Thank You!
The 2024 Restoration and Research team would like to thank all affiliates of the Environmental Leadership Program, as your work, dedication, and knowledge has allowed us to attain both a better understanding of ecological monitoring and the skills to design and implement an ecological monitoring plan. Being an ELP student has allowed us to significantly expand our knowledge, skills, and interests, and it wouldn’t have been possible without you!
We would like to give a special thank you to Jim and Jane Russell, who allowed us the opportunity to work and learn on their property, shared local and agricultural knowledge with us, and provided us with a sublime resting place accompanied by baked goods. We would also like to thank the manager of the farm, Seth Morgan, for helping us to both better understand sustainable agricultural management and maintain a safe working environment.
We would also like to thank Lauren Ponisio and Rose McDonald of the University of Oregon’s Ponisio Lab, for allowing us to be research participants in their ongoing study regarding pollinators.
Lastly, we would like to thank Peg Boulay (ELP Co-Director and Instructor) and Lydia Lapporte (GE Project Manager) for their continued guidance, support, and feedback within our work. Thank you for giving us the knowledge and tools to design and implement a restorative monitoring program, evaluate the efficacy of our work and the work of past ELP teams, and grow into stewards of the land.
We would also like to acknowledge the work, commitment, and diligence of the past ELP teams working at Whitewater Ranch since 2014. The research and restoration of previous ELP teams has served as the basis of our restoration project, and the attentiveness and dedication of their work has been greatly admired and appreciated.
Land Acknowledgement
The McKenzie River Valley is located on Kalapuya Ilihi, the Indigenous homeland of the Kalapuya and Molalla people. The Kalapuya people were dispossessed of their Indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the Coast Reservation in Western Oregon, following the treaties of 1851 and 1855. Today, descendants of these tribes are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and continue to make important environmental, social, spiritual, and economic contributions in their communities among others (UO Diversity and Inclusion, n.d.). This land was integral to our learning and restorative processes, and could not have been possible without the kinship relation and stewardship of the land by Kalapuya peoples.