Greater Yamhill Watershed Council

Programs: The greater yamhill watershed council's primary purpose is to work collaboratively with communities and landowners to develop and carry out voluntary watershed protection, restoration, enhancement, monitoring, and community engagement activities. Restoration: - partnered with the linfield college environmental studies department to continue development of a habitat restoration plan for cozine creek, beginning with the linfield campus. - hosted more than 15 community work parties to remove invasive noxious weeds from along cozine creek and baker creek in mcminnville, and hess creek in newberg. - partnered with oregon depts of agriculture and environmental quality to host a no-cost, confidential agricultural waste pesticide collection event to safely dispose of 49,000 lbs of unknown, unwanted, and legacy agricultural pesticides. Monitoring: - continued coordination of the yamhill pesticide stewardship partnership program (year 11), a long-term effort to identify and characterize water quality pollution related to pesticides in the yamhill river watershed, with special focus areas in cozine creek (urban) and palmer creek (agricultural). - continued coordination of yamhill fish spawning survey program (year 4), a volunteer-led, long-term study of the distribution and abundance of salmonid spawning/rearing habitat and populations across the yamhill river watershed. - continued coordination of summer stream temperature monitoring program (year 17) to assess and characterize water quality pollution related to high temperatures in salmonid-bearing streams in across the yamhill river and chehalem creek watersheds. Outreach & education: - completed a pilot-partnership with outdoor education adventures (year 3) to provide environmental education programs for youth and adults - engaged 400 students from sheridan high school and middle school in classroom lessons and field trips on watershed health. - conducted 105 hours of outdoor camps and field trips for youth and families