We are lucky to be Oregonians. Our quality of life is envied around the nation.

But by 2030 there will be 1.4 million more Oregonians than in 2000, a 41.3% percent increase. Can Oregon grow but still maintain its quality of life?

Yes, because of our state's pioneering planning laws.
Yes, because of Oregonians' civic tradition of participating in the decisions affecting our quality of life.
Yes, because of 1000 Friends of Oregon.

Since 1975, 1000 Friends has been your voice for planning Oregon's growth. The story of 1000 Friends of Oregon is the story of how one organization has made a big difference in how an entire state responded to the challenges of growth. We helped protect Oregon's farm, ranch and forest land. We helped to guard citizens' access to our beaches. We helped to prevent our cities and towns from sprawling and to give Oregonians more choices for housing and transportation.

Now, we need your help to ensure that 1000 Friends is there to help Oregon continue facing the challenges of growth in the 21st Century.

How we work: Defending Oregonians' Access to the Beach
"I'd like to share with you a story about one special place -- our beaches -- and how 1000 Friends helped protect them.

It happened here in Cannon Beach. A motel owner applied to build a seawall on the ocean side of a beachfront sand lot. Everybody knew that he wanted to wall off a portion of the beach to build another motel, even though 25 years ago, the Oregon Legislature passed the Beach Bill, ensuring that all of Oregon's beaches were to be kept open for public use.

1000 Friends was here in town to challenge the application at the first local hearings. They stayed involved until finally the state Supreme Court ruled that the owner could not wall of that portion of the dry sand beach. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that decision by refusing to hear the case on appeal.

Next time you come to Cannon Beach, walk down the steps at the ocean end of Harrison Street. Then turn just a bit southwest as you head to the water. This is the site that 1000 Friends has protected. But this one victory over a small piece of land means that all of Oregon's beaches are now protected -- for our children and their children!

Laws like the Beach Bill and our land use planning laws are the only thing that stands between us and California. To make those laws work, someone always has to mind the store. 1000 Friends is, in my opinion, essential to keeping Oregon the special place that we all enjoy."
   Janet Rekate, long-time Cannon Beach resident and former realtor

How We Work: The Story of "LUTRAQ"
In the late 1980s, officials began planning for the construction of a highway through the rich farm lands of Washington County, to connect Interstate 5 to the Sunset Highway. 1000 Friends believed the Western Bypass would only promote more sprawl and result in more congestion.

But 1000 Friends knew that new highways don't solve congestion, they simply promote more sprawl, more driving, and ultimately more congestion. We thought there had to be a better way. When we began this effort, no one believed there was an alternative. We were told that the Western Bypass had been planned for 30 years and it was time to build it.
Working with a new group called Sensible Transportation Options for People (now called Citizens for Sensible Transportation), 1000 Friends decided to move beyond blocking the highway to participating in the discussion of an alternative to meet citizens transportation needs.

With the help of design and engineering experts around the country, 1000 Friends created a different land use pattern for the future of Washington County. It eliminated the Bypass, and relied instead on light rail and compact urban design and made walking and biking real alternatives. Combined with other measures, this alternative would decrease county-wide congestion levels by 10% more than construction of the Bypass.

In 1996, the Oregon Department of Transportation endorsed the LUTRAQ alternative and Metro adopted a LUTRAQ-style development plan without the Western Bypass. LUTRAQ won national awards from the American Planning Association and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Today 1000 Friends' LUTRAQ alternative is being examined in Illinois, Maryland, and Utah and discussed in places as far away as Japan.

Building Effective Partnerships At The Grass Roots
After the last land use plan had been adopted, attention shifted away from drawing up land use plans to applying those plans and regulations to the thousands of applications for development permits made each year. 1000 Friends needed to monitor those decisions as well as the hundreds of amendments made to the plans annually.

There weren't enough lawyers in the state to challenge every potentially improper decision. That work had to be shared with citizens acting at the local level, monitoring the decisions and plan amendments and providing public support for good planning.

Beginning in 1990, 1000 Friends began to foster the development of new, independent, local, land use organizations who could be our partners in enforcing and improving Oregon's planing program. By 1997, 1000 Friends had formally affiliated with nine local and regional groups.
The affiliate network has proven to be mutually beneficial: 1000 Friends offers its technical and organizational expertise while the groups provide knowledge of local politics and land conditions and have "hometown" credentials.

These partnerships have also translated into greater influence for 1000 Friends in policy debates at the state level, as was demonstrated in the 1995 and 1997 Legislatures, when the local groups played a critical role in stopping efforts to dismantle Oregon's land use laws.

How We Work: Farm Land Protection On Both Sides of the Cascades
State land use laws prohibit resorts within three miles of high-value farm land (land that can produce $1,000 worth of farm products per acre). When developers planned to build a big resort near Smith Rock State Park, they may have believed the myth that Central and Eastern Oregon were nothing but "worthless sagebrush."

