Accomplishments

Protecting National Forests
In the greatest preservation victory since Teddy Roosevelt created the National Park system, OSPIRG worked in a coalition of dozens of environmental groups to convince President Clinton to protect 58.5 million acres, including 1.9 million acres here in Oregon, of pristine, but previously unprotected, National Forests. Activists here in the state gathered the third largest number of public comments in the nation, largely thanks to OSPIRG's efforts. OSPIRG helped protect special places like the Mt. Hood National Forest, the Willamette National Forest and the Pelican Butte Roadless Area in the Winema National Forest. In addition, OSPIRG helped save the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, which is the nation's largest rainforest.

Campus Climate Challenge
The OSPIRG chapter at Central Oregon Community College spearheaded a successful effort to have COCC get 75% of its electricity from clean energy, making COCC the largest clean energy purchaser among community colleges in the nation.

Protecting Our Coast
OSPIRG organized community members and students across the state to protect the Oregon Coast from offshore drilling. Students from Ashland, Bend, Portland, and Eugene gathered thousands of petitions that led to a statewide campaign rally in Newport. Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury spoke at the rally and pledged to place a moratorium on offshore drilling.

New Voters Project
In 2004, young voters registered and voted in record numbers. OSPIRG student chapters across the state were a big part of making history, playing leadership roles in the peer-to-peer grassroots mobilization that led to this success. Working with the Student Vote Coalition led by the Oregon Student Association, OSPIRG’s New Voters Project helped register 31,000 Oregon college students to vote.

Cleaning up the Willamette River
OSPIRG worked with allies to stop the Department of Environmental Quality from approving an industry permit that would have allowed one industry to dump up to four billion gallons of toxic, high temperature wastewater into the Willamette River. OSPIRG staff researched and released data showing that fifteen percent of Oregon's largest industrial and government facilities were in serious violation of the Clean Water Act. In order to increase community involvement in the fight to clean up the Willamette River, students and staff monitored for pollution and cleaned twenty tons of debris out of the Willamette and its tributaries through the volunteer-driven Riverwatch Project.

Saving Oregon's Special Places
OSPIRG worked with a broad coalition to establish the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area, protecting 100,000 acres of wilderness from the impacts of grazing in Southeastern Oregon.

Giving Oregonians the Right to Know About Toxic Pesticides
After the Oregon Legislature passed the nation's strongest pesticide right-to-know law in 1999, OSPIRG launched the 'Accountability Agenda' to guarantee that the Legislature's intent, and the public's Right to Know about pesticide use in their communities, schools and workplaces, was protected.

Cleaning Up Oregon's Air
In a national coalition, OSPIRG fought for and got the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen the clean air standards for diesel, saving up to 40,000 lives a year.

Defending Consumers
At PSU, OSPIRG is working to lower textbook prices by enabling faculty to negotiate directly with publishers to lower textbook prices. The PSU chapter also helped convince Congressman David Wu to have the GAO study rising textbook prices. The GAO’s report confirmed OSPIRG’s previous finding that publishers were deliberately driving u  the cost of textbooks.

The OSPIRG chapter at the University of Oregon had a Renters’ Rights Hotline which was flooded with calls. So they teamed up with student governments at the U of O and Lane Community College and formed a coalition that led to housing standards being enacted for the city of Eugene.

In 2004, OSPIRG’s consumer advocate worked with the student government at Portland State University to help research and publicize the potential consumer privacy problems with the new “Higher One” debit cards given to students instead of financial aid checks.

Saving our Wild Salmon
In its successful Oregon Pesticide Education Network coalition, OSPIRG helped to publish a report showing that household use of the bug killer diazinon threatens salmon.

Getting Big Money out of Politics
In addition to the work that OSPIRG did to document the shocking increase in special interest spending in the 2000 election, OSPIRG staff worked with local media and challenged Oregon television broadcasters to open the airwaves to brief nightly issue forums for candidates.