.
- Understand how to listen to conflicts and reframe them to find ways to go forward.
- Understand how to hear the voices of fear, cynicism and judgment in ourselves and our communities, and how to work with these.
Presenters:
Julia Doermann is an instructor at Oregon State University, teaching graduate-level courses on water governance and conflict resolution. She is also an independent consultant and writer with a focus on natural resources and water policy, governance, sustainability, and conflict transformation. Doermann was one of a team of natural resource advisors to former Governor Kitzhaber for seven years. Prior to this, she worked as a water and public lands policy analyst for the Western Governors' Association in Denver, CO, and Washington, D.C., serving the governors of 21 western states and territories.
Denise Lach is an associate professor of sociology at Oregon State University and is also associate director of the Water Resources Policy and Management Program at OSU. Her teaching and research focus on emerging governance structures that address the complicated problems related to water, climate change, and social systems. She is a member of science advisory boards in both Oregon (climate) and California (water) and has published extensively in both professional and practitioner journals. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English/education from the University of Minnesota, and a master’s and PhD in sociology, both from the University of Oregon.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
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| Training for Education/Outreach Review Team |
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Wednesday 4-5:30 p.m.
Starting this grant cycle, (October 20, 2008) OWEB's Education/Outreach grants will be reviewed by two separate teams: The Education/Outreach Review Team and the Regional Review Teams. The two sets of reviews, each with their own set of expertise, will each inform OWEB staff. The EORT brings specialized education and outreach skills; the RRTs provide their local regional knowledge. Using the feedback from both, OWEB staff members will recommend to the OWEB Board at their March 2009 meeting which proposals should get funded. This conference session, while open to everyone, is designed as an organizational and planning meeting for the first group of reviewers, the EORT. We'll discuss logistics of timing and paperwork as well as the process and expectations for our December 4 review meeting in Bend. You'll gain information and guidelines needed to review and score applications.
Participants will:
- Be prepared to receive the entire set of Education/Outreach Grant applications and will have the skills and guidelines needed to review their set.
- Be able to describe their role and the expectations of them for the team meeting on December 4 in Bend.
- Be able to confidently score applications utilizing the evaluation sheet.
- Become familiar with the variety, strength and scope of the many watershed education efforts across the state.
- Be able to describe the qualities of a high scoring Education/Outreach Grant proposal.
- Network with other EORT team members.
Presenter:
Carolyn M. Devine joined OWEB as communications coordinator in November 2007. Previously, she has worked with OSU Extension, Yamhill; as a consultant with Dean Runyan & Associates in Portland; and as associate director at The Berry Botanic Garden in Portland. She has more than 20 years of experience in outdoor education, and is a self-described native plant geek. She has two degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: A master’s in plant biology and a bachelor's in biology with a focus on biochemistry and cellular molecular biology.
Evaluations from Workshop Attendees
Read survey results.
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| Wrap-up Session |
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Friday 10-11:30 a.m.
Join with presenters and moderators from prior workshops in this track to hear a short summary of each session and identify issues that require additional discussion, attention or action. Each group will record and prioritize these issues. An OWEB board member will moderate the wrap-up exercise.
Participants will:
- Hear a short summary of each workshop in this track.
- Help identify issues that require additional discussion, attention or action.
- Prioritize issues identified.
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