WaterWatch of Oregon stands among those calling for racial justice and accountability after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless other people of color at the hands of law enforcement and/or white supremacists. The brutal and horrific killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer compels us to express solidarity with black people across the …

As WaterWatch turns 35 and celebrates, albeit quietly, its singular and determined presence in Oregon’s water conservation movement, we thought it would be appropriate to turn to someone well known for wisdom and perspective: Bob Hunter. Hunter has been a leading force in this, one of Oregon’s most muscular, tough-minded environmental bodies. A WaterWatch founding board member, Hunter co-drafted Oregon’s …

Born in Los Angeles, writer and activist Andrea Scharf has been living and writing quietly along the Yachats River the past dozen years or so, “just beyond the fog zone,” as she describes it. In between her native West Coast urban roots and Northwest Coastal life has been an extraordinary amount of living, seeing and experiencing. Indeed, the born and …

Two thousand kilometers.  One river. One paddler. Last summer, Canadian artist and adventurer Claire Dibble paddled alone in a skin-on frame kayak that she built (with some help from her dad, Keith), starting at Columbia Lake near Canal Flats, British Columbia, and ending just past Astoria, Oregon. The journey—from “source to sea” along the Columbia River—began in early July and …

(It’s been 10 years since the removal of Savage Rapids Dam. Today, this stretch of the Rogue River near Grants Pass moves freely. Photo courtesy of John DeVoe.) This October marks the ten-year anniversary of the Rogue River moving freely for the first time in nearly a century on a stretch of river near Grants Pass, Oregon, when work crews …

In the Summer 2019 Instream, we announced that longtime development director Molly Whitney departed for the Cascade Forest Conservancy to become its executive director. In this fall issue, we would like to formally introduce WaterWatch’s new development director, Neil Brandt. Many of you have already encountered Neil in person, on the phone, or by email. He’s been at WaterWatch for …