Effort to launch ‘One Watershed’ vision for Russian River
Gathering on a rainy Friday last week, Russian River fans spent a day talking about a shared vision for the future of the river watershed.
“We’re here to start a movement that says we can’t do it alone,” proclaimed Fourth District Supervisor James Gore, who served as moderator and emcee for the event held at Shone Farm in Forestville.
“There are 105 groups that work in the Russian River,” said Gore, “and we have to make sure we have some connective tissue that unites us.”
The all-day event drew Pomo tribal leaders, elected officials, government agency employees, nonprofit agency employees, activists and property owners along the river, who convened in a large meeting hall and attended two break-out sessions that were titled “Engaging What Is” and “Engaging What Can Be.”
After Gore’s introduction and a presentation by David White, the former National Resources Conservation Service chief, three generations of Pomo leaders spoke and offered a welcoming song prayer. Lorraine Laiwa, her daughter Liz Elgin DeRouen and granddaughter Laila DeRouen are all leaders in the Ya-Ka-Ama Indian Education and Development organization.
“Thank you for embarking on this journey for all of us,” said Laila DeRouen.
The event also included a series of “20×20 Ignite Talks,” which featured speakers who condensed their talks into the time it took for 20 slides to each show for 20 seconds on large projection screens.
The talks ranged from using data to monitor the river, to lessons learned by a community watershed group, to the emotional highlight of the day, a talk by Chelle Servais, a sixth grader at Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts.
Servais’ talk, titled “Delicate Pink Pearls,” described a class project to hatch and raise salmon eggs. Servais spoke about how the project has motivated her to want to be a biologist when she grows up. “Protecting our watershed is a group effort,” she said.
Gore pronounced the event a success and said the information and interactions will inform the next steps in the “One Watershed” vision.
For more information about the effort, visit www.russianriverconfluence.org.
