Our Programs
Neighbors working together for a safer, healthier, and more connected Row River Valley.
Our programs have grown from the needs and ideas brought forward by people who live here. From wildfire preparedness and emergency readiness to neighborhood connection, watershed stewardship, and support for older and vulnerable neighbors, each program helps build local capacity and strengthen the place we call home.
Why Our Work Reaches So Far
In a community of 1,200 people, there isn’t an organization for every need.
When a wildfire assessment finds an older neighbor who needs help, when emergency planning uncovers a communication gap, or when caring for a pathway leads us to a larger responsibility for the watershed, we cannot always hand the next piece to someone else. So we bring together the people who can help, find the resources we need, and keep going.
This is our home. The people we serve are our neighbors, friends, and families. And while our valley is small, the challenges we face are shared by rural communities throughout Oregon. What we learn here, we readily share — because small communities should not have to figure everything out alone.
Communication & Engagement
Our communication and engagement process is designed around the realities of a rural community where internet and cell service are inconsistent and residents receive information in different ways. We use several communication methods, including direct outreach, community meetings, our mailed Row River Review, email, social media, and conversations through neighborhood and community networks.
Just as important is creating places for people to come together. Community gatherings, Think Tank Tuesdays, Neighborhood Teams, educational events, and everyday conversations give residents opportunities to meet their neighbors, share local knowledge and concerns, learn about resources, and take part in what is happening throughout the valley. These connections help strengthen relationships, encourage local leadership, and keep our community involved and informed.
Think Tank Tuesdays
Sometimes it starts around a table.
Think Tank Tuesday, community gatherings, guest speakers, educational programs, and local conversations give residents a place to learn, ask questions, bring forward concerns, and get to know one another. There is no membership required and no expectation that someone already knows the people in the room. There is a seat at the table.
Row River Review
Our valley. Our voice. Our future.
The Row River Review keeps approximately 500 households connected through a locally produced, bi-monthly newspaper delivered directly to residents. It shares preparedness information, community news, local history, upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, fire district updates, and the stories of people and organizations doing good work throughout the valley. Your existing Review page describes its purpose as strengthening resilience, encouraging preparedness, and celebrating the people and projects shaping the valley’s future.
Neighborhood Teams
Neighbors helping neighbors, close to home.
Neighborhood Teams bring nearby residents together to know one another, share information, prepare for emergencies, and identify neighbors who may need a little extra help. Teams develop around the needs and character of each neighborhood, creating local leadership and stronger connections throughout our 20-mile rural valley.
Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation – From Planning to Action
RRVCP works with residents to reduce wildfire risk around homes, properties, and neighborhoods throughout the Row River Valley. Our program includes property assessments, defensible-space work, vegetation and hazard reduction, community cleanup projects, and access to shared equipment such as our chipper, dump trailers, and mobile tool trailer. We work alongside homeowners and volunteers to turn assessments into practical improvements, with additional assistance for neighbors who may not have the physical or financial ability to complete the work on their own.
Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)
RRVCP is working with Lane County Emergency Management, the Oregon State Fire Marshal, Oregon Department of Emergency Management, local fire partners, and other agencies to develop a Community Wildfire Protection Plan for the Row River Valley. The process brings local knowledge together with agency expertise to better understand wildfire risk, identify community priorities, strengthen preparedness and mitigation planning, and create a coordinated path for reducing wildfire risk across the valley.
Property Assessments
Property assessments help residents better understand wildfire risks around their homes and identify practical steps they can take to improve safety. Assessments provide a starting point for prioritizing work based on the individual property.
Defensible Space Assistance
We help residents put assessment recommendations into action through defensible-space work, vegetation management, debris removal, and other wildfire mitigation activities. Volunteers provide additional hands-on help for neighbors who may need assistance completing the work. Neighborhood Teams expands the assistance with neighbors helping others with creating defensible space around homes.
Chipper, Dump Trailers, & Equipment Use
Our community chipper, dump trailers, mobile tool trailer, and other shared equipment help make wildfire mitigation more accessible throughout the valley. These resources support individual properties, volunteer workdays, neighborhood projects, and the ongoing maintenance needed to keep defensible space effective.
Emergency Preparedness
Emergency preparedness is especially important in a rural community where limited routes, unreliable communications, and distance from services can leave residents on their own when something unexpected happens. Severe winter storms, flooding, landslides, earthquakes, extended power outages, road closures, and other emergencies can disrupt travel and access to everyday services, sometimes with little warning.
RRVCP helps neighbors prepare before those situations occur through household planning, emergency education, community training, neighborhood communication, and partnerships with emergency-management agencies and local organizations. Programs such as Oregon Department of Emergency Management’s Be 2 Weeks Ready, presented through our Think Tank Tuesdays, give residents practical tools to prepare for extended disruptions while learning and planning together as a community.
