DOUBLE your year-end gift today

We are grateful to announce that this year, the Brainerd Foundation will generously match your year-end gift up to $35,000 to help keep Oregon lovable, and make it even more livable.

In 1973, Oregon Governor Tom McCall said in an address to the Legislature, “You and I shouldn’t claim we love Oregon more than anyone else, but that we love Oregon as much as anyone. Our thoughts today, and our deliberations to come, must spring from our determination to keep Oregon lovable and to make it even more livable.” Tom McCall that same year signed Oregon's statewide land use planning system into law.

A History of Fighting for Central Oregon's Rivers

We have used much of this year to reflect on one of the state’s more lovable qualities, the turquoise blue water of the Metolius River and the ancient Ponderosa Pines that surround her banks. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the protection of the Metolius River Basin as an Area of Critical State Concern (ACSC), permanently protecting the River for future generations and preserving critical wildlife habitat. We are proud to have led the charge for this designation that was the culmination of over a century of protection by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, local homeowners, community groups and environmentalists.

The Basin has a long history of stewardship. Native peoples honored the River as a sacred life force in the dry landscape of the high desert. Early settlers felt drawn to the special quality of the River and surrounding woods as they made their way west.

They built summer cabins and camps, and raised their children and grandchildren to admire its beauty. Today, people travel from all over the world to explore and enjoy this natural treasure. The draw of its beauty, though, comes at a price. Since the arrival of these settlers, development pressures have put the Metolius in danger through construction, water management, and habitat destruction. 

This fate has also befallen our beloved Deschutes River, long plagued by mismanagement and over use. Irrigation districts that draw water from the Deschutes recently submitted a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) detailing their plans for the next 30 years of water management, triggering the biggest decision-point in our lifetimes for the long-term health of the river. Poorly managed irrigation and wasteful practices have created a river whose flows are highly volatile and unnatural, eroding the banks of the river and devastating wildlife habitat. 

The fight to save the Upper Deschutes River is probably the most significant ecological issue we have ever faced in Central Oregon.

We plan to do for the Deschutes what we did for the Metolius and fight for its protection at any cost, but it is a fight we cannot win alone. The Metolius Basin is as it is today because of the collective efforts of people who strove to keep it lovable for hundreds of years. The Deschutes will be no different.

At this critical moment for the River, your year-end gift will go twice as far thanks to a generous matching grant from the Brainerd Foundation. Join us—be a defender.