There's reason to be hopeful, Friend.

You don't even need to find a lucky four-leafed clover first. Although, since Oregon grows more clover than any other state in the nation, it might be easier to find one here than anywhere else. We also have three native species of clover, including the high-desert-adapted Trifolium leibergii you see above.

Like that hardy clover, we're all learning to adjust to difficult environments right now. It's going to be interesting, and sometimes a little messy (for instance, we meant to get this email to you on St. Patrick's Day, not the day after), but if clover can do it, so can we!

For the time being, 1000 Friends is doing things from a distance. Our main office is closed for the foreseeable future, but that's not stopping me or my staff. We've moved our office, and all of our meetings, online. We continue to work our usual hours (and more) from our 16 "field offices"--which is to say, our various living rooms and kitchen tables. Your phone calls and emails will still reach us, and we will keep providing the land use guidance and leadership we've delivered for Oregon for nearly 50 years.

In fact, despite our very real concerns for the health and well-being of you and everyone else in Oregon and beyond, we're actually feeling cautiously optimistic. That's because, even as this proves to be one of the more challenging springs any of us have ever experienced, you can already see signs of resiliency across Oregon. Families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, policymakers, and countless varieties of service providers are finding ways of coming together and caring for each other. Somehow, despite social distancing, we're becoming more connected. We're getting creative. We're adapting.

And in that resiliency, I see the true importance of our mission at 1000 Friends of Oregon.

Our walkable, livable communities; our accessible parks and nature; our strong food systems networks...when you think about it, some of the things that matter most right now are actually the fruits of Oregon's land use planning system.

That's why, here at 1000 Friends, we feel not just hopeful, but genuinely lucky. To live in Oregon. To serve the greater good. And most of all, to have friends like you, whose generous support makes our work possible even in the best of times, and certainly in tough times like these.

Thank you, Friend. You make us feel luckier than a whole field of four-leafed clover.

For Oregon, and with best wishes for you and your loved ones,

Executive Director