Volunteer
Saturday work parties, second and fourth Saturdays, 9 AM–noon. We supply waders, tools, training — and very good coffee.
See upcoming datesNonprofit watershed conservancy · Est. 2011
Riverstone Alliance brings Portland’s buried creeks back to life.
We restore urban waterways, train the next generation of green workers at a living wage, and prove that a healthier river and a fairer economy rise together.
14.2 miof creek restored
412green careers launched
92¢of every $1 to programs
Proof, not promises
Fourteen years on the water, measured in the open.
Audited FY2025 figures, published every spring in our plain-language annual report.
- miles of urban creek restored
- 0
- native trees & plants in the ground
- 0
- Green Careers graduates hired
- 0
- volunteer hours on the water
- 0
Our mission
A city is only as healthy as its creeks — and the people who tend them.
Portland grew up over its water. Crystal Springs, Stephens, Balch, the lower Columbia sloughs — dozens of creeks were buried in culverts, strangled by ivy, or fenced off from the neighborhoods that once fished and played in them. Riverstone Alliance exists to reverse that, block by block.
But restoration is never only ecological. It is economic. Every shovel on every one of our projects is held by a paid local fellow or a trained neighborhood volunteer — because a creek that comes back should bring its community back with it.
“We don’t ask nature to wait for a better economy. We build the better economy while we restore the nature.”
-
Living wages for restoration work. Fellows earn $19/hr from day one — stewardship should never be a luxury career.
-
Open data on every waterway. Water temperature, turbidity, and dissolved oxygen from 31 monitoring sites — free, public, updated monthly.
-
Neighborhoods first. 71% of our fellows live within three miles of the site where they train.
-
No greenwashing. Every figure on this page is audited annually and published in plain language.
What we do
Four programs.
One watershed.
Each program funds the others’ success: healthy creeks train workers, trained workers teach students, and students become stewards.
-
Crews rip out invasive English ivy and Himalayan blackberry, regrade eroding banks with live willow stakes, and daylight buried stream segments. Fourteen active sites across Johnson Creek, Crystal Springs, and the Foster Floodplain.
14 active sites On the water year-round
-
A nine-month, $19/hr fellowship for Portlanders from low-income households. Fellows earn OSHA-30, pesticide-handler, and chainsaw certifications, then move into our employer network — 89% placed within 60 days of graduation.
412 graduates 89% placement
-
Monthly work parties with tools, training, and hot coffee included. Or adopt one of 42 mapped creek segments with your block, school, or business — we keep you stocked with plants, pickup sticks, and gloves.
9,842 stewards 42 adopted segments
-
Free field-science units for 27 Title I schools. Students run real water-quality tests — temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen — and publish their results to our open data portal for the whole city to use.
27 partner schools Open data portal
Voices from the water
What our community says
“I walked past Johnson Creek my whole childhood and never knew salmon slept in it. Riverstone didn’t just give me a job — it gave me a job that matters.”
Get involved
Three ways in.
Pick one this week.
Everything is free, everything is local, and no experience is required for anything. We teach, we outfit, we feed.
Partner
Corporate restoration days, school partnerships, and in-kind gifts of trucks, tools, and native plants from our nursery wishlist.
Start a partnershipAdvocate
Testify for the urban canopy budget, share our open water data, and tell your own watershed story. We send one action alert a month — never more.
Get action alertsOn the calendar
All events free · rain or shine · ASL interpretation on request
-
Willow Staking Workshop — Foster Floodplain Natural Area
Saturday, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · tools provided · 14 spots left
-
Spring Ivy Pull — Johnson Creek Park
Saturday, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM · family friendly · lunch included
-
Creek Science Night — Lents Commons
Wednesday, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM · live water testing demos for kids
-
Native Planting Day — Stephens Creek Confluence
Saturday, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM · 1,200 plants · our biggest day of the year
Give
Your dollar does two jobs.
Every gift restores habitat and pays a person’s wage at the same time. That’s the whole model: the willow stakes go into the bank, the paycheck goes to the neighborhood, and the creek gets its future back.
- Candid Platinum Transparency — 2025
- 92¢ of every dollar funds programs directly
- 501(c)(3) · EIN 47-2091533 · gifts are tax-deductible
Prefer to give by mail? Checks payable to Riverstone Alliance, 214 SE Water Ave, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97214.
Questions
Asked at every work party.
Something else on your mind? Call (503) 555-0147 — a human answers, weekdays 9–5.
-
Yes. Riverstone Alliance is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 47-2091533. Every online gift triggers an emailed receipt within minutes, and we send a consolidated giving statement each January.
-
92¢ of every dollar goes to program costs — plants, tools, fellow wages, and field curricula. The remainder covers administration (5¢) and fundraising (3¢). Our finances are audited annually and published in plain language.
-
Absolutely — most of our 9,842 stewards had never held a pulaski before their first Saturday. We teach every skill on site, outfit you head to toe, and keep hot coffee flowing. Kids under 14 are welcome with an adult.
-
Really. Fellows earn $19/hr from their first day of the nine-month cohort, plus paid certification weeks, childcare stipends, and transit passes. Unpaid "exposure" is not a career pathway — wages are.
-
Choose one of 42 mapped segments, gather a crew of five or more, and commit to two visits a year. We handle permits, deliver tools and plants, and train your leads. Email stewards@riverstonealliance.org to claim a stretch.
Contact