SPROut is founded on the principle of partnership and will continue to coordinate the strengths of its partners toward a greater collective success. Its partners cover a broad range of expertise and leadership, including academic, private, governmental, institutional, and non-profit organizations.

The Oregon Garden

The Oregon Garden is an 80-acre botanical display garden in Silverton that showcases Oregon nursery-grown specimens, and includes more than 17 acres of constructed wetlands filled with treated wastewater from the city. In addition to providing irrigation for the plant collections, the diverse wetlands habitat is the source of the aqua-life lessons for students and many photographic opportunities for visitors. The cleaner water coming out of the wetlands returns safely to the local watershed to enhance riparian habitats downstream. SPROut's headquarters are located at The Oregon Garden, in the Natural Resources Education Building. SPROut conducts field research in the wastewater treatment wetlands, while managing the wetlands' function, operation, and habitat value and works with the Garden to integrate other research projects and aspects of sustainability into the ornamental and educational areas of the site. The Garden also provides a venue for SPROut classes, workshops, volunteer programs, and events, while SPROut provides interpretive literature, signage, and wetland tours for Garden visitors. The Garden site, with several distinct ecosystems, including wastewater wetlands, oak woodland, mixed conifer/deciduous forest, and upland prairie, along with numerous themed ornamental gardens, is well-poised to be the region’s outdoor laboratory for 'putting plants to work' in environmental contexts.

Chemeketa Community College

Chemeketa serves the Marion, Polk, and Yamhill County districts with the following strategic intent.  Chemeketa Community College is our community's resource for quality education in a changing world, delivering opportunities for adult literacy, opening the door to all levels of college, and creating centers of excellence in technical training, workforce development, and business support. SPROut is hosted administratively by Chemeketa, as a unique component of the Natural Resources Department. SPROut writes curriculum and teaches courses and workshops for the department's 2-year Horticulture degree. This degree is unique among Oregon Community Colleges in its focus on sustainability for nursery and greenhouse production, as well as its series of seminar courses on ecological applications of horticulture in the managed landscape context (i.e. 'putting Oregon-grown plants to work'). SPROut uses Chemeketa's strength in outreach to provide professional development courses, workforce training, and conferences, and participates in the Sustainability Committee on campus. In a partnership with The Oregon Garden, Chemeketa manages and maintains the Education Building at The Garden and administers the programs housed there, while using the Garden as an outdoor lab.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service

NRCS, formerly called the Soil Conservation Service, leads a strong conservation partnership in Oregon to support stewardship on private and public lands. Bob Graham, State Conservationist, reminds us of “the intrinsic benefits that the public receives from providing landowners with assistance to care for natural resources”- benefits including cleaner water and air, improved soils, and abundant wildlife habitat. Their website contains detailed soil and plant databases and access to many other resources. National programs administered by NRCS with local divisions include the Resource Conservation and Development Areas (RC&D's) which aim to improve quality of life for rural communities through sustainable management of environmental resources. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is a financial and technical assistance program that promotes agricultural production and environmental quality as compatible national goals. The 26 NRCS Plant Materials Centers, including one in Corvallis Oregon, provide proven native plant species to the commercial/private sectors to solve natural resource problems by encouraging benefits such as carbon sequestration, wetland restoration, water quality improvement, biomass production, erosion reduction, and riparian area protection.  NRCS continues to respond to current innovation and needs by offering grant programs that link individual landowner efforts to the bigger environmental and economic picture. NRCS has been a generous financial supporter of the Wetlands at the Oregon Garden and continues to be a generous financial supporter of SPROut development and projects.

Institute for Natural Resources

INR was created by the Oregon Legislature through the Sustainability Act of 2001 to bring together decision/policy makers and researchers from state, city, federal, and tribal organizations and Oregon's academic institutions. By acting as a project catalyst and providing access to current, science-based information and methods, they are developing better understanding of our resource management challenges and facilitating the collaborations needed to implement new solutions. INR's administrative offices are located on the Oregon State University campus in Corvallis. INR has been an integral part of SPROut's strategic planning process, and SPROut and INR have collaborated on many projects, including a Survey designed to illuminate the opportunities and challenges for phytotechnology development in Oregon (see the Strategic Planning page of this site for more details). We have collaborated successfully on research grants and worked to bring an unbiased approach to review of proposals submitted for SPROut funding. INR’s Director, Gail Achterman, sums up the common goals of INR and SPROut quite nicely: “We want new systems that are sustainable and solutions that will work for the long haul.”

