2018-19 Friends of the Columbia Gorge Annual Report

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

By its nature, our annual report is a look back, a review of what we’ve done in the past year. But we also have many things to look forward to in the year ahead. 

Many businesses measure progress by results you can see. In the world of land conservation, however, accomplishments are often better measured by what’s not there. From our efforts to protect stunning vistas at Cape Horn to Mosier Plateau, Friends has successfully preserved and protected numerous vital tracts of land from development across the Gorge over the past decade. 
 

Bringing down the house

In the coming year, Friends will embark on an exciting project to remove a highly visible two-story house—along with an accompanying well, garage, and septic tank—on a 10-acre parcel of land that the land trust owns on Memaloose Bluff. Along with deconstructing the house, Friends will conduct other ecological restoration efforts to make the land suitable for eventual acquisition and long-term care by the U.S. Forest Service.
 

Responding to a changing climate 

Climate change is a clear threat to the future health of the Columbia Gorge. Creating climate resilience will increasingly help drive our land conservation and advocacy efforts. As momentum to address climate change builds around the Pacific Northwest, advocating for practical, on-the-ground policies in the Gorge will be a key priority for our work in the year ahead. We worked for a decade to shut down Oregon’s largest carbon emitter (PGE’s Boardman coal-fired power plant), stop a fracked natural gas plant (Troutdale Energy Center), and halt six coal and oil terminals. Those successes honed our skills and give us the space to push for additional, new protections that promote climate resilience.
 

Fabulous forty 

As Friends of the Columbia Gorge celebrates its 40th year in 2020, we’ll unroll a new logo (actually, our first true logo), and launch a series of new public engagement efforts to broaden our work with community partners, both inside the Gorge and beyond. A wide cross section of public support is critical if we are to preserve the Columbia Gorge for future generations, and a new organization-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative is now officially underway.

Who said 40 is mid-life? We feel like we’re just getting started. And we’re setting the stage for Friends to be even better and stronger than ever in the coming decade.

View Print Version of Annual Report (PDF)