New group will monitor waterways

New council forms to oversee North Clackamas watersheds

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Sep 23, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ellen spitaleri / clackamas Review

Eric Shawn, left, Susan Shawn and Marshall Johnson will share co-chair duties for the newly formed North Clackamas Urban Watersheds Council.

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There’s trouble in Clackamas County and a group of concerned residents wants to do something about it. Looking around the county, they discovered that water quality is poor, habitat is compromised by invasive species and tree canopies are disappearing.

Even more worrisome, “people often are disconnected from their own place in the watershed, and don’t see how what they do or don’t do is in any way connected to the life of the very planet we live on,” said Susan Shawn, a well-known neighborhood activist.

So Shawn and a core group of six others formed the North Clackamas Urban Watersheds Council; their charter was approved by the Board of County Commissioners in July.

“Kellogg Creek, Mt. Scott Creek, their tributaries, and all the watersheds flowing down off the Oatfield Ridge into the Willamette River had no group, or voice, to protect them. These are the only watersheds left in this area at least that did not have a [watershed council] to look after them,” Shawn noted.

Susan Shawn and her husband Eric, along with Marshall Johnson, have agreed to share co-chair duties for the new watershed council until the group is up and fully running and can elect a president.

The Shawns are both members of the Friends of Mt. Scott and Kellogg Creeks Watersheds, and Susan Shawn is a founding member of Urban Green, a local group dedicated to preserving the tree canopy in the county.

• Watersheds important

Johnson currently works for Clean Water Services as a water resource specialist, but until 2006 he was involved with Clackamas County watersheds through his former job with The Wetlands Conservancy, which owns two significant wetland properties in the Kellogg Creek/Mt. Scott watershed.

“I made many contacts and strong personal and professional bonds with watershed residents and active organizations through my work with TWC, and was delighted with the opportunity through the newly formed NCUWC to stay involved in the watershed,” he said.

“People do not necessarily know what a watershed is,” Susan Shawn said, “[But] every single person lives in a watershed, whether they know it or not. It’s a factor of the interplay between water and land, and how the geology of the region has historically evolved.

“By finding out which watershed you live in, and what you can do to help protect it, you are part of an international movement to connect people, creatures, habitat, water and the land in a way that will provide for us all forever. This is the most important work there is right now. Ideally, we will begin to see salmon showing up in all of our streams and creeks, as they find their way up a clean, clear, healthy watershed.”

Johnson added. “I gain a great deal of personal fulfillment from putting my energy into conservation of our natural resources in a region that I hold dear. I love my 2-year-old son more than anything else in this world, and I can’t imagine anything better for him than to put my energy toward protecting the natural resources that are the life support for him and our future generations.”

•Partnerships

“In view of the Clackamas County Board of County Commissioners’ resolution and action plan for a sustainable Clackamas County, the watersheds council is uniquely positioned to encourage communication between and collaboration among local governments, agencies, schools, businesses, organizations and citizens. We share a significant amount of common ground,” Eric Shawn said.

Other board members include Steve Berliner and Dick Shook, members of the Friends of Mt. Scott and Kellogg Creeks Watersheds; Pat Russell, North Clackamas Citizens Organization; and Chris Runyard, the leader of the Tsunami Crew, a restoration group working at the Three-Creeks Natural Area.

Watershed councils

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