Community Envisioned Deschutes Estuary: Art, Action, and a Restored Future
The Final Rendering of the Community Envisioned Deschutes Estuary, displayed with graphic notes.
How a Collaborative Workshop Series Sparked a Vision for the Return of the Deschutes Estuary
This winter past, I had the honor of collaborating with the Deschutes Estuary Restoration Team (DERT) to support Community Envisioned Deschutes Estuary (CEDE)—a six-part public workshop series inviting our community to imagine a restored estuary in downtown Olympia.
Throughout the series, I took live graphic notes, visually capturing the conversations, values, and dreams that emerged. These weren’t just meetings. They were moments of co-creation—where people reflected on their relationships to the land, to each other, and to the generations who came before and will come after.
View from my art-making table of the first Community Envisioned Deschutes Estuary forum.
Themes That Emerged: Access, Stewardship, Equity, and Belonging
Across the six sessions, core themes surfaced again and again:
Relationships with the land and water
Sustainable development and the watershed’s carrying capacity
Access to nature, education, and recreation
Equity and intergenerational stewardship
Collaboration and coalition-building
A collective longing for connection, healing, and action
These graphic notes became more than records—they became the foundation for something visual, lasting, and meant to inspire.
Creating the CEDE Painting: A Visual Story of Restoration
As the workshops unfolded, I began working on a 4’x6’ painting to synthesize and honor the full arc of what we heard and shared. Layered with color, movement, and memory, this piece reflects our community’s vision for the Deschutes Estuary: one rooted in care, creativity, and a deep knowing that we belong to this place—and each other.
Woven through the river, land, and sky is a poem that emerged from the heart of the process, capturing what we learned together:
Poem from the CEDE Painting
Future braided from Source to Sea
Deschutes waters weave us back to each othe
Entwined with Access, Learning, Work, & lay
Belonging
Building only what our Watershed can Hold
Place is Memory in Notion
Stewardship a Shared Song
Relationships Tended
Roots Running Deep
With st̓əč̓as Wisdom, a Living River Flows
Unveiling the Painting at Spring Arts Walk 2025
This spring, at Olympia’s Spring Arts Walk, we brought the vision to life.
We unveiled the painting alongside the full set of graphic notes outdoors—at the Alley Café outside Soul Café and New Traditions—overlooking the future site of the restored estuary. Throughout the day people stopped by to view the work, ask questions, and reconnect with the shared dream of restoration.
Members of DERT joined the event to share what’s next for estuary restoration and community-managed watershed planning. And in one of the most joyful moments of the weekend, the Estuary section of the Procession of the Species danced through the streets—artistically breaking the dam and symbolically freeing the Deschutes.
A Full-Circle Moment: From 2009 to Now
This moment marked something deeply personal for me.
Back in 2009, DERT invited me to paint one of my very first contracted environmental art pieces—a vision of the Deschutes Estuary restored. At the time, I didn’t know if it would ever happen. But I created it as a kind of prayer, a possibility.
Sixteen years later, I stood beside this painting as I took in our new vision—this time made with and for the community, rooted in shared wisdom and collective imagination. This is what I call Art in Action: when creativity, connection, and change move together.
What’s Next for the Estuary and the Art
The CEDE artwork will continue to live in community with DERT—sparking dialogue, action, and reflection. I hope it reminds us that restoration is not just ecological—it’s cultural, emotional, and relational.
While it will take years of planning, fundraising, and restoration efforts. The dam will be removed, possibly in as little as five years, which is barely a drop in the estuary’s timeline.
If you missed the unveiling, stay tuned for future opportunities to view the painting and continue the conversation. And if you were part of the workshops, Arts Walk, or the Procession—thank you. You helped bring this vision to life.
