Ecotrust began by surveying temperate rain forests as a distinct ecoregion, an analysis that led the organization to identify British Columbia's Kitlope River as the largest intact temperate rain forest watershed in the world. Beebe and others from Ecotrust visited the region and engaged the Haisla First Nation, whose traditional territory included the Kitlope. The organization supported the Haisla in launching a Rediscovery Program for cultural education and, four years later, in securing provincial government recognition for over 750,000 acres (3,000km2) of temperate rain forest as Huchsduwachsdu Nuyem Jees (the Kitlope Heritage Conservancy Protected Area).[2][3][4]
A source of inspiration for the organization has been Wendell Berry's quote, "The answers, if they are to come, and if they are to work, must be developed in the presence of the user on the land; they must be developed to some degree by the user on the land."[5] In addition to Ecotrust's work in the Kitlope region, the organization's support of local leadership and communities has included Pribilof Islands, Alaska;[6] Prince William Sound / Copper River, Alaska;[7] Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia;[8] Willapa Bay, Washington;[9] and the Klamath region, Oregon / California.[10]
In 1992, seeking to find greater financial resources for entrepreneurial efforts in these communities, Ecotrust initiated discussions with ShoreBank Corporation, the Chicago-based leader in community development banking. In 1995, the two partnered in founding ShoreBank Enterprise (now ShoreBank Enterprise Cascadia), a non-profit community development financial institution (CDFI), and in 1997 ShoreBank Pacific, the nation's first environmental bank.[11]
In 1994, Spencer Beebe realized that he needed a Canadian partner organization and asked one of his board members, Jacqueline Koerner, to take the lead on founding Ecotrust Canada, an independent affiliate, based in Vancouver, British Columbia which received charitable status in 1995 and has operated ever since, receiving in 2019 the recognition as one of the top 10 environmental charities in Canada. The first President of Ecotrust Canada was journalist Ian Gill who left in 2010 to establish another spin off organisation Ecotrust Australia, that shut down operations after two years in 2012[11].
Another emphasis for Ecotrust has been an effort to characterize the region, based on its human / nature interrelationships. Ecotrust published the first distribution and status maps of temperate rain forests and Pacific salmon of North America, as well as a series of books that include The Rain Forests of Home: Profile of a North American Bioregion and Salmon Nation: People, Fish and Our Common Home.
Later in the 1990s, with advice from board member Jane Jacobs, Ecotrust expanded its attention to urban markets. The organization redeveloped a Portland warehouse into the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center, the first historic restoration in the country to earn a Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design (LEED) gold award,[12] and launched what has become one of the nation's leading programs for sustainable food and farming.[13]
Recent extensions of Ecotrust's work include: honoring native leaders through the Buffett Award for Indigenous Leadership;[14] promoting regional economies through a series of cartoon-filled newspaper inserts in the Portland and San Francisco dailies and weeklies;[15] creating decision support tools for ecosystem-based management;[16] launching Ecotrust Forests LLC, a private equity fund to manage forestland for long-term regional health, as well as financial returns;[17] and bolstering bioregional identity through the idea of Salmon Nation.[18]
"The line between for- and nonprofit is getting blurry", said environmentalist and author Paul Hawken in 2007.[19] Ecotrust has established an unusual affiliation of for- and nonprofit entities that work at the intersection of natural, social and economic capital.
↑ Linden, Eugene. "Our Home and Native Land: In a North American rain forest, two indigenous tribes have become a force for conservation", Time, May 2, 1994.
↑ Hall, Bruce. "Saving the Kitlope"Archived July 1, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , from "Sharing Stories: Community Economic Development in British Columbia". Simon Fraser University, 1995. Accessed September 14, 2007.
↑ Miranda, Gary. "New Bearings: Conservation-based Development in the Rain Forests of Home", Ecotrust, 1993.
↑ Strom, Shelly. "Local tomatoes get their moment in the sun: Ecotrust is promoting the virtues of local vines", Portland Business Journal, August 13, 2004. Accessed September 14, 2007.
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river forms in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 mi (2,000 km) long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven states of the United States and one Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by flow, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any river into the eastern Pacific and the 36th greatest discharge of any river in the world.
Clayoquot Sound is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is bordered by the Esowista Peninsula to the south, and the Hesquiaht Peninsula to the North. It is a body of water with many inlets and islands. Major inlets include Sydney Inlet, Shelter Inlet, Herbert Inlet, Bedwell Inlet, Lemmens Inlet, and Tofino Inlet. Major islands include Flores Island, Vargas Island, and Meares Island. The name is also used for the larger region of land around the waterbody.
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The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) deep, the canyon stretches for over eighty miles (130 km) as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the state of Washington to the north and Oregon to the south. Extending roughly from the confluence of the Columbia with the Deschutes River in the east down to the eastern reaches of the Portland metropolitan area, the water gap furnishes the only navigable route through the Cascades and the only water connection between the Columbia Plateau and the Pacific Ocean. It is thus that the routes of Interstate 84, U.S. Route 30, Washington State Route 14, and railroad tracks on both sides run through the gorge.
The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations are a Nuu-chah-nulth First Nation in Canada. They live on ten reserves along the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The band is part of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. There were 618 people living in the Tla-o-qui-aht reserves in 1995. Their primary economic activities are fishing and tourism.
The Great Bear Rainforest is a temperate rain forest on the Pacific coast of British Columbia, comprising 6.4 million hectares. It is part of the larger Pacific temperate rainforest ecoregion, which is the largest coastal temperate rainforest in the world.
Charles Howard Vollum was an American electronics engineer, businessman, and philanthropist in Oregon, United States. He was the co-founder of Tektronix Corporation, and endowed the Vollum Institute.
The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council is a First Nations Tribal Council in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The organization is based in Port Alberni, British Columbia.
The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast are composed of many nations and tribal affiliations, each with distinctive cultural and political identities. They share certain beliefs, traditions and practices, such as the centrality of salmon as a resource and spiritual symbol, and many cultivation and subsistence practices. The term Northwest Coast or North West Coast is used in anthropology to refer to the groups of Indigenous people residing along the coast of what is now called British Columbia, Washington State, parts of Alaska, Oregon, and Northern California. The term Pacific Northwest is largely used in the American context.
The Natural Capital Center, formally known as the Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center and informally as the Ecotrust Building, is a notable example of green building in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was the first historic redevelopment in the U.S. to receive a gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) award from the U.S. Green Building Council. The building houses a mix of public and private, nonprofit and for-profit tenants.
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In a conservation economy, economic arrangements of all kinds are gradually redesigned so that they restore, rather than deplete, natural capital and social capital...Even in a globalizing economy, diverse bioregional economies that are more self-sufficient in meeting their own needs will be more competitive and less vulnerable...
Ecotrust Canada is a Canadian charity with offices in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, BC.
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Friends of Clayoquot Sound is a Canadian grassroots non-profit environmental organization, based in Tofino, British Columbia. It focuses on protecting Clayoquot Sound's globally rare ecosystem of temperate rainforest and ocean, and on building a local, conservation-based economy.
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The Kitlope Heritage Conservancy or Huchsduwachsdu Nuyem Jees in the Haisla language, is a conservancy located on the Pacific coast of the province of British Columbia, Canada. It preserves the largest continuous tract of coastal temperate rainforest in the world. Beginning at the head of Gardner Canal, the park stretches inland along the Kitlope River to the border of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
Clayoquot Sound Biosphere Reserve is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve situated in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. A diverse range of ecosystems exist within the biosphere reserve boundaries, including temperate coastal rainforest, ocean and rocky coastal shores.
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