The Willamette-Laja Twinning Partnership wishes everyone a Happy New Year with new and innovative opportunities! We have exciting news to share, including several individual exchange visits to and from the pairing watersheds, as well as a growing youth program. Our wishes into 2020 are to expand our youth cultural exchange program, Unidos por las Aves (United for the Birds), connect the birding communities, and to host additional forestry students from the Laja in the Willamette for practitioner learning. Please consider contributing to any of these programs by visiting our webpage.
Unidos por las Aves
Unidos por las Aves, the Twinning Partnership’s cross-cultural migratory bird youth program as more than doubled the number of participating schools this year. In year two of our program we are now engaging of 600 primary and high school students and creating 1:1 student contact. Please visit our Unidos por las Aves update here.
Individual Cultural Exchanges
Chavela Neuhaus
Laja partners were enthusiastic to host Willamette twinning program volunteer, Chavela Neuhaus, in early November. Chavela recently retired from the Albany School District and has the Spanish language, ecology and construction skills to assist our friends in the field, visit with partner schools, and consider community improvements to local plant nursery infrastructure.
April Gaydos
President of Audubon de Mexico, April Gaydos, visited the Willamette in Mid-November and had the opportunity to meet students and their teachers at several partner schools. April, originally from Milwaukie, Oregon, and now a permanent resident in Mexico. She is thrilled that three schools through their program, Niños y Naturaleza in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, are partnering with the Willamette, including Milwaukie dual language immersion school, El Puente. April shared student letters from San Miguel schools with their Willamette student partners. With great excitement, she returned to Mexico with Willamette student letters to distribute to students who were eagerly awaiting their arrival.
Chris Orsinger
In February, Chris Orsinger, former Executive Director of Friends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah will visit our Laja partners. The Twinning Partnership appreciates his ambassadorial role as an accomplished restoration practitioner and community stewardship advocate with over 30 years of experience. In addition to visits with our partner schools in the Laja, Chris will visit a large restoration site called Las Tinajas, to pilot a “restoration co-planning” effort. The project vision seeks to restore wetland and upland wildlife habitat, improve water quality, develop interpretive trails, and train local nature guides.
We are also currently seeking a restoration project in the Willamette that the Laja can help co-plan. This peer-to-peer learning opportunity is one of a kind and offers unique cultural learning experiences in conservation.
Chris also expects to visit Laja partners engaged in water quality advocacy and innovative solutions including water collection systems installed in rural communities suffering from degraded ground water sources. “I’m delighted to participate in this exchange and look forward to learning from our partners in the state of Guanajuato,” says Chris.
Instructor Highlight
Paola Rangel, Laja Basin
Paola has been involved in the Twinning Partnership since her participation as an ITESI forestry student on exchange in the Willamette for three months in 2018. She is now an instructor of the Unidos por las Aves since her return to Mexico. Her personal story is profound and our partnership is fortunate to have Paola’s enthusiasm, experience, and professionalism.
Thank you to our recent sponsors!
The Twinning Partnership is appreciative of Peoria Gardens for their 2020 School Sponsorship. We are also excited to announce recent funding from Oregon Wildlife Foundation, Albany Public Schools Foundation, Oregon Birding Association, Corvallis Public Schools Foundation, and Benton Soil and Water Conservation District.
