W3 Updates

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Below our May 2026 newsletter content, please find our May 2026 and April 2026 Newsletters in PDF form. We’re working on getting these up on our W3 website too.

Thank you!
– Alexis, Ruth, & Jack – your West Willamette Watersheds (W3) Collaboration Team

Hi W3 Community,

We’re excited to share the latest on our W3 initiative. Read on for exciting news about the new W3 community Working Committees we’re launching, our focus on community input and engagement this summer, regular community info sessions, and a thank-you to the Community Consulting Project for their pro-bono work that has been a huge help to our collaborative efforts.

For those of you who have been waiting to hear how to get more involved, now is your chance! 

Drum roll, please….!  

We’re launching two W3 Working Committees! Part working group, part future W3 Committee, help us shape these by getting involved! These are a result of conversations we’ve been having with you, our community members, as well as internally about W3’s priorities this coming year. The working committees we’re standing up are: community building and engagement (interest-raising, conversations, network-building and listening), and watershed planning (science-informed, technical needs). Below you’ll find more info and how to get involved, including some specific dates. Hope to see you there!

Community Input This Summer

This summer we’re emphasizing community engagement to inform what W3 will look like. We are gathering input from and building community across the geography, tributaries to the Willamette ranging from Wilsonville up to Forest Park, and need your help! Please read below about our emerging Community-Building Working Committee. Whether you’d like to spread the word about W3 in your local community spaces, or support us on the back-end with entering and tracking data, we are ready for your ideas, energy, and help! 

We want to ensure W3’s future work supports the needs of our community. As we expand the work of watershed councils into areas that haven’t been represented before. We’re partnering with the Intertwine Alliance to put on a community input session, on Sat 8/1, to connect with community members we haven’t heard from yet. 

We are also looking forward to making connections at the City of Wilsonville’s Community Environmental Stewardship event this Saturday with the Backyard Habitat Certification Program!

W3 Community Info Sessions 

We’re launching monthly community information sessions for everyone. It’s a place for those brand-new to W3 to learn how to get involved, as well as for “old timers” to get the latest updates. 

Mark your calendars for the first Wednesday of every month! RSVP here to join us on Zoom.
Upcoming dates: June 3rd, 1-2; July 1st, 1:30-2:30; August 5th, 1:30-2:30

Humble Appreciation to the CCP team

We wanted to share our appreciation to Ben Rice, Brian Lynch, and Jon Biemer, from the Community Consulting Project via Organization Development Network Oregon. Their skillful guidance, time and effort is supporting the work between Tryon Creek & Oswego Lake WC’s Boards to guide W3 forward. 

Launching Community Working Groups:

Below please read the two emerging groups that we’ll be standing up this coming month, related to community building and watershed planning. Information on one or two more to come is held below, too.

Please fill out this Google Form to indicate your availability to participate in these emerging groups! The time windows & dates proposed fall in these date/time windows: Wed 27th, 5-7pm; Thurs 28th, 11-12, 2-3pm; Fri 29th, 12-3pm; Mon 1st, 2-7pm; Tues 2nd, 3-5pm.

Community Building 

The Community-Building working committee will collaborate on getting the word out about W3 during its formation, especially summer 2026, and build our community by helping to establish and deepen relationships across the new geography. This group will lend capacity to W3’s efforts to connect with neighborhood-based groups and increase our public visibility with the goal of increased engagement and awareness. It will connect people interested in supporting W3 with the best way for them to get involved given their interests and abilities. 

Helpful skills for this group, related to specific roles we envision, include: enthusiasm and experience around community building and event planning; writing, graphic/visual design and marketing; website maintenance and data entry & management; public speaking and representing W3 at community meetings; media (video editing, etc) & media relations (earned media/local publications); hosting and relationship building. 

We anticipate this group will meet about twice monthly over Zoom for 1.5 hrs, and sometimes in person; reach out to Alexis for information on how to join.

Watershed Planning

The Watershed Planning working committee includes community members, particularly scientific and technical experts experienced in watershed planning and restoration, to help plan the futures of our West Willamette watersheds. Most Watershed Councils statewide report on their own science-based planning documents, and this group will spearhead efforts to develop this guidance for W3. There are varied levels of existing data about the water quality and health of the tributaries in the W3 geography. This group will help to close gaps and implement science-based planning. This watershed planning will provide strategic guidance for W3’s future work and will also dovetail with input from community members’ watershed priorities.

We anticipate this group will meet about monthly over Zoom for 1-1.5 hrs, and sometimes in person; reach out to Alexis for information on how to join. 

Other W3 emerging groups: 

We are getting ready to open our Development Committee (fundraising, grant applications) to community members. 

We’re also establishing an Academic Workgroup to strengthen collaboration across academic institutions throughout the W3 geography: between Tryon Creek & Oswego Lake WCs, we already are working with students and staff from Lewis & Clark College, Portland State University, and PCC Sylvania. These collaborations extend our staff’s capacity, strengthens relationships between our organization and academic networks, and provides awesome skillset- and career- building opportunities for students. 

Please respond to this email if you are interested in either of these two groups, too. 

A final note from Alexis, to speak on behalf of Jack and Ruth from the W3 team: We have been really enjoying the multitudes of conversations we’ve been having, ideas we’ve been exploring, and connections we’ve been making, as this work moves forward. It’s very exciting and we’re lucky to have many interested, talented, and passionate people contributing their energy and skills to this endeavor. There are so many people driven to support the health of our watersheds – onwards and upwards! 

Thank you!

Alexis, Jack, & Ruth

your West Willamette Watersheds (W3) Collaboration team!

Alexis Barton Castro, she/her, Tryon Creek Watershed Council Executive Director; 

Jack Halsey, he/him, Oswego Lake Watershed Council Executive Director; and 

Ruth Howell, she/her, West Willamette Watersheds Collaboration Development Manager