Western Rivers Conservancy seeks your support to help fund creation of Reflection Point at Cottonwood Canyon and to establish the Jon Roush Fund within WRC’s River Protection Fund, a revolving fund that will be used to protect critical riverlands across the West.
Cottonwood Canyon State Park on Oregon's John Day River
Photography | Dave Jensen
A centennial gift to Oregon State Parks in honor of one of the West’s great conservationists
There’s no knowing where our rivers would be today if it weren’t for the
efforts of committed individuals who have cared enough, believed enough
and worked hard enough to protect them. One of those people, a person
who has had a profound impact on the West by dedicating nearly 50 years
of his life to land conservation, is Jon Roush.
In Summer 2022, Western Rivers Conservancy will honor Jon by creating
Reflection Point at Cottonwood Canyon in Oregon’s Cottonwood Canyon
State Park, on the banks of the Wild and Scenic John Day River. This
low-impact installation will blend in with the surrounding landscape and
beckon visitors to take in the wonders of the canyon. It will call
people to reflect on the importance of rivers and conservation and on
the impact they can have as individuals and community members
themselves. And it will quietly pay tribute to the contributions of one
of the West’s great forces of conservation.
A Place of Reflection
Reflection Point will be a place to sit, climb or stand on a series of basalt rocks set into a high point along the John Day River, with sweeping views up and downstream. Basalt is the definitive rock of the John Day River basin, and the stones will blend gracefully into the landscape, etched with words, pairings of words and short phrases that capture the love of rivers, conservation and the need to save what’s important. The site will beckon visitors to look, to pay attention, to explore what lies before them and to reflect on their own individual capacities as conservationists. The installation will be designed and installed by the Portland-based landscape architecture firm Walker Macy, with direction and guidance from WRC.
The Jon Roush River Protection Fund
To couple Reflection
Point with conservation, Western Rivers Conservancy will create the Jon
Roush Fund within WRC’s existing River Protection Fund. This is an
internal revolving fund that WRC uses to buy and permanently conserve
riverlands. It is a working fund, not an endowment, repeatedly invested
and replenished. We use the fund to buy options, make down payments, or
purchase land outright. When we sell land to a long-term steward, such
as OPRD, we replenish the fund. Because the Jon Roush Fund, like the
RPF, will be used to protect land forever, you have the satisfaction of
permanence. Because it is a revolving fund, you also have the
satisfaction of knowing your gift will protect many properties over
time.
A Centennial Gift to Oregon State Parks
Reflection Point
will be a gift from Western Rivers Conservancy to Oregon Parks and
Recreation Department in honor of Jon and to celebrate OPRD’s 100th
anniversary. In summer, a dedication and opening ceremony will be held
in Cottonwood Canyon State Park, which WRC created in partnership with
OPRD in 2013, while Jon served on WRC’s board of directors.
Make Rivers Your Legacy
By contributing to Reflection
Point and the Jon Roush Fund, you will have a lasting impact on the
great rivers of the West. Eighty percent of your gift will go to the Jon
Roush Fund, helping year after year to permanently conserve critical
stretches of the West’s most important rivers. Twenty percent of your
gift will help create Reflection Point, bringing the heart and soul of
conservation into the lives of all those who visit. Through both, you
will carry forward the conservation legacy of Jon Roush, helping to save
our most cherished rivers and wildplaces, and the fish, wildlife and
people that depend on them.
Fundraising Goal: $325,000
More About Jon Roush
One of land conservation’s great visionaries, Jon has guided some of the most important land conservation organizations and initiatives in the country. For two decades beginning in 1970s, he worked for The Nature Conservancy, first in the San Francisco office, and later starting the Portland field office. He then became Chief Operating Officer of TNC and finally served as a member of the board of governors, including two terms as chair of their board. From 1993 to 1996 Jon was president of the Wilderness Society, where he led the lobbying effort to pass the California Desert Protection Act, establishing Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks and the Mojave National Preserve in southern California. Beginning in 1997, Jon served for 13 years on the board of directors for the Indian Law Resource Center. From 2006 to 2020 he was a member of Western Rivers Conservancy’s board of directors, guiding the organization’s strategic planning and overseeing historic projects such as WRC’s creation of the Blue Creek Salmon Sanctuary on the Klamath River and Cottonwood Canyon State Park on the John Day. In 1996, Jon founded Roush-Chinn Consulting with his wife, Joyce Chinn, providing management advice to more than a hundred conservation organizations, from Alaska to Puerto Rico.
Western Rivers Conservancy and Cottonwood Canyon State Park
The John Day River is a special place, with wild steelhead, bighorn sheep, a spectacular river canyon and vast expanses of sagebrush and juniper spread across one of the most remote landscapes in Oregon. On the lower river, while Jon was a WRC board member, Western Rivers Conservancy, OPRD and the Bureau of Land Management created Cottonwood Canyon State Park, protecting over 16 miles of the John Day and 16,000 acres of sagebrush-steppe. Across the West, WRC has protected equally important landscapes and river stretches on more than 200 rivers and streams. Jon Roush played a pivotal role as a WRC board member during a period of important programmatic and organizational growth for the organization, offering his wisdom and guidance as WRC pursued, launched and completed some of our most important projects ever. The banks of the John Day, the longest free-flowing river west of the Rockies, is a uniquely fitting place for Reflection Point in honor of Jon’s impact on the West.
For more information:
Please contact Jim Cox, Director of Donor Relations at jcox@westernrivers.org or 503-241-0151
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