Replant the Riverside

March 24, 2021 By admin

When the Riverside Fire and Dowty Road Fire struck the Clackamas watershed, the Clackamas River Basin Council wanted to show up for our community. I led staff brainstorming sessions to define our most impactful offerings, designed the title and branding materials for the campaign, created the media and emceed the organization’s first-ever virtual event to promote the fundraiser “Replant the Riverside: 10 Trees for the Clackamas.”

Results: Replant the Riverside raised 80% more funds than the previous year’s fundraiser, allowing us to coordinate planting over 18,000 trees in areas affected by the fires. This campaign improved our reputation among our stakeholders.

Content I created garnered over 30,000 views online
I worked with local newspapers to get articles published
I appeared on NBC Sports NW show “Outdoor GPS” on the “Doing the Right Thing” on Sunday, March 28 to celebrate the campaign and thank our donors, volunteers and supporters.

Campaign in a nutshell:

Get: Greater Portland Metro area residents and Clackamas River supporters

To: Donate money for riparian restoration in areas affected by the September 2020 wildfires

By: Creating a media campaign called “Replant the Riverside” to deliver a heart-felt and resolved message of hope and community, while reminding folks there’s still a lot of improvements to our watershed to celebrate. In our organization’s first-ever virtual celebration, we demonstrated the Clackamas River Basin Council’s success managing riparian reforestation and salmon habitat restoration to support our call for donations to Replant the Riverside.

Tagline: “Replant the Riverside: 10 Trees for the Clackamas”

The title of the campaign clearly states that we will Replant what was lost in the Riverside Fire, and that each $10 donation plants a Tree along the Clackamas River.

Logo

Replant the Riverside webpage

I created a webpage for all of the Replant the Riverside information, updated frequently to reflect the most relevant info: http://clackamasriver.org/resident-resources/replant-the-riverside/

Replant the Riverside campaign video

The RTR video features CRBC staff members and Council members commiserating with our community, yet showing resolve that we can begin the work to restore our forests, showcasing CRBC’s track record of success in planting over 30 miles of riparian forests.

Replant the Riverside Annual Watershed Celebration

At the 2020 Watershed Celebration, each staff member presented stories of good news for the Clackamas River, including the record 2020 wild Chinook run, our work with women and minority-owned businesses for our restoration programs, creating a virtual reality tour of the watershed, and wrapping up our Shade Our Streams program, in which we partnered with landowners to plant 30 miles of riparian forests. Then we premiered the Replant the Riverside video to officially kickoff the fundraiser. I wrote the program, promoted the event, emceed, and created the videos and photography that accompanied the presentations.

Video Performance on Facebook & Instagram:

People Reached: Engagements: Likes: Comments: Shares:

7178

697

117

Media to support the fundraiser

During the month-long fundraiser, I posted videos of CRBC’s work to support fire victims in the watershed, including this video that shows how to reduce erosion and protect waterways from hazardous materials, and the following videos featuring board and staff members sharing their personal thoughts about the fires and the need for restoration.

2020 Clackamas River Watershed Awards – we announce the results of the fundraiser

Thanks to over 120 donors, we raised $18,000+ to Replant the Riverside – 80% more than previous years’ fundraisers!

We’ve planted 10,500 plants across 8.5 acres, providing shade for 1600 feet of riverside!

Replant the Riverside planting video

The RTR planting video gives our community and donors that we have followed through, planting 3x more plants than originally promised by partnering with a local crew of professional tree planters. The video gives thanks to our partner, and sheds some light on the Mexican-American foresters who’ve been doing a great share of this work for decades.

Volunteer Planting Event

Bob Patterson shares his gratitude for his neighbors who came to help him Replant the Riverside.

Campaign Quantitative results

Total Campaign People Reached (FB & IG): 26317

Total Engagements (FB & IG): 2301

Total Likes (FB & IG): 998

Total Shares: 104

We also received press from Pamplin Media (local newspapers) and I appeared on NBC Sports NW “Outdoor GPS” sports show to promote the campaign as “Doing the Right Thing” in a tough time for our communities.

Campaign Qualitative Results

Wow. This is what resilience looks like. Amazing attitude!
Oh wow this is awesome!!
These folks are my neighbors, theyre so sweet and kind!!
We want to do some replanting of a few other burnt out areas along the river in some other neighbors back yards.
I wonder if theres a grant or some kind of funding to acquire plants for this type of thing. Any info would be appreciated!

How can Be the Change Community get involved with volunteering!?!

This is so beautiful! Thank you to everyone.

This is wonderful news!