In fact, within three miles of the site of the proposed resort, farmers like Paul Cloer and Leslie Elliott were getting yields of much more than $1,000 per acre, in carrot seed, garlic and other crops. They were very concerned about the prospect of having a big resort as a new neighbor, believing the resort would prompt more developments in Jefferson County. They also worried the resort owners or visitors might object to their farming practices, like pesticide spraying or field burning and did not relish the thought of spending time and money to defend these practices in court.

These farmers joined with the local Farm Bureau, led by Mickey Killingsworth, and 1000 Friends to successfully appeal Deschutes County's approval of the resort, showing that the County's decision violated state law. After losing the appeal, the resort's promoters went to the Oregon Legislature in 1995 and 1997 to get laws passed that would enable the resort to proceed; thanks to the farmers, the Farm Bureau and 1000 Friends, they failed.

A very different threat to farm and forest land presented itself in the Willamette Valley. Bad land use decisions were allowing the siting of new houses on highly productive forest lands and the hills cultivated by the Valley's wine grape growers. Even though the prospect of winning did not look good, the Friends of Yamhill County decided to challenge these decisions.

Using their own political sophistication and relying on 1000 Friends' staff for technical expertise, they persuaded their local officials to stop approving all of the new houses. After these victories, Friends of Yamhill County went on to work with 1000 Friends to improve state and local rules to increase protections of the Valley's good farm and forest lands.

Finding New Allies and Building Coalitions
Our partnerships include more than local land use groups. We also have formed strategic alliances with organizations that are often at odds with conservationists. These relationships have allowed us to cooperate with the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation, the Oregon Forest Industries Council, and the Home Builders of Metropolitan Portland. We don't always agree but it makes sense to cooperate when we do.

We have made a special effort to collaborate with farmers. The Farmer Advisory Committee consists of commercial farmers and ranchers from across the state. They have helped us refine our recommendations for strengthening the laws to protect Oregon's farm and ranch lands. They also are persuading other farmers, ranchers and local governments of the merits of Oregon's land use laws.

We realized that the Portland area's pioneering effort at metropolitan regional planning would not be a success if only the usual range of groups participated. In 1994, 1000 Friends took the lead in organizing the Coalition for a Livable Future to broaden the constituency in support of effective regional planning.

The Coalition now has more than 40 member groups including advocates for the environment, affordable housing, the social and economic vitality of poor neighborhoods, and transportation alternatives. The Coalition has played an important role in making sure that the need for affordable housing, the protection of natural areas, and prevention of urban decay are addressed in Metro's planning effort.

Providing State and National Leadership
The experience and ideas of 1000 Friends have been shared with others inside and outside of Oregon.

Directors and former staff members have a distinguished record of public service on the Oregon Transportation Commission, Oregon Board of Forestry, the Columbia River Gorge Commission, as Director of the Department of Land Conservation and Development and as advisors to former Governors Straub, Goldschmidt and Roberts.

Many states have adopted growth management programs modeled in part on Oregon's laws and others are considering adopting similar programs. Leaders in these states know that 1000 Friends has been an integral part of Oregon's achievements. Today, Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, Washington, Wisconsin and a half dozen other states have their own 1000 Friends.

The New York Times, The Nation, USA Today, Asahi Shimbun, Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune have interviewed 1000 Friends of Oregon about planning in our state. Research institutions, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and citizens from around the nation and the world look to 1000 Friends of Oregon as a respected source of ideas and information on growth management.

This state and national leadership benefits Oregon by attracting national skills, perspectives and financial support to our efforts.

1000 Friends of Oregon in the 21st Century
1000 Friends of Oregon has made a big difference in how Oregon has managed its growth in the 20th Century. We must continue making a difference in the 21st Century by:
•Increasing our professional support for local land use organizations, enabling them to undertake long range improvements in local land use plans and regulations.
•Continuing our participation in the development and implementation of the nations' leading regional planning effort carried out by Metro, in collaboration with our Coalition partners.
•Expanding our alliances to include responsible developers, tree farmers, and local officials, who are sympathetic to our objectives.
•Working with other groups to stop the sprawl that is destroying the beauty and natural resources of our coastline.
•Playing a role in shaping state transportation policy to ensure that transportation solutions encourage community, not sprawl, and reflect regional differences.
•Increasing our educational programs and materials to guarantee that citizens, not just lawyers or planners, can participate in land use proceedings.
•Carrying on our research and analysis activities so we can continue providing the relevant, high-quality information needed to monitor Oregon's progress in managing growth and creating improvements.
•Continue guarding against violations of state and local land use laws and of blocking efforts to weaken the planning program in the Legislature.

We Need Your Help.... as a Volunteer, an Activist and a Donor
To get this work done, we need your help. Your participation is needed in planning issues in your local region, in your community land use organizations, and as volunteers who help us with everything from stuffing envelopes and testifying before the Oregon Legislature, to providing technical advice on hydrology, economics, or computers.

We also need your financial assistance through your 1000 Friends' membership, McCall Society membership, a planned gift, or support for our endowment.

We need your help to keep Oregon a place our children and grandchildren will be proud to call home.

Learn more about how you can get involved.

Learn more about how you can support the work of 1000 Friends.