Oregon State University

OSU's former (now retired) Dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences, Thayne Dutson, was the Convener of SPROut's Research Council under the Oregon Solutions process. SPROut has worked closely with faculty from the Horticulture Department, the Crop and Soil Science Department, and Extension. Over the last 5 years, the Horticulture Dept has re-strategized their focus to emphasize current needs around ecological and sustainable horticulture. Their major program areas include Sustainable Farm and Food Systems; Ecological Landscapes; and Fundamental Research. SPROut and the Horticulture Dept have collaborated on research initiatives, outreach efforts, and strategic planning. With financial assistance from SPROut, Horticulture created the first Green Roof Research Center in the Western US. SPROut's work with Crop and Soil Science has involved using barley straw for algae control in water systems. SPROut's work with Extension includes drought-tolerant plant trials, sustainable planting options for parking lots and urban areas, stormwater management workshops, and Master Gardener trainings.

Rogue Water

Rogue Water is a private organization out of Ashland that specializes in innovative and integrative built systems that combine onsite water treatment of ponds and streams with economic opportunity for agricultural producers. Often taking inspiration from John Todd's work, Rogue Water uses a combination of floating wetlands, tank systems and greenhouses to treat water by encouraging the water/plant root/microbiology interface toward its best efficiency. RW's systems have been installed at dairy farms, county fairgrounds, public gardens, rock quarries, and science museums. With clever and descriptive terminology such as "botanical burrito", this company seeks to educate as well as provide working sytems and is a frequent presenter at workshops, conferences, seminars, and at custom-designed-by-request trainings. SPROut and Rogue Water have collaborated on many demonstration and research projects, both at The Oregon Garden and in southern and eastern Oregon. RW is enormously supportive of SPROut on the outreach front and is responsible for many new SPROut partnerships, including the University of Guanajuato in Mexico. For more information on Rogue Water, visit the Projects page of this site.

Oregon Association of Nurseries

The OAN is Oregon's nursery collective, supporting all facets of the industry, from research to education and training to regional transportation for deliveries to federal policy support to retail trends and marketing to sustainability. They annually host the nation's largest nursery industry trade show and seminar series, called the Farwest Show, in September and also the Yard, Garden, and Patio Show in spring for homeowners. The OAN was instrumental in the early master planning and inception of The Oregon Garden- with garden design, plant donations, financial contributions, and enthusiastic marketing and outreach. The Oregon Garden is a showcase of the Oregon-grown horticultural products that collectively have become a leader in the national market. SPROut is a member of the OAN's Research Committee and encourages projects that stimulate new environmental markets for Oregon-grown plants. With a portion of the nursery licensing fees, new research is funded annually that directly benefits the nursery industry. The OAN is committed to sustainability, both internally and externally, as they work to integrate both traditional and innovative growing methods and resource management with a rapidly changing marketplace. SPROut and OAN have collaborated on many outreach and educational efforts. It is inherent in SPROut's mission that in order to support the development of phytotechnology, we must support the growers who provide us with the plants!

Ayala Water and Ecology

Ayala is an Israeli engineering company that specializes in phytotechnology solutions for water, soil, or air pollution, especially natural, biological systems (NBS) that integrate with landscape ecology to treat blackwater or greywater for reuse. Ayala’s systems are in demand across the world (Israel, Costa Rica, China, India, New York, Mexico, etc) and designed for the uniqueness of each site, using a combination of techniques, such as constructed wetlands, sub-surface wetlands, or treatment with soil, with as little operational energy demand as possible. Ayala’s approach is extremely effective, cost-efficient, and well-suited for onsite community and farm treatment, winery waste treatment, industry pre-treatment, small scale municipal treatment, or functional urban landscape design for wastewater or stormwater. Ayala's systems have treated a wide range of pollutants, including industrial sewage, hydrocarbons, organic and mineral oils, petroleum, landfill leachate, salinated water, boron, pathogens, hormones, heavy metals, and many types of agricultural sewage. The company has its own nursery of aquatic plants for use in its projects. Ayala is a member of the International Phytotechnology Society and also actively engaged in the European COST Action 859 initiative: "phytotechnologies to promote sustainable land use management and improve food chain safety". Ayala's founder is also the Israeli representative for a NATO environmental specialist team on phytotechnology applications. SPROut and Ayala have partnered to bring these phytotechnology systems for water to Oregon, and SPROut is serving as the Western US representative for the company.