Working across both urban and rural communities Clean Water Services and its partners have restored more than a 100 river miles and 20,000 acres in the Tualatin River Watershed. Clean Water Services (www.cleanwaterservices.org) is a public water resources utility serving more than 550,000 in the Portland metro area. In 2004, the utility and its partners initiated the development of a riparian restoration program to meet regulatory requirements under the Clean Water Act (CWA). This program has evolved over ten years into one of the Nation’s most effective landscape conservation programs (www.jointreeforall.org) while addressing key ecological, economic and social values beyond the Clean Water Act. The results include substantial benefits in biodiversity, wildlife habitat, wetland function, floodplain connectivity, channel complexity, nutrient/pesticide management, irrigation efficiency, erosion control, and farm planning.

This full day tour will highlight several rural enhancement projects within the thriving agricultural communities west of Portland. The tour will include national and regional partnerships and the social and technical strategies used to implement and finance this landscape conservation program. Projects will include partnerships with Metro (Maroon Ponds and Carpenter Creek Natural Areas) and NRCS Wetland Reserve and ECREP Programs (Hutchinson Wetland Reserve Project and ECREP’s Duyck-Forest Hills project). The tour will highlight wetland, prairie and riparian restoration projects located along Tualatin River in different stages of restoration from agricultural croplands. Discussion will include partnerships, site preparation, planting strategies to increase diversity, integrating beaver into floodplain design, wildlife habitat for priority species and adaptive management strategies to create resilient ecosystems.