Thursday Night, 11/29, at Salem Public Library: The Willamette River

English: Aerial view of the Willamette River near Salem, Oregon, shown as a diagram to explain the 1996 flooding in the area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Straub Environmental Learning Center will be hosting another lecture in this year’s series on Thursday, Nov. 29th at the Salem Library from 7 pm – 8 pm. 
 
Travis Williams will cover a range of topics related to the Willamette River. He will focus on the Clean Water Act, and the status of the Willamette River's water quality and habitat. He will provide a brief update on the Portland Harbor Superfund site and the likelihood of a comprehensive and timely cleanup. He will also provide a focus on the Willamette River Greenway Program, a fantastic public lands vision for the Willamette that was created back in the late 1960s by Governor Straub.  The Greenway was hatched near the same time as the Beach Bill, originally envisioned with the same notion of public trust values, yet this program did not reach the same heights.

Travis Williams has worked in river conservation since the 1990s and since 2000 has led Willamette Riverkeeper (WR). In addition to directing WR’s operations, he serves as Riverkeeper, making regular patrols of the river from Eugene to Portland and seeking to uphold the Clean Water Act through Advocacy and legal action. While implementing the Clean Water Act, Cleanup up Portland Harbor, and decreasing the impact of dams along the Willamette are his main priorities, Travis also enjoys getting people to experience the river in low impact craft such as canoes.

Earlier Travis worked for American Rivers and Conservation International in Washington DC. He is an avid canoeist who has traveled many western rivers and photographed their natural beauty. He holds a B.A. in International Studies from Portland State University and an M.S. in Environmental Science from The Johns Hopkins University. A fifth-generation Oregonian who grew up in Milwaukie, Oregon, Travis was on the Willamette River with friends at a young age. In March of 2009, his book The Willamette River Field Guide, was published by Timber Press. He has received the Skidmore Prize in 2004 for his leadership, and was awarded the Columbia River Hero Award by the Columbia Basin Toxics Reduction Workgroup for his work on reducing toxics in the Willamette. He is now working on a book about the John Day River.

See you on Thursday night!  Life Source Natural Foods will be providing free snacks before and after the lecture.

Michelle Cordova
Manager, Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center
Mailing Address: PO Box 12363 Salem, OR 97309
Physical Address: 1320 A Street NE, Salem, OR 97301
Phone: (503) 391-4145
www.fselc.org