Governor Kitzhaber responded to recommendations from the 1994 conference by establishing the Willamette Valley Livability Forum and charging it with creating and promoting a shared vision for enhancing the livability of the Valley. The Forum and other sponsors have organized this conference to bring together and share the results of extensive work conducted since 1994 concerning the Valley s future quality of life. This work includes the Forum s State of the Valley Report and 50-year vision of a livable future, three separate alternative futures studies, the recently released Willamette Restoration Strategy, and the Oregon State of the Environment Report 2000. The conference will provide a forum for participants to consider a livable future for the Willamette Valley and identify the key choices we need to make now to ensure we move toward that future. Conference sponsors hope to inspire a network of citizens who will commit time and effort toward sustaining the quality of life in the Willamette Valley as our population increases from 1.7 million to 4 million people by 2050.
Presenters discuss findings of three futures research projects and identify key choices.
Seeking Consensus Participants reach consensus on the most important actions to enhance the future livability of the Willamette Valley. At Home in the Natural World , winner of the 2000 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. In essays that appear in Audubon , Field and Stream , The New York Times , North American Review , and many other publications, she writes about the human need to be meaningfully and joyously connected to the land. Moore is Professor of Philosophy at Oregon State University and the founding director of the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word.