Saving White Oak Savanna in West Linn

Host Kathleen Stephenson speaks with Roberta Schwarz about saving the White Oak Savanna of the Willamette Valley and a Summer Concert for the White Oak Savanna on Saturday July 26th from 3:30 to 5:30 at the Adult Community Center.

There were once 600,000 acres of White Oak Savanna in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Now only about 2% remains. A small grass roots community nonprofit organization called NLWL (Neighbors for a Livable West Linn) has been working on saving 20 acres of this land in an area overlooking the Willamette Narrows in West Linn. This is ceded land and is called Forever Land by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The Tribes are in support of preserving this special place. 6,927 hours have been volunteered in the hard work of restoring the 14 acres that have been acquired so far. There are 6 acres left to purchase. Metro has given the group until mid-2015 to match (in a two to one ratio) a grant they have awarded to this project in the amount of $500,000. The website is www.nlwl.org