Preschool Spring Science at the Library
This spring, preschoolers from Douglas County have been learning about science in our new free program at the library! The first week, we learned about spring weather by making a rain cloud in a cup and creating our own rainbows. The following week, we learned about plants in springtime and how they grow. We talked [...]
Annual Banquet & Auction
Our Annual Banquet and Silent Auction is one of the highlights of the year. Each year we celebrate our achievements and provide members with a timely keynote speaker. The support from our members is crucial and the evening is a fun time where members can meet the Board of Directors and key members of the [...]
Spring 2019
Stanley Petrowski
Almost ten years ago, I was honored to be invited to join the Board of Directors of Umpqua Watersheds. It has been a wonderful experience to share the challenges that threaten the natural world with such a diverse Board. So much change is transpiring in the web of life that without their mutually [...]
Spring 2019
Stanley Petrowski
UW resources are devoted to so many restoration issues that the field seems to be a bubbling cauldron. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. As issues come to the surface, we address them within our means. From our perspective, the need to act is constant. The Umpqua chub, a small indigenous fish found [...]
Outreach – We Need You
Barbara Lynch
WE NEED YOU!Barbara Lynch joined the Umpqua Watersheds Board of Directors in the summer of 2018, and she has since become the Outreach Committee Chair. She is thrilled to explore all the beautiful wildlands Oregon has to offer. Barbara works as a preschool teacher at a private school, and she strives to [...]
Spring 2019
Wilderness Committee… Robbin Shindele
The Wilderness committee has been doing a lot the last few months. We’ve added some new businesses to our endorser list. We have been active in the newly formed UW grants committee and been working on our own grant applications.
Our caroling event in December went very well. Calling [...]
Spring 2019
Facilities Management… John Hunter
The crazy weather late February rally tested the heartiness of our building and we are happy to report that it all stayed outside. For the first time in years the interior our office has been leak free. No more pans and buckets to collect water. No more mops and rags to [...]
Public Interest Environmental Law Conference
Kasey Hovik, Executive Director
Over the last 35 years, Land and Water hosts the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) at the University of Oregon. It is the world’s largest public interest environmental law conference and usually draws several members from Umpqua Watersheds as well as members from our sister organizations. Unfortunately, snow and ice [...]
Monitoring the county park activities
DCPARC Update….John Hunter
We continue to monitor the situation at Whistlers Bend Park where more than 100 trees in the campground were cut. Far more than 11 reported by the Parks Advisory Board (PAB. Public awareness of the logging was non-existent and no harvest plan was filed with the Oregon Dept. of Forestry. The logging [...]
Americorps Voice Christine Smith and Maris Wilson
Spring 2019 Christine Smith
Education at Umpqua Watersheds is flourishing with new connections resulting in more programs and additional youth interactions! Maris and I enjoy working in the office together, collaborating on some projects and working individually on others. I’ve been continuing programs from previous years and expanding on them while finding ways to bring [...]
Administration Update
Executive Director, Kasey Hovik
In mid-November the Board of Directors (BOD) and staff of Umpqua Watersheds (UW) met for our annual strategic planning meeting. We spent the whole day reviewing accomplishments of the past year, our strategic plan and making plans for the coming year. Over the past six years I have had the opportunity [...]
Fishing with Fremont
After learning rules, regulations, fish anatomy, fish identification, and knot tying with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Fremont Middle School students were ready to try their hand at fishing! We traveled to Cooper Creek where students worked together to practice baiting hooks and casting lines. We didn’t get any bites, but everyone had [...]
Biochar: An Ancient Solution to a Modern Global Crisis
Ken Carloni, Ph.D.
biochar /ˈbīōˌCHär/ noun: charcoal produced from plant matter and stored in the soil as a means of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. (Online Dictionary)
When the Portuguese first arrived in Amazonia, they discovered small islands of dark, highly productive soils associated with indigenous villages. Unlike other notoriously poor soils [...]
Winter 2018
As 99.7 KQUA nears two years of age, our audience has grown significantly. An average listener reports that they listen to the station as much as 2-3 hours a day. The popularity of 99.7 KQUA is due to the airing of more music and less talk and advertisements. However, when we play a message on [...]
Winter 2018
Robbin Schindele
The Wilderness Committee has been busy since the last newsletter. Our ongoing effort to get business support for the Crater Lake Wilderness Proposal continues to grow. We currently have 74 businesses and are nearing our goal of 100 businesses before our next Annual Banquet. Our federal legislators have told us that support from [...]
Winter 2018
Stanley Petrowski
Greetings and salutations. We’ve been remarkably busy as usual. In this newsletter, you will read the reports from the committee chairs and dedicated members of the organization. We have been extremely active in the community and continue to work hard on Outreach, Conservation, Restoration and Education of our Umpqua Watershed. We have many [...]
Winter 2018
Stanley Petrowski
Umpqua Watersheds has participated in numerous forest collaboratives over the last decade and a half that have served several purposes. Our fundamental purpose is to “restore the rest.” From its inception UW has held restoration ecology as a fundamental principle guiding our desire to find some modicum of common ground for watershed management. [...]
Winter 2018
J. Patrick Quinn
“The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.” I borrowed [...]
Strategic Planning
Kasey Hovik, Executive Director
In mid-November the Board of Directors (BOD) and staff of Umpqua Watersheds (UW) met for our annual strategic planning meeting. We spent the whole day reviewing accomplishments of the past year, our strategic plan and making plans for the coming year. Over the past six years I have had the opportunity [...]
Winter 2018
Facilities Management
John Hunter
The close of 2018 marks the first full year for the Facilities Management Committee (FMC) and what a remarkable year it has been filled with learning experiences, challenges, setbacks, and accomplishments. We achieved much through cooperation and commitment. As we reported in previous newsletters, we accomplished a number of immediate projects [...]