Coos Watershed Association

Monitoring: effective, on-the-ground monitoring is essential to the success of our restoration efforts. Across the coos watershed, we track key indicators of watershed healthincluding stream flow, water quality, habitat conditions, and fish abundance and migration. This data helps us evaluate the impact of our work and identify priorities for future restoration.our monitoring program plays a vital role in assessing the status and trends of coho salmon populations, as well as tracking water quality and hydrology throughout coos basin streams. In addition to long-term ecological monitoring, we also conduct implementation and effectiveness monitoring for our in-stream and riparian restoration projects. This ensures that our projects not only meet their immediate goals but also support lasting improvements in watershed health.

Community engagement: we believe that lasting watershed health depends on strong community connections. Through volunteer events, nursery work days, festivals, workshops, service projects, and hands-on career mentoring and internship programs, we engage people of all ages in meaningful, place-based experiences. These programs foster environmental stewardship, connect individuals to local resources, and emphasize the shared responsibility we all have in caring for our watershed.our youth engagement efforts include partnerships with all three local high schools, where students learn practical restoration skills while improving the ecological health of their school campuses. Coos watershed association's summer youth program provides students the opportunity to work on meaningful, community-based projects while building job skills and providing paid work experience. We offer a unique summer of environmental restoration, job readiness, and outdoor adventure. Students gain hands-on experience, contribute to real conservation efforts, and grow their connection to the environment and their community. This is all part of our efforts to support natural resource career development so that there will be passionate, knowledgeable professionals to maintain and progress the health of the coos watershed in the future. We do this through teaching young people job skills in our youth engagement programs, hosting interns in our monitoring program, and supporting career growth and mentorship through our staffing structure. Throughout the year, we participate in local festivals and farmers' markets to share watershed knowledge, connect with community members, and build momentum for collective action. We also host the annual mayfly festival, a family-friendly event that brings the watershed to life through games, educational activities, and interactive learning experiences. In memory of teddy villers (2004-2015), a passionate young steward who tragically passed away while working on a salmon habitat project, the villers family and the coos watershed association offer the teddy villers natural resources scholarship. Awarded annually to a local high school, home-school, or community college student pursuing a career in natural resources, the scholarship honors teddy's legacy and inspires future generations to follow in his footsteps, making a lasting impact on the environment.