Dorinne Pedersen and Rachael Brake are being offered this award in recognition of all their work organizing their communities in preparation for our Community Wildfire Defense Grant application. Without their crucial legwork in reaching out to their communities, we would not have been able to develop a proposal or apply for this grant on such short notice. We were not awarded this grant in our first attempt but aim to apply again in the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Dorinne Pedersen
Dorinne rallied her neighbors along McNamee Rd to participate in a plan to apply wildfire mitigation measures across their collective properties. If completed, this would bring wildfire mitigation management to a meaningful landscape-level scale in the Tualatin Mountains. In the past, Dorinne has worked with the district to develop a forest stewardship plan for her property and completed a project to enhance her property for pollinators and improved forest health.
Rachael Brake
Rachael is a community leader for many groups in the Skyline Neighborhood including the Forest Park North and Skyline Ridge Firewise Communities, the Skyline Ridge Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET), the Skyline Grange and the Skyline Neighborhood Association. She helped the district coordinate with all these partner groups to develop part of our grant proposal to share information on wildfire risk reduction with the greater Skyline Ridge community. She and her spouse Grant have also worked with the district in the past on a forest stewardship plan and a riparianRiparian areas The land alongside a creek, river, pond, or other body of water restoration project on Rock Creek. They have both always been enthusiastic and supportive conservation partners and have most recently been serving as a host site for an emerald ash borer trap.