About Us
The Walama Restoration Project (WRP) is a community organized non-profit, founded in 2001, and dedicated to the enhancement, rehabilitation, and restoration of the waterways, forest, and grassland ecosystems within and adjacent to the Willamette Valley. In addition to ecosystem restoration, WRP facilitates environmental education and the fostering of connections between people and the bioregion in which they live.
WRP’s
functions are two-fold:
1) To promote the conservation and protection of our
natural resources and biological diversity by maintaining
and restoring threatened ecosystems in critical watersheds.
2) To implement experiential programs that address local
ecosystem awareness and habitat rehabilitation for local
youth and community members.
1) Open niches for the community to participate in and
better understand the unique ecosystems that once distinguished
local bioregions including the Willamette Valley and
the Central Cascades.
2) Create trends of returning public open spaces to native
landscapes that foster ecological, educational, and cultural
values for community members.
3) Increase the biological and botanical richness of
remnant ecosystems by implementing effective and ecological
land management regimes that can be replicated by other
agencies.
4) Provide a local job market that strengthens employees’ field
skills in the natural resources/nursery sector.
We have cleared over 30 acres of English Ivy and Armenian blackberry throughout city parks and have facilitated oak savanna restoration with the Nature Conservancy in the foothills of the Western Cascades. In addition to our work as restoration contractors, WRP has collaborated with the City of Eugene, the City of Eugene Stream Team Program, and two school districts on habitat-specific school projects including riparian restoration along the Willamette River, seed collection projects in upland and wetland habitats, and Oregon oak education in Lane County. We also collaborate with other non-profits and local watershed groups such as Friends of Hendricks Park and the McKenzie Watershed Council to facilitate programs ranging from seed collection and propagation workshops; to riparian enhancement along salmon-spawning creeks; to established in-the-field educational curriculums for two school districts.
Yotokko Kilpatrick
Founder and Operational Director
Yotokko Kilpatrick is the Operations Director and founder of WRP. He has designed, implemented and coordinated crews for numerous stewardship projects in the Willamette Valley and in the Central Cascades since 2001. He was the site planner for riparian projects including three Lost Creek re-vegetation projects in Dexter, Oregon, designed protocols for work on over 60 acres in sensitive areas, and has trained over forty employees to identify key native and invasive plant species in our area. Prior to founding WRP, he was a technician and fundraiser from 1998 to 2001 for Lomakatsi Restoration, a non-profit organization based in Ashland, Oregon. There, he performed invasive removal, fuels reduction, tree thinning, and planting services on over 400 acres of private land in over five watersheds throughout the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion.
Stephanie Schroeder
Program Director
Stephanie Schroeder has been the Program Director, administrative lead, and Board Treasurer of WRP since May 2002. She has developed and implemented the Native Seed to Native Lands Watershed Awareness program for WRP and is currently working with schools from two school districts on place-based restoration projects in Lane County, Oregon. Stephanie received a bachelors of science in Wildlife ecology and Conservation Biology from the University of Maine in 1999 and completed a two-year intensive botany program at the Columbines School of botanical studies in Eugene, Oregon. Stephanie has also served as a contracted field ornithologist and plant surveyor for the following agencies since 1999: The US Army Corps of Engineers, Institute for Bird Populations, The Klamath Bird Observatory, The Oregon Coop Wildlife Research Unit in Blue River, Oregon, US Forest Service in Blue River, Oregon, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department. She currently serves as a steering committee member on the Mid Fork Willamette Watershed Council, based in Lowell, Oregon.
Alison Rajek
Program Staff
Alison has been working for WRP since July 2005, and focuses on general bookkeeping, organizing WRP’s membership base, and aiding in the development of WRP’s programs. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies and, along with her partner Steve, owns a local beeswax candle company called Casper Candles, Inc.
Doug Black
Outreach Canvasser
Doug's been grassroots organizing since the '80s and brings great dedication to WRP, where he first started in 2002. He's seen great satisfaction with community concern translated into the growing WRP support as years go by. Doug also organizes and speaks publicly for energy-descent mitigation-planning Post Carbon Eugene group, www.relocalize.net/group/eugene (part of intl. Post Carbon Institute, at postcarbon.org), with a background in safe energy/pro-energy efficiency canvass directing(New England Clamshell Alliance, 1989-1992), and multiple environmental and pro-consumer rights campaigns. He's also a former state steering committee member for the "Yes On Question 4" 1988 Massachusetts ballot referendum calling for sustainable, demand-side-managed energy closing MA.'s 2 nuclear power stations. He's a 1984 graduate of Boston's Tufts University and The Museum School and is currently redacting thousands of film images into digital format from his work in fine art photography.
The WRP Field Crew
Well, these folks are the true backbone of our organization (although their backs may not always feel that great after work). Special credits go to Nathan Greene, Mario Dibenedetto, Avery McCombs, Randy Shadowalker, and Taylor Zeigler, who have all been working hard in the field for over three years.
Fall 2005 Field Crew
WRP Board of Directors
Evelyn Hess, Board President
MLA in Horticulture
Owner of Lorane Hills Farm and Nursery
Rachel Foster, Board Secretary
BS in Zoology
Gardening Consultant, Published Author, and weekly news
columnist for Eugene Weekly
Howard Bonnett
University of Oregon Emeritus
Interests in Botany
Kit Kirkpatrick
Civic and Social Justice Activist
Heather Lintz
Graduate Student in Plant Pathology, Oregon State University
Sabra Marcroft
Interests in horticulture, native plant landscaping,
and Non-profit management
Stuart Perlmeter
Michael Robert
Retired Head Gardener/ Forest Management Plan Coordinator
of Hendricks Park, City of Eugene