For 25 years, Willamette Riverkeeper has worked to protect and restore the Willamette River’s water quality and habitat. Using the tenets of advocacy, research, and education the organization has carefully grown and expanded programming over the past 25 years to continually engage and educate residents of the Willamette River Basin. Today WR implements multiple programs: River Discovery, River Guardians, Habitat Restoration, Clean Water Act Enforcement and Superfund Clean-Up, Research, and River Stewardship of the Willamette Water Trail. Additionally, WR owns and stewards 3 riverside proprieties, encompassing over 250 acres of floodplain land for public access and recreation.

More than 70% of Oregonians live within the Willamette Basin. WR’s mission and work to protect water quality and habitat affects everyone living within the Basin whether that be a direct river user, a farmer irrigating fields, or a resident benefitting from the water they drink and a healthy river basin. WR works across 3 of the 4 counties impacted by 99 Girlfriends funding and a total of 8 counties in Oregon (Benton, Clackamas, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill).

Each year WR engages thousands of volunteers in trash clean-ups to remove 1,000’s of yards of trash from the river and habitat restoration work to identify and map aquatic weeds or help work to restore native vegetation throughout the basin. WR’s legal work helps to pass groundbreaking bills to protect the River from toxic chemicals and harmful activities and bring polluters to justice. WR brings 100’s of people on the river annually to experience it and learn about its history and ecology. WR worked for many years to help get the record of decision for Portland Harbor superfund site and continues working to reform how the US Army Corps of Engineers works in the Willamette to restore wild fish.