Meet the amazing community members and project partners who are being recognized for their outstanding service to the watershed this year!
Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB)
Outstanding Community Partner
In recent years EWEB has emerged as a strong partner to the Long Tom Watershed council and a coalition of partners focused on stormwater improvements in the Eugene/Springfield metro area. EWEB’s presence as a tremendous collaborator, thinking partner, and funder in this cross-watershed vision is helping the council and partners advance innovative urban-focused approaches to protecting drinking water, water quality for our legged and finned aquatic residents, and supporting community health in the Upper Willamette and beyond. We are very proud of our partnership and friendship with EWEB, and are excited about what our growing urban waters collaborative is accomplishing together! Special thanks to Nancy Toth and Karl Morgenstern for their friendship and commitment to this ambitious vision and exciting work!
Little Red Fox Farm (Casares Family)
Outstanding Project Landowner
The Casares family of Little Red Fox Farm have been fantastic project partners on their Spencer Creek property, where we’re working to improve rare upland prairie and oak savanna habitat. During last year’s Annual Celebration, they contributed to one of the many highlights of the evening by bringing their adorable baby goats! We’re very grateful to Dan and Gen are for being such engaged and enthusiastic land stewards.
Cathy Swanek and Family
Outstanding Project Landowner
Cathy Swanek and her family have been instrumental in bringing back fish passage to an important Coyote Creek tributary. Throughout this multi-phased project with many partners and facets, they’ve shown tremendous patience and flexibility. Just this June, we were able to celebrate the completion of their project on Bear Creek, which is now open for year-round fish passage! Thanks, Cathy and family, for keeping the long-term vision for the Long Tom in sight!
Grahm Trask, Trask Design & Construction
Outstanding Project Contractor
Grahm Trask has been a long-time respected restoration contractor in this community, and LTWC has entrusted many projects to his care and expertise over the years. This last year, Grahm did an outstanding job wrapping up the project at the Swanek property mentioned above, and he went above and beyond to fill in as project manager while Jed Kaul spent a couple months out on sabbatical. Thanks for being such a steady presence on our fish passage and instream projects, Grahm!
Oregon Pacific Bank
Outstanding Community Partner
Last year, LTWC opened our accounts with Oregon Pacific and were immediately impressed by their friendly, helpful service. When the pandemic hit this year, we submitted our application to the federal CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program, and OPB went above and beyond to make sure our application was among the early submissions. They worked through the weekend to process applications like ours, and because of their diligence and dedication we were able to secure one of the early loans in April. Thanks to Kristin, Megan, and team for their amazing service!
Robin FitzClemen
Outstanding Community Partner
Robin is a multimedia journalist who recently graduated from the journalism master’s program at the University of Oregon. Because of Robin’s creativity, LTWC and our partners at WREN were able to bring you the Turtle Tales videos, which featured Robin’s final project for his degree – The Pond Turtles of Golden Gardens documentary. But that’s not all – Robin generously gave of his time to produce several bonus features including a narrated turtle identification video and a 360 view of Golden Gardens. During this time while we can’t provide in-person watershed education, Robin was instrumental in providing an innovative way for us to continue to engage with the watershed community. Thanks, Robin!