Benefits salmon and creates environmentally sound jobs

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Nature Conservancy, a world leader in preserving the natural environment, will manage salmon habitat restoration for Pacific Power and Portland General Electric’s Habitat renewable power option. Participating customers buy 100 percent renewable power and also make a donation that helps reopen streams and improve the water quality for threatened fish.

 “The Nature Conservancy will invest the funds in protecting Oregon rivers and streams that benefit salmon,” explained Russell Hoeflich, vice president and Oregon director for The Nature Conservancy. “Pacific Power and PGE Habitat customers will support our highest-priority salmon restoration projects, and they'll help watershed councils, local land trusts and others do great work saving habitats for salmon and other wildlife.”

The Nature Conservancy pledged to expand habitat restoration efforts to places such as the Sandy River, Clackamas River, Necanicum River, Zumwalt Prairie, the Klamath Basin and other sites. To date, Habitat customers have helped restore fish habitat in Hawk Creek (near Trail), Tenmile Lakes, the Coquille River, Scappoose, Gresham, Beaver Creek, Happy Valley, Oregon City, Canby, Albany and Lakeside.

Habitat customers automatically make a $2.50 per month tax-deductible donation to The Nature Conservancy through their bill. These contributions go directly to projects that restore habitat for threatened fish.

“Donations through Pacific Power’s Blue Sky Habitat option are leveraging additional dollars to fund restoration projects,” said Bill Edmonds, director of environmental policy for Pacific Power. “It helps bring in grants from federal agencies and others. It creates partnerships among people with a like goal.”

“By choosing the Healthy Habitat option, our customers have joined a statewide struggle to restore threatened salmon and steelhead in a very visible way,” said Thor Hinckley, PGE's manager of renewable products. “First, renewable power generation has little or no impact on wild salmon. In addition, donations to The Nature Conservancy are helping to create safe passage and productive spawning grounds in Oregon.”

The Nature Conservancy said that investments in habitat restoration have an impact on many other species besides salmon and also benefit local communities. “The projects supported by Habitat customers will help create local jobs and will help maintain Oregon's wealth of fish and wildlife resources for the future,” Russell Hoeflich said.

Since March 1, 2002, Oregon customers of PGE and Pacific Power have been able to choose from three renewable power options: Fixed Renewable, Renewable Usage or Habitat.* About 5,500 PGE customers and 2,400 Pacific Power customers are enrolled in the Habitat option.

PGE and Pacific Power both rank among the nation’s top five companies for renewable energy sales and customer participation in green pricing programs, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Pacific Power customers who wish to signup for Blue Sky Habitat can call 1-800-769-3717 or log on to www.pacificpower.net/bluesky

*Customers will not have electricity from a specific renewable generation facility delivered directly to their home or business, but are purchasing wind-generated power to be delivered to their region.

About The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have helped protect more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In Oregon, the Conservancy owns or manages 48 nature preserves and has helped protect over 483,000 acres. Visit us on the Web at nature.org/oregon.

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