Glenn Lamb ’88 Founder of Columbia Land Trust

Glenn Lamb’s connection with UO started in 1977 when UO student Alberto Salazar came home to Wayland, MA in between terms. Lamb was a Junior at Wayland High School when Salazar came by the track one day and said that he would train him if he wanted. Lamb took him up on the offer; and Salazar provided workouts and called him from UO. He also traveled to watch Lamb race and, when he graduated from college, suggested he come to Eugene. Lamb took him up on the offer to come west and landed in Eugene in 1983. After training to qualify for the Olympic Trials he went back to graduate school at the UO.

After graduating from UO PPPM in 1988, his master’s thesis was an evaluation of funding programs for non-game (i.e. non-hunted or fished) wildlife programs in Oregon. He felt well prepared for a job, but wasn’t able to land a job right away in the land conservation field. So in 1990 he volunteered to help start Columbia Land Trust. The public involvement class work from UO was really useful; UO Professor David Povey led his Community Workshop program and also the Introduction to Planning class where such techniques were presented.

Fast forward ten years and Columbia Land Trust received word that one of the last waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge, Mosier waterfall, was on the market for subdivision and development. One of the Columbia Land Trust Mosier-area volunteers took the lead on writing grants and soon enough they had succeeded in getting a state Parks grant. But they needed a local match so Lamb went to the county records to see look at maps of adjacent properties. At times neighbors donate properties which can count as a match. The neighbor to the Mosier Waterfall property was Professor David and LaVonne Povey who immediately volunteered to donate their land. This became the match that allowed the whole waterfall to be protected and is now a public park. Today, David and LaVonne are allowing a trail to be built across other land that they have in the area, establishing a key trail connection.

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