WRC Launches Five-Year Strategic Plan

Through the hard work of staff, Board and friends, Western Rivers Conservancy has just completed its new five-year strategic plan entitled "Great Rivers of the West." The plan calls for a new approach to river conservation, one that focuses on the best remaining rivers, combines private and public resources, creates new forms of land stewardship, partners with corporate landowners and results in the protection of whole river ecosystems.

Since 1988, Western Rivers Conservancy has built a record of success in the Pacific Northwest. We have shown that a lean, highly skilled, highly focused organization can accomplish dramatic results. Now it is time to begin expanding, slowly and strategically, into the other regions of the West.

The "Great Rivers of the West" program is built on nine major initiatives:

• Survey the 13 western states to identify the 100 most outstanding river ecosystems.
• Create major sanctuaries on rivers of the highest quality by acquiring critical habitat lands. Where possible, conserve the whole river from source to mouth.
• Focus our efforts on eight ecoregions that are especially rich in high-quality rivers.
• Create private, non-profit "River Trusts" to be long-term land stewards and river protectors.
• Use creativity to achieve maximum leverage in land purchases, assembling capital from numerous sources, both private and public.
• Build a $10 million revolving River Protection Fund to help us seize land purchase opportunities.
• Partner with selected corporations with extensive land holdings, such as utilities and timber companies.
• Monitor the quality of our results over the long term.
• Build a stronger Board, staff and infrastructure to implement this ambitious plan.

By 2010, Western Rivers Conservancy plans to have all these elements in place so that we can begin to implement our program across the West. The challenge is to mobilize private and public resources to create a series of major sanctuaries on our best western rivers, from the Northwest rainforest to the Sonoran desert, where native fish, wildlife and people can flourish.