The Tualatin River was once a regional vacation destination. After years of abuse it became the most polluted river in Oregon.

While much has been accomplished, threats from activities that occur across the landscape: polluted water runoff from urban roads and parking lots, lawns chemicals, farms and clear cuts all continue to impact our water quality.

Tualatin Riverkeepers is the leading independent voice standing up for the river, streams and wetlands in our community. This effort must be maintained to protect our water, fish and wildlife. You can make a difference by becoming a member. Your secure online membership donation through Network for Good help Tualatin Riverkeepers get to right work where action is most needed.

Tualatin Riverkeepers
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Riverkeepers Welcome New Exec

Mike Skuja brings conservation and sustainable development experience from around the world.

 Tualatin Riverkeepers (TRK) has announced the hiring of Mike Skuja as the conservation organization’s new executive director.  

Mike Skuja has worked in the environmental conservation field for nearly 15 years and originally hails from Wisconsin. Skuja is a wildlife biologist by training, and sees his education in both the natural and social sciences as key to leading the community conservation efforts of Tualatin Riverkeepers. His diverse career has taken him to various parts of the US as well as to locations abroad in Africa and Latin America. Domestically he has worked at Defenders of Wildlife's California office and he also taught on environmental justice and water pollution issues as an educator on Chicago's west side with Gads Hill Community Center.   Internationally he started his own nonprofit called the Center for Rural Empowerment and the Environment and also gained policy experience in England working for the United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre's marine program. 

All these experiences have deepened his passion for environmental conflict resolution while instilling a desire to work with diverse audiences.  He works to excite people on why their watershed is relevant in their day to day lives, both economically and ecologically.  Most recently Skuja was living in Washington DC where he worked on growing smaller non-profits in the area and also served as faculty at George Washington's Elliott Graduate School.  Here he taught a self-designed course on the environmental movement's philosophical roots, community conservation techniques, and climate change.  

Mike has undergraduate degrees in Zoology and Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an Msc in Biodiversity, Conservation, and Management from the University of Oxford. He is relocating to the Portland area with his wife who is a pediatric dentist. 

Tualatin Riverkeepers’ board president Lynn Carver summarized the reasons for hiring Skuja.  “Mike’s global and diverse experiences, along with his energy and enthusiasm will help craft the next exciting chapter of the Tualatin Riverkeepers.  Under his leadership, we will expand our outreach to more communities within the Tualatin River system with education, recreation and advocacy. “

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