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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
- New Leaf Paper
- Jeff Mendelsohn took on one of the most polluting industries in the world, the paper industry, with the goal of producing the best environmental paper.
- Ecohaus - Environmental Home Center
- Matt Freeman-Gleason acted on his commitment to sustainability and started Environmental Home Center, now Ecohaus, an eco-friendly building materials supplier.
- Greener Pastures Poultry, LLC
- Aaron and Kelly Silverman use portable fencing and housing to raise high quality organic free-range chickens for sale to local high-end restaurants.
News
- 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.