Joe Whitworth, president of the nonprofit Freshwater Trust, addressed the audience at Portland’s recent TEDx forum and touted his work in restoring freshwater ecosystems.

The talk touches on the challenges of cutting through bureaucracy and battling economic forces that reward damaging streams.

While Whitworth is blunt about the challenges, he’s also had some success. One innovation that he describes as a “Turbo Tax”-like process for restoring streams has cut back the time it takes to get necessary paperwork by as much as 70 percent.

You can watch his speech here: