Regional Environmental Information Network

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About REIN

Metro’s Nature in Neighborhoods program created the Regional Environmental Information Network (REIN) to serve as a centralized repository and comprehensive resource for ecological project information in Portland, Oregon – Vancouver, Washington (see mission and goals). By compiling numerous and varied environmental projects into a single, cohesive database, REIN will help Metro track watershed health and citizen efforts over time, generate watershed status reports, and increase local collaboration and success in environmental projects through information sharing.

This free tool can be accessed and used by everyone, but individuals or organizations can also sign up as members (to protect information integrity) and enter their own environmental project information, which includes the ability to upload images, documents, and related internet links.

Metro encourages your participation; the success and power of the REIN web site depends on citizens and organizations sharing project information.

To reach its full potential, REIN relies on everyone’s collaboration, action and a few moments to enter a project. With your support, this web site will become an invaluable resource for the regional community and will help preserve and enhance the quality of life and natural areas for this generation and those to follow.

Metro’s Title 13: Nature in Neighborhoods

Title 13, which created the Nature in Neighborhoods program, was approved in fall 2005 by the Metro Council as part of Metro’s Urban Growth Management Functional Plan. The purposes of this program are to:

1. conserve, protect and restore a continuous ecologically viable streamside corridor system and its floodplains in a manner that is integrated with surrounding wildlife habitat and urban landscape
2. control and prevent water pollution for the protection of the public health and safety, and to maintain and improve water quality throughout the region
3. add to progress already made by the implementation of Title 3 (maintain and increase water quality within the metro region) and Statewide Planning Goal 5 (protect natural resources and conserve scenic or historic areas and open spaces)

More about Nature in Neighborhoods is posted on Metro’s web site at www.metro-region.org/nature.

Mission

The REIN web site serves as the region’s clearinghouse for conservation, education, monitoring and restoration projects and as an information resource for government partners, nonprofits, community groups and citizens working to monitor or improve the natural environment.

Vision

The REIN web site will serve as a portal and archive, where those who conserve, educate, monitor, and restore habitat think to come first to participate in a virtual community and exchange information.

Values

• accessibility
• openness
• simplicity
• efficiency
• collaboration
• empowering to participants
• sense of community

Goals

• a regional view of “what is going on” in the restoration, enhancement and monitoring world
• a repository of data about the region’s restoration, enhancement and monitoring projects
• fewer (or no) redundant restoration, enhancement and monitoring efforts
• fewer gaps in restoration, enhancement and monitoring efforts
• a venue to find opportunities to initiate restoration, enhancement and monitoring projects
• forum for collaboration – a way to find partnerships
• a source for Metro staff to use to obtain and present data for reports and maps
• interagency coordination up and down the spatial scale
• a venue for finding funding

For assistance with this tool, training requests or more information, call Lori Hennings, ecosystem monitoring coordinator, at (503) 797-1940 or send e-mail to hennings@metro.dst.or.us.