Salmon-Safe today recognizes Portland-based GreenWorks, PC with Salmon-Safe accreditation for its commitment to reducing watershed impacts through landscape architecture and environmental design. GreenWorks is Oregon’s first Salmon-Safe accredited firm and the first landscape architecture firm anywhere to attain accreditation. Firms like GreenWorks are Salmon-Safe accredited for extensive efforts to halt runoff from entering streams and impacting imperiled salmon through integrated stormwater management.
“GreenWorks, as Oregon’s first Salmon-Safe accredited design firm, is leading the way to a healthier Willamette River watershed,” said Dan Kent, Salmon-Safe co-founder and executive director. “By incorporating Salmon-Safe principles as the foundation for site designs that are based on restoring urban ecology, GreenWorks is demonstrating how to find synergy between community needs, beauty, and nature.”
Jason King, GreenWorks Associate Principal, has long been a champion of Salmon-Safe as an advocate, co-author of Urban and Infrastructure standards, and as an expert on independent science teams certifying projects around the Northwest. “The ability to promote biodiversity through urban ecosystem restoration while protecting our valuable aquatic resources is fundamental to all of our work,” King said. “It was natural for us to take advantage of the Salmon-Safe accreditation to promote GreenWorks’ commitment to these principles and to continue to challenge ourselves to deliver more integrated, regenerative design for our clients.”
GreenWorks has completed two Salmon-Safe projects, Pringle Creek Community and Washougal Waterfront Park, and has a long history of design and advocacy, incorporating stormwater management, urban habitat enhancement, restoration, and watershed health throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. Current work demonstrating this commitment includes Reed’s Crossing in Hillsboro, which incorporates extensive wetland and stormwater management woven into new residential developments and Gateway Green, which provides multi-modal transportation and open spaces while enhancing habitat along Portland’s I-205 corridor. In a more urban context, the Terminal 1 development for the Port of Vancouver, Washington celebrates sustainability in a new mixed-use waterfront, and work with the Human Access Project helps achieve a clean and swimmable—for both people and Salmon—Willamette River.
GreenWorks has more than 20 years of experience restoring the health of urban watersheds. Embedding natural processes within projects, GreenWorks’ designs integrate green infrastructure through a wide range of methods and comprehensive on-the-ground approaches. Their experience with natural system elements includes wetland design, stream restoration and day lighting, habitat enhancements, and integrated community planning.
GreenWorks founding principal Mike Faha puts this in context. “We are always thinking about GreenWorks’ role looking towards the future. This accreditation helps solidify who we are and what is most important to us.”