1000 Friends of Oregon is a private, non-profit

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 501(c)(3) organization that advocates for sustainable communities, protection of farmland and forests, and conservation of natural areas and resources in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 with a focus on land use laws. It was established in 1975, following the creation of Oregon's statewide land use system in 1973 by then-governor Tom McCall

Tom McCall

Thomas Lawson McCall was an American politician and journalist in the state of Oregon. A Republican, he was the 30th Governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975. A native of Massachusetts, he grew up there and in Central Oregon before attending the University of Oregon...

 and attorney Henry Richmond. Richmond served as the organization's first executive director. He was succeeded in following years by Robert Liberty, Bob Stacey, and - as of March 2010 - Jason Miner.

Current Initiatives

The group's current work falls into three broad categories: advocating for vibrant, climate-friendly communities and neighborhoods, promoting Oregon's rural economy through policy and planning with the New Face of Farming initiative, and an effort to foster future leadership in Oregon's land use community. The group carries out this work through its Portland headquarters and three regional offices, working statewide with cities and counties and at the Oregon legislature.

Measures 37 and 49

The group strongly opposed Measure 37, a controversial land-use

Land use

Land use is the human use of land. Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as fields, pastures, and settlements. It has also been defined as "the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover...

 ballot initiative

Initiative

In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...

 passed by Oregon voters in 2004. They then advocated, successfully, for the passage of 2007's Measure 49, which limited the impacts of Measure 37.