Calapooia Watershed Council

About the Organization

Organization category

Public Charity

Mission

The Calapooia Watershed Council shall promote and sustain the health of the Calapooia Watershed through stewardship, restoration, education, community involvement, and strategic partnerships.

Programs or services

The Calapooia Watershed Council implements vital habitat restoration projects, include surveying and monitoring local waterways, restoring riparian forests, controlling invasive weeds, and removing fish passage barriers to support native species like salmon. Beyond on-the-ground fieldwork, the council places a heavy emphasis on community involvement and environmental education. Cornerstone educational programs is the Urban Ecology partnership with local middle schools, and the "Linn Benton Salmon Watch", an experiential field trip initiative that teaches local youth about salmon biology, water quality, and healthy watershed systems. Our Education and Outreach also includes our award-winning "Roaming Rivers" freshwater snorkeling program, hiking and excursions for high school students and community at-risk youth.

Detailed programs

The CWC strategically identifies and develops habitat restoration opportunities, working closely with community and agency stakeholders in high-priority sub-basins and mainstem reaches.
Our habitat restoration is comprised of Fish Passage Improvement, Floodplain Enhancement, In-Stream Restoration, Oak Savanna, and Wetland Prairie restoration, Riparian restoration and tackling Invasive Species.
Our second main program is Youth Environmental Education which offers year-round seasonal and immersive experiences for middle to high school students partnering with local schools and community organizations. Through our partnerships we serve approximately 1500 youth annually, providing new and engaging experiences to connect them with their local rivers and watershed in a whole new way.

Target Audience

All residents of Linn County, with an educational focus on middle and high school students, and underserved, low-income, at-risk youth.

Geographic Focus

Linn County, Oregon

Current projects

Albany Oxbows Fish Passage and Habitat Restoration
Periwinkle Greenway Restoration
Truax Island and Greenway Restoration
Tub Run Streak Horned Lark and Wetland Prairie Restoration
Urban Ecology Education
Roaming Rivers Freshwater Snorkeling for Youth
Salmon Watch Program
Splashy Science with the Albany Public Library

Leadership

Executive Leadership Team comprised of Board Members and Executive Director

Funding Needs

Funding needs

Our Youth Education program requires critical funding to support and sustain our valuable, carefully curated curriculums, which provide equitable access to experiential, place-based environmental learning for all students in our community. By investing in these programs, our funders help bridge the opportunity gap, taking learning outside the traditional classroom and fostering the next generation of environmental stewards.

Impact & Recognition

Success stories

The Bowers Rock State Park Reconnection: More than a decade in the making, this massive partnership project successfully transformed a former gravel mining pit into a thriving, native fish sanctuary. CWC excavated a connector channel linking the 40-acre, stagnant gravel pit and Coon Creek back to the Willamette River. This reestablished natural, seasonal high flows and opened up a 1.4-mile-long complex of winter rearing habitat for federally threatened juvenile salmon and steelhead.

The Historic Brownsville Dam Removal: In a landmark project under NOAA's Open Rivers Initiative, CWC coordinated the removal of the 110-foot-wide Brownsville Dam. This single action instantly reopened over 40 miles of high-quality upstream spawning habitat for migrating salmonids.
Restoring the "Rocky Pasture": Demonstrating the power of local trust, CWC partnered with a multi-generational farming family to restore 100 acres of critical wet prairie habitat. By clearing invasive species, they successfully brought back nesting populations of the rare Streak Horned Lark.

Empowering At-Risk Youth: Beyond standard classrooms, CWC actively targets barrier-breaking outdoor programs. In partnership with regional organizations such as Jackson Street Youth Services, we engage alternative education students and at-risk youth in hands-on stewardship. Through active restoration projects—like planting native trees and clearing invasive species at Bryant Park—these programs provide therapeutic, real-world career-technical skills, building self-efficacy and scientific literacy for youth who often struggle in traditional school environments.
Community-Led Conservation: CWC bridges generational gaps by bringing local students directly into the field, turning restoration sites into outdoor classrooms where the next generation plants native forests.
Local teachers and students consistently tell us that our field trips are the absolute highlight of their school year. By shifting away from passive lectures and moving toward hands-on, student-driven experiences, we give youth the agency to act as real field scientists. Whether they are testing water quality, analyzing macroinvertebrates, or tracking salmon spawning, students report learning more about their local ecosystems in a single afternoon with us than they do over weeks of traditional textbook study.
"Our students don't just memorize facts on these trips—they lead their own discoveries. Watching a student who typically struggles in the classroom suddenly light up while analyzing a river sample or putting on a snorkel mask is incredibly powerful. The hands-on connection changes how they view science."
Through this active, immersive approach, we aren't just teaching biology; we are building a lifelong sense of stewardship, self-efficacy, and a genuine love for the natural world right here in our community.

Major funders

NOAA, OWEB and BPA for Habitat Restoration
Previous major funder for Youth Education was The Nature Conservancy which ended in 2024. Currently no major funders for Youth Education

Website & Social Media