Support Ballot Measure 26-204: Protect Bull Run and Portland’s Drinking Water

On the ballot for City of Portland voters

The Bull Run Watershed on the Mt. Hood National Forest has been providing pure, high quality drinking water for the City of Portland since 1895. There is nothing more fundamental to a healthy community than protecting our drinking water.

Measure 26-204 would enshrine protections for lands owned by the City of Portland in the Bull Run Watershed in the Portland City Charter where they could only be changed by Portland voters in a future election. Currently Bull Run protections on City owned lands can much more easily be weakened by a simple vote of the City Council.

26-204 was Endorsed by Willamette Week and The Oregonian Editorial Board. 

A photo of a Northern Spotted Owl perched on a mossy branch.
Northern Spotted Owl, photo by Scott Carpenter

These protections are essential to protecting not only our drinking water, but also the Bull Run’s old growth forests and providing a largely undisturbed refuge for fish and wildlife including threatened salmon populations and northern spotted owls. Measure 26-204 will ensure that these lands remain largely closed to public access, commercial logging and other land disturbing activities and sale to private entities. It will help ensure that this amazing place that provides drinking water for nearly 1 million people will remain protected in perpetuity.

Please vote yes on 26-204 to give the pure water, ancient forests and fish and wildlife populations of the Bull Run the protection they need and deserve.

How you can help:

  1. VOTE YES on 26-204 in the November 2019 Election (Portland only)
  2. Have your organization or business endorse Ballot Measure 26-204 (Contact Micah Meskel at mmeskel@birdallianceoregon.org
  3. Help spread the word through your personal networks to VOTE YES on 26-204
  4. Sign-up with Bird Alliance of Oregon to help promote 26-204 (contact Micah Meskel at mmeskel@birdallianceoregon.org)

Click here to read the joint voter pamphlet statement in support of 26-204 from noted conservation, community health, and environmental justice organizations.

Bull Run Watershed, photo by PDX Water Bureau

Organizations and Individuals that have endorsed Ballot Measure 26-204

Bird Alliance of Oregon
BARK
Center for Sustainable Economy
Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility
Oregon Wild
Sandy River Watershed Council
Sierra Club, Oregon Chapter
Urban Greenspace Institute
Verde
Wild Salmon Center
Willamette Riverkeeper
Portland Commissioner Amanda Fritz
Portland Commissioner Joanne Hardesty
Portland Commissioner Chloe Eudaly
Portland Commissioner Nick Fish
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler
Portland Business Alliance

Bird Alliance of Oregon is also urging residents to vote yes on 26-203: The Nature for All Regional Greenspace Bond Measure.