Giving Tuesday Ecological restoration fundraiser

Lost Valley is seeking your support to raise $20,000 for matching funds that can be used to leverage grant funding for large-scale restoration projects across our 87-acres of diverse forest ecosystems.

Your contributions are already being put to use to support our goals for 2025, by providing matching funds for a habitat restoration grant we've been awarded through Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB). Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council applied for this grant on our behalf to enhance oak savanna habitat on a parcel of land at Lost Valley. This grant requires an in-kind match of $2,505 from Lost Valley in the form of labor hours to complete the project, which will be fully funded by contributions we have already received from this fundraiser!

Many state and federal grant programs, like those of OWEB, require matching funds in order to be considered for funding. So we are seeking your support to raise money for matching funds that will make us eligible for grants that will fund restoration across our 87 acres. These funds will also support Lost Valley to enhance our efforts to carry out this work through community-supported stewardship.

Lost Valley is actively conducting ecological restoration through a model of community supported land stewardship. Led by Brian Byers, Lost Valley’s Executive Director and Land Steward, community volunteers, interns, and students perform coppicing, pollarding, felling, understory management, removal of non-native vegetation, biochar production, activation, and distribution, and seeding native plant species. This work is guided by our Land Stewardship Plan, a 10-year strategy to restore native ecosystems, enhance wildlife habitat, and increase biodiversity across Lost Valley's 87-acres.

To further these efforts, we are pursuing partnerships with organizations like the Northwest Youth Corps, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and our local watershed council. As mentioned above, in November 2024, we were selected for a $10,000 grant through OWEB to fund oak savanna habitat restoration on a parcel of land at Lost Valley. This is a big step toward achieving the goals in our Land Stewardship Plan, while also helping us build a long-term relationship with our local watershed council to partner on larger-scale restoration projects in the future.

Thank you for being part of our journey to restore critical ecosystems and increase the resilience of our forests!

As a 501(c)(3), all donations to Lost valley are tax deductible.