Be 2 Weeks Ready
Be 2 Weeks ReadyRRVCP brings Oregon Department of Emergency Management’s Be 2 Weeks Ready program into the valley through our Think Tank Tuesday gatherings. The program walks neighbors through practical steps for preparing to care for themselves and their households during an extended emergency, including planning for food and water, shelter, sanitation, first aid, communication, and other essential needs. Presenting the program through familiar community gatherings gives residents an opportunity to learn together, ask questions, and adapt preparedness planning to the realities of living in our rural valley.
Evacuation & Shelter-in-Place Readiness
RRVCP is working to better understand what our community may need when an emergency requires residents to evacuate or makes leaving the valley unsafe or impossible. Evacuation needs are being discussed with residents and considered through our Community Wildfire Protection Plan and work with the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, while conversations with the American Red Cross are helping us explore shelter-in-place needs, potential community shelter locations, emergency supplies, and local volunteer support. Together, this work is helping us identify practical options that reflect the geography and realities of the Row River Valley.
Community Support & Rural Well-Being
Our community support work grows from neighbors looking out for one another and finding ways to keep people connected to community life. We are in the early stages of expanding this work through neighbor-to-neighbor assistance, community meals and social gatherings, and opportunities that strengthen connection and belonging, particularly for residents who may be isolated or need a little extra support. We are working alongside the Sunshine Club, Row River Christian Fellowship, and Food for Lane County, and are currently seeking funding for a commercial kitchen that would help create a welcoming place to prepare and share meals together.
Community Events & Meals
Community Events & MealsCommunity events and shared meals give neighbors a welcoming place to gather, enjoy one another’s company, and stay connected to life in the valley. RRVCP is working alongside the Sunshine Club, Row River Christian Fellowship, Food for Lane County, and other community partners to explore regular meals, games, and social gatherings, with transportation assistance for neighbors who may need it. We are currently seeking funding for a commercial kitchen to help make these gatherings possible and support their growth over time.
Rural Aging & Neighbor Support
We are working toward building stronger support for residents who want to remain in their homes and connected to the Row River Valley as they grow older. Through Neighborhood Teams, volunteer networks, community gatherings, preparedness programs, and local partnerships, we are beginning to create more opportunities for neighbors to check in on one another, share information and resources, offer practical help when needed, and reduce the isolation that can come with rural living. Our goal is to strengthen the community connections that help people continue to live safely and independently in the place they call home.
Watershed & Environmental Stewardship
The Row River Valley is shaped by its forests, rivers, creeks, and the watershed that connects our rural community with our neighbors downstream. RRVCP is committed to caring for these shared natural resources through hands-on stewardship, post-fire recovery, environmental education, community cleanup, and partnerships with organizations that bring conservation and watershed expertise to the valley. We want residents to have meaningful opportunities to take part in caring for the land and water around us, building a shared sense of responsibility for protecting the place we call home for generations to come.
Disston Pathway Stewardship
The Disston Pathway follows approximately four miles of the Row River through a beautiful stretch of the upper valley. RRVCP is working with residents, volunteers, and local partners to care for the corridor through cleanup, monitoring, vegetation management, dumping prevention, and other hands-on stewardship activities. This work gives neighbors an opportunity to care for a place we share while helping protect the surrounding forest, waterways, and watershed for the future.
Post-Fire Recovery
Following the Cottage Grove Complex Fire, RRVCP is working with watershed and conservation partners to better understand the effects of wildfire on private lands, forests, waterways, and the larger watershed. This work includes field assessment, identifying erosion and post-fire risks, sharing practical recovery information with landowners, and connecting residents with technical assistance and available resources. Our goal is to help support thoughtful recovery while protecting the land and water that connect the Row River Valley and the communities downstream.
Fire & Emergency Response Infrastructure
RRVCP helps build the physical infrastructure needed to support reliable fire and emergency response in the Row River Valley. When residents came together to establish the Row River Rural Fire Protection District, they created a new public district with a local tax base to support ongoing operations, but without the inherited stations, facilities, or capital reserves that established fire districts have built over decades. Our community therefore began with the responsibility of building that infrastructure from the ground up. RRVCP works alongside the district and community to secure donated land, develop the future Dorena Main Station and Disston Auxiliary Station, raise public and private funds, and bring partners together to help make these essential facilities possible.
Dorena Main Fire Station
The future Dorena Main Fire Station will serve as the primary operational home of the Row River Rural Fire Protection District and is central to establishing sustainable fire and emergency response for the valley. The station is planned on land donated by Dr. Walt Bernard and will provide the permanent space needed for apparatus, equipment, firefighter training, and day-to-day district operations. RRVCP is working to help bring together the significant public and private investment needed to build this facility and complete the community’s long effort to establish permanent local fire protection.
Disston Auxiliary Station
The Disston Auxiliary Station extends that emergency response capacity farther into the upper Row River Valley, where distance and travel time matter. Located on property donated by Weyerhaeuser, the smaller station will provide an upriver location for apparatus and equipment, improving the district’s ability to respond to fires and other emergencies near Disston, surrounding homes, recreation areas, forestlands, and the upper watershed. Its location gives the district an important second point of response along our long rural corridor and adds another layer of resilience when access or conditions make reaching the upper valley difficult.
