by Eleanor Greene, outreach and communications coordinator
Every Tuesday, Shawn Looney pulls weeds with her friends. With the group, which includes fellow West Multnomah SWCD Board Member Jane Hartline and other local pals, Shawn spends her mornings gloved-up and dirty-kneed, pulling invasive blackberry and English ivy from the Wapato Access Greenway on Sauvie Island. It is not a rare sight to see Shawn get into the weeds with causes she cares about.
Even before her retirement as a speech language pathologist, Shawn has been an active volunteer, such as serving on the Roosevelt High School Alumni Association. There, she works to support one of Portland’s most diverse high schools, helping students and teachers secure needed grants.
Never Bored on the Board
Shawn heard about West Multnomah SWCD while participating in a WMSWCD land restoration project in the Linnton area, where she and her husband own about three acres of forested land. During that 2012 project, a staff member asked Shawn to consider serving as an associate director. Associate directors are non-elected, non-voting board members who can join board sessions by applying directly to the board. She did that—learning more each month about the board during meetings and carpools with Jane to the board meetings, where she was able to ask questions, get background on District projects, and build a friendship. When an at-large director position became available in 2014, Shawn ran for it and has served for the decade since.
Shawn’s favorite projects she has seen while serving on the board include the Dairy Creek/Sturgeon Lake restoration project and Tryon Creek culverts project, which happen to be at opposite ends of the district.
“I know what a huge difference it makes to get rid of old failing culverts,” Shawn says. “The fact that we can, we can change the health of our land and water—it’s just pretty impressive.”
Signing up for Service
Among Shawn’s many volunteer projects, she also belongs to the Linnton Neighborhood Association and was a volunteer coordinator when the neighborhood was becoming a FireWise community. She proudly recalls when Linnton became the first FireWise community in Multnomah County.
And these aren’t the only local and environmental projects that Shawn is involved with. She’s an advocate for Tank the Tanks, which is a community activist group seeking to raise awareness and move toward removal of the Critical Energy Infrastructure (CEI) fossil fuel tanks that line the Willamette River in Portland. These tanks, some of which are 100 years old, currently harm local air quality. In the event of a large earthquake, the damage to these tanks could cause environmental disaster in Oregon, Shawn explains.
All this to say, in her decade on the board of WMSWCD and in various personal and community endeavors, Shawn makes a world of difference. She inspires us to get into the weeds and to work to change the bigger picture. And if you see her out pulling down ivy vines, say hi!