Healthy Ecosystems
Whether it's through environmental restoration, landscape stewardship, natural resources conservation, wilderness preservation, or creation care, everyone has a responsibility to help keep ecosystems healthy and functioning. No matter how you approach it, it's important not to lose sight of the necessary balance between ecological health, economic prosperity, and community vitality.
In rural places local culture is often intimately tied to people's interaction with the environment. Outside interests must be sensitive to how communities choose to exist within their local landscape. Inversely, protection and care for nature is a moral issue that cannot be cast aside solely for economic gain or cultural preservation.
These complex issues require balance and collaborative solutions. Too often in the West, social and environmental conflicts have played out as courtroom battles and ideological showdowns. Such one-sided approaches expend limited resources and often hurt everyone involved. Sustainable Northwest partners with diverse interests to help people come together and develop progressive solutions that can benefit us all.
Stories of Healthy Ecosystems
- Ecohaus
- Matt Freeman-Gleason acted on his commitment to sustainability and started Environmental Home Center, now Ecohaus, an eco-friendly building materials supplier.
- Cart'M Recycling
- Frustrated by the lack of recycling resources in Manzanita, Oregon, Lane deMoll and Kathleen Ryan started a citizen-run dump, recycling center and community center.
- Dungeness River Watershed Restoration
- Tribespeople, irrigators, property owners, conservationists, and public agencies came together to restore threatened salmon populations.
- Thundering Hooves
- Formerly a struggling conventional wheat farmer, Joel Huesby uses innovative techniques on his successful organic beef, chicken and turkey ranch.
- Tenmile Creek Watershed Restoration Project
- Dorie Belisle and her husband John worked with neighboring farms to protect the salmon and the agriculture on the Tenmile Creek Watershed.
- JEA Farms, Ltd.
- John Aeschliman promotes rich, moist soil in dry country using direct-seed or no-till farming to grow wheat.
- Leonetti Cellar
- Leonetti Cellar winemaker Gary Figgins and his son Chris, the winery's lead viticulturalist, cultivate soil health to create quality wines.
- Limberlost Tree Farm
- Herb and Grace Payne reclaim family land and replant cedars in the hope of recreating the old growth stands that were here a century ago.
- Moccasin Lake Ranch
- Preservation, conservation and production all blend together on Moccasin Lake Ranch which covers over 2200 acres in north central Washington.
- Read, Deanna and Jeremy Smith Family Farms
- Read Smith protects his topsoil with no-till farming on his ranch in eastern Washington’s Palouse region.
- Two Rivers Farm
- Nancy Denson and Nick Stemm celebrate the coexistence of the cultivated and the wild on their farm by supporting a balance between harvest and natural setting.
- Colvin Family Ranch
- Fred Colvin balances conservation and restoration with grass fed cattle ranching on his 640 acre property in western Washington.
- Double J Ranch
- Peter Goldmark draws on his scientific and farming background to run his grass finished yearling and wheat breeding ranch in Washington's Okanogan Valley.
- Hedlin Family Farm
- Dave Hedlin encourages long-range vision on his Skagit Valley farm and has joined with other local growers to preserve farmland, open spaces and wildlife habitat.
- Nash Huber & Delta Farm
- Partnering with PCC Natural Foods to create the Farmland Fund, farmer Nash Huber saved the Dungeness River Valley's Delta Farm from development.
- S & S Homestead Farm
- Henning Sehmsdorf and his family stay healthy by practicing biodynamic farming, and are moving towards self-sufficiency on Lopez Island, WA.
- Forest Concepts, LLC
- Forest Concepts promotes forest health and the local economy by using the by-products of forest restoration in constructing products that benefit watersheds.
- Gies Farm
- Dale Gies experimented with mustard plants and green manure to improve his soil quality and unexpectedly became a leader in the field of biofumigation.
- Peshastin Creek Growers Association
- Dr. John Dunley helps the Peshastin Creek Growers Association develop a soft pesticide program for their orchards and move away from conventional farming.
- Stillaguamish Old Channel Restoration
- Chuck Hazleton and the Snohomish County, WA community on the Stillaguamish River installed a water control structure to repair habitat for endangered salmon.
News
- SNW Board Chair wins 2008 Kerr Award from High Desert Museum
- Jane O’Keeffe honored for sustainable economic and natural resource management.
- Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Makes International Connections in UK
- HFHC garners international attention in Edinburgh, Scotland as a participant in the Forest Connect network.
- Welcome New Board Members
- Sustainable Northwest is pleased to welcome three new members to our Board of Directors: Camilla Seth, Jeff Allen, and Marcie McLaughlin.
- Oregon Business Plan and Rural Idaho Entrepreneur Recognized for Leadership in Sustainability and Conservation
- 2008 Cecil D. Andrus Leadership Awards Presented at SNW Gala on March 14th in Portland
- Klamath Basin Agreement establishes new paradigm for Western watershed management
- The proposed Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement represents a positive step forward for the management of the West's rivers, rangelands and forests.
- Sustainable Forestry and Green Building Tour
- SNW recently partnered with Northwest Natural Resource Group to host a full-day field tour of local sustainable forest management and wood products manufacturing.
- Our First Video: The People and Place of Lake County, Oregon
- Through interviews with community members and sweeping images of the quiet Lake County landscape, this video provides a beautiful history of the early days of the community-based sustainability movement in the Northwest. Featuring Paul Harlan, Collins Companies, Jim Walls, Lake County Resources Initiative, Jane O'Keeffe, SNW Board Member and Martin Goebel, SNW President on the story of collaboration on the Lakeview Sustained Yield Unit.
- Chewaucan Challenge: Return of the Desert Red Band Trout
- Due to a recent restoration and dam removal effort, the Chewaucan River in Lake County, Oregon is seeing the return of the Red Band Trout. Scheduled for July 22-25, 2007 in Lakeview, the first-annual Chewaucan Challenge is an elite catch-and-release fly fishing tournament to inaugurate the return of this once thriving recreational fishing industry.
