Overview & History

In 1935, President F.D. Roosevelt addressed the problem of the dust bowl and soil erosion by establishing the Soil Conservation Service within the USDA. In 1937, this legislation was implemented at the state level to allow the formation of local soil conservation districts. In 1963 the state of Oregon added “water” to the names of the districts.

The Upper Willamette SWCD formerly known as the East Lane SWCD was formed on May 3, 1988 by consolidation of the North Lane Soil Conservation District (formed in 1956), the Upper Willamette SWCD (formed in 1971) and the Mid-Lane Soil Conservation District (formed in 1953).

Upper Willamette SWCD cooperates with landowners, land occupiers, other natural resource users, other local governments as defined in ORS 174.116, and with agencies of the government of Oregon and of the United States in projects, programs and activities to provide for the conservation of renewable natural resources of the state and thereby conserve and develop water resources and water quality and preserve wildlife habitat (paraphrased from ORS 568.225(1) and (2)).