 |
|---|
|
 |
 |
|---|
Oregon's Ocean Looking out on the Umpqua River Old growth in the Alsea Valley
Coast Range Association
P.O. Box 2250
Corvallis, OR 97339
541-753-1380
CRA Board
of Directors
Judy Myers
President
Marie Cole
Vice President
Don Andre
Vice President for
Community Forestry
David Radtke
Treasurer
Tom Petruscish
Jim Carlson
CRA Staff
Chuck Willer
Director
Chuck's contact info:
chuckw at coastrange.org
541-231-6651
CRA Office: 541-753-1380
Patrick Tempel
State Lands
Email:
patpeg at oregoncoast.com
Daniel Hauser
Federal Lands Intern
The Coast Range Association thanks the following foundations
for their generous support:
The Bullitt
Foundation
2008
The Lazar
Foundation
2009
2011 CRA Board of Directors retreat
Over the weekend of September 17th the CRA board held its annual retreat. This year we discussed
dramatic new direction in the form of linking four community-based themes of work. They are:
Community owned forests.
Community supported and involved agriculture.
Community supported fisheries.
Community-based finance.
Community based agriculture is a well expored movement across Oregon. Much less explored are the
notions of community owned forests or community supported fisheries. As many of you already known,
the CRA has supported the creation of community owned forests for ten years or more. In the past five
years we have focused our efforts helping create and build the Oregon Coast Community Forest Association.
As we explored community-based agriculture, forestry and fisheries we quickly observed that
each agenda is very different from the nonprofit, civil society work of the CRA organization.
The difference is that each community-based agenda is grounded in real business enterprises that
must compete in the market place. That fact led us to the notion that investment capital was a key
element in supporting viable enterprises. We therefore created a fourth category of work called
community-based finance.
Recently, CRA staff person Chuck Willer attended the Slow Money conference in San Francisco.
What we had been talking among oursleves about was, in fact, a national movement involving socially
directed finance targeting agricultural businesses. To get an idea about Slow Money visit the
conference website: slowmoney.org/national-gathering/
The CRA board gave permission for a serious exploration of how the above four agendas of work
might work as programs of the CRA. We don't have that answered at the moment but we are
excited about fresh direction that seems to really fit the times. Look forward to announcements in
2012 as the board determines our future direction and specific programs.
Pictures from the September, 2010 CRA Tenmile social and cookout.
CRA Vice President for Community Forestry, Don Andre, discusses a beautiful piece of Sitka Spruce with Andrea Scharf.
Chuck Willer visits with Phyllis Steeves and Joanne Kittel of the View the Future group of Yachats.
Ever positive and smiling CRA Board President Judy Myers.
CRA board member Tom Petrusich tends to board business before the afternoon social.
Tenmile residents Jasmine and Rosie Hood pose with award winning Oregon writer Alison Clement.
About the Coast Range Region
and the Coast Range Association:
The Coast Range Region
The Oregon and Washington Coast Range is one of the greatest regions
in the world. Its natural beauty and its bountiful resources are why we
live here. They provide the pillars of the economy: forest products,
tourist dollars, and the income brought by retirees. A great many artistic
and creative people are attracted by our amazing landscape, particularly
along the coastline.
The Coast Range Association was formed in 1991. We work to defend
the region's interests, protect its natural and cultural endowments
and restore what has been lost. As such, we are deeply committed
to the stewardship of our natural resources. The concern for people
and the land informs our mission: To build just and sustainable communities
that provide for people and the natural world.
The Coast Range Association has always been practical in its work but
never in denial of the problems we face. Two problems we see all too often
are friends and neighbors struggling to earn a living while at the same
time too many landowners abusing the land. We know these two issues
are connected in complicated ways. When timber companies clear the
forest, everyone suffers from the loss of future economic opportunity,
clean water, nontimber forest products, and a broad array of forest services.
Like almost every rural region in the U.S., social problems are not
uncommon and are connected in many ways to our past boom-and-bust
timber economy.
Protecting the region's natural beauty and economic vitality requires
stewardship in land management. The two largest landowners for the
region are governments and large timber companies. Together they own and
manage 91 percent of all land.
The economic and social welfare of the region is closely tied to the land
either through amenities that attract tourists, retirees, and artists or
through the bounty of resources and ecological services provided by
forests and rivers. We know that if done right, protecting forests and
reforming forestry will pay off in greater regional economic vitality.
The Coast Range Association has developed significant capacity to
advance proper land stewardship through forestry reform and
conservation planning.
Achieving harmony between nature and people is not only a foundation for
long-term sustainability: it's politically smart and the right thing to do.
We are a nonprofit,
public
service organization
We are a small organization in a region with big challenges. As a nonprofit,
we live by the quality of our work and the support that work engenders
from individuals and philanthropic institutions. We are one of a handful
of Northwest organizations doing front-line conservation work with
paid staff. We have no endowment, so our ability to do work relies on
our ability to raise funds, marshal volunteer resources, and leverage
our capacity through leadership.
As a tax-exempt organization we are limited in our ability to advance
new laws. Our work is therefore weighted toward educating and
empowering others through research, education, organization,
and leadership. We value a direct connection to local communities in
order to hear first-hand about people's concerns and their own local
initiatives to harmonize people and the natural world.
In 1996 the World Wildlife Fund assessed all the earth's bioregions and
ranked the Coast Range as Globally Outstanding: the highest ranking for
biological distinctiveness. The WWF assessment names our region the
Central Pacific Coastal Forests (Bioregion #34).
Our Values:
What
We Keep In Mind As We Do Our Work
1. We value excellence.
2. We value work that lowers misunderstanding and conflict.
3. We value information and believe informed consent to be the basis
for democratic rule.
4. We value grassroots activism and support local initiatives.
5. We value all people and seek diverse involvement in CRA governance and
programs.
We never discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, class status or
cultural background. We pro-actively seek out the disempowered and disadvantaged for
organizational participation.
Coast Range Association
Copyright © 2002-2003 Coast Range Association