The North Santiam Watershed Council would like to thank the Arbor Day Foundation, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation Collective Grow and Oregon Department of Forestry for their generous native plant donations and continual support within the Santiam Canyon, and North Santiam Watershed. In partnership with Marion County and Santiam Long-Term Recovery Group during our April 2023 event, we distributed over 110,000 plants and trees to over 175 residents within our watershed whose properties were affected by the 2020 wildfires. Those residents' testimonies are shared here. Thank you for supporting our community and our mission!

My family would like to thank you for helping us replant our beloved Niagara. Our family lost 3 of our homes in Niagara during the Beachie Creek Fire.... along with nearly every tree and shrubs. Our grandchildren, who lost their home in Niagara, are the 6th generation to call it home. We love the violets, Ladyslippers, Elderberries, Cascara trees.... oh my, the list goes on and on.

“Huge thank you's to you, the North Santiam Watershed Council and the Arbor Day Foundation for helping us to bring back the beauty and health of the Elkhorn area we love so much. Seeing it go from a lush rainforest to char and ash was totally heart-breaking after the past 60 years that my family and neighbors swam, had picnics, hiked and gardened there! I now feel a glimmer of hope that we can bring back the plants and animals that thrived in the area as we have. Again....immense gratitude and thank you's for the much needed help!

There was a lot of loss and heartbreak seeing our home and all the homes that were devastated along the little north fork of the santiam. It has been a hard winter of watching and waiting to see what trees are still alive after the burn. One thing that has been really healing for me, as we wait to rebuild, is to be able to pour a lot of love into the land. Our hillside into the river had always been covered in blackberries, and because it was so steep it felt impossible to tackle. The burn created a small window of opportunity for us to stay on top of the blackberries and give native plants a few seasons to get established. We have planted 200 native plants so far, a majority of which were donated by the North Santiam Watershed Council. It was a game changer for our hillside as we had only been able to afford to purchase a handful from elsewhere. The plants we received from NSWC were pretty big and gives us a great head start on repairing the land and protecting our rivers. It has been healing for our land and for our hearts.

I want to acknowledge the kindness and the very timely donation of the plants and trees you have provided to the families in our area affected by the wildfires this past September. It was a bright spot in a very gloomy Winter. My hope is for a moderate weather Summer that would allow this vegetation to take root and survive.

The plants you were able to provide have been planted along the banks of the creeks and in the forest. We were so excited to replant the area! I spent days crawling around planting and now I watch as things are coming back to life. We have a long way to go before it will be a beautiful diverse forest but the plants you provided gave the forest a great start. In addition, to the plants you provided we purchased thousands of trees to reforest the areas that were burned, as of today we have planted over 5,000 trees Valley Pine, White and Red Cedar, Noble fir and Douglas fir. We think we will still have vine maples and big leaf maples to round off a diverse forested property.

Thank you again for the donation of trees and plants we were able to acquire for our property, we lost several during the Santiam Fires and appreciate the generosity and are very grateful we have been able to replant and along the river where most of the fire consumed our trees and vegetation. Thank you again!

Thank you so much for the tree and shrub seedlings. We have 7 acres at the end of North Fork Rd that burned and we really miss the green. My husband and I were able to get over 200 of the trees and shrubs provided through the North Santiam Watershed Council. They all got planted fairly quickly. My sore muscles are a testament to the work. Our soil is very rocky but we had lots of vegetation previously so I am hopeful that in a couple of years we will once again have trees and shrubs. It is hard to tell that we have planted now so we will be watching and getting excited as things grow. I realize that this number is just a drop in the bucket for the amount of land we have but your donation has made a good start for us. As we get more of the area cleaned up we will be planting many more trees in the future. Thank you so much!

We look forward to seeing the trees grow and thrive on our acreage in Lyons. We planted these along the road where scotchbroom and blackberries used to block the traffic. The trees are a huge upgrade. 🙂 Thank you so much for your efforts in helping these trees find homes in the canyon.