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Hillsboro, Unified Sewerage Agency (USA), The Nature Conservancy, Audubon, Friends of <br /> Jackson Bottom, and a host of other players including environmental groups, local businesses, <br /> prominent citizens, and many others. <br /> The history behind their effort is similar to that in West Eugene. The original Jackson Bottom <br /> Wetlands Program was approved by Hillsboro City Council, the local sanitary district, TNC, and <br /> others in 1989. It too called for the establishment of an education center (similar to the West <br /> Eugene Wetlands Plan). A Steering Committee was established to manage the Jackson Bottom <br /> Wetlands Preserve which includes land owned by the City and USA. The first Wetland <br /> Coordinator was hired during the original signing of the plan and they now have 3.5 FTE in their <br /> wetland program, jointly funded by the City of Hillsboro and USA. A Friends of Jackson <br /> Bottom group was formed and established as anon-profit. They carried out restoration activities, <br /> organized events, and provided citizen input into the Steering Committee. <br /> In the last few years, the Friends group adopted by-laws and merged with the Steering <br /> Committee to form anon-profit to receive funds for the wetland education center. This new non- <br /> profit has a Board of Directors that specifically requires one representative of the City of <br /> Hillsboro, one representative from USA, and other Citizen-at-large seats. This is a "closed" <br /> Board and must always have official City and USA representatives on the Board. This was <br /> established to protect the City and USA from any specific, interest group that may try to take over <br /> seats on the Board, especially since the education center will be built on City and USA owned <br /> land. This does not preclude individuals or other organizations from becoming members of the <br /> non-profit, but they cannot become voting members unless they fill a seat on the Board. <br /> The planning for the wetland education center went through many of the same steps that we are <br /> currently taking in Eugene. They designed the building, which is approximately 6,000 square <br /> feet and is split roughly as 1/3 for classrooms, 1/3 for City wetland /nonprofit staff offices, and <br /> 1/3 for the general public. The City is dedicating $235,000 a year for 10 years and USA is <br /> dedicating $50,000 a year for 10 years toward the staff office and building use. This figure is <br /> consistent with their current levels of spending on office space and overhead. The Executive <br /> Director of the wetland education center nonprofit is Pat Willis who is currently working with <br /> the group to develop a 5 year operating budget. <br /> Capital funding for the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Education Center is coming from a variety of <br /> sources including corporate sponsors, grants to through the non-profit from government and <br /> <br /> private foundations, donations from prominent citizens, and some outlays from all levels of <br /> government. Their are numerous fund-raising subcommittees actively pursuing funds. <br /> A similar effort is underway in Salem to build an environmental education center along the banks <br /> of Mill Creek near downtown and the State Capital mall. The planning group involved in this <br /> effort includes the City of Salem Public Works, the Salem school district, the Oregon National <br /> Guard, Chemeketa Community College, and several environmental groups. Their funding target <br /> is also several million dollars, however they have only secured a little over $1 million toward <br /> construction ($700,000 from the school district which includes a school bond passed by voters, <br /> and $600,000 from the Army National Guard civilian military projects funding). They have <br /> <br />