Education - What We Do

Our community education and outreach program builds support for conservation by development of knowledge about and appreciation for our natural areas and ecologically sound local food production. The Trust invites the community members and visitors of all ages to lectures, classes, and hands-on workshops. We train a team of dedicated volunteers to do important research and monitoring on our properties.

We also provide free watershed education and gardening education programs to over 400 school children throughout the year with the support of the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership grant program and local businesses and foundations.

We host community events, including annual Earthday and Harvest Celebrations and a biennial Estuary Cleanup.  Check the Volunteer section to see how you can help.

Education - Nehalem Teaching Trail

The Lower Nehalem Community Trust is developing Teaching trail with a series of “stations” each planted with a group of species characteristic of a specific habitat in the Nehalem River basin.  Interpretive signage will identify plants and explain how they were once used by indigenous residents  for food, medicine, shelter, clothing, tools and ceremony.

With funding in 2008, 2009 and 2010 from the Tillamook County Cultural Coalition, as well as funding and volunteer contributions from the Trust, Dr. Doug Deur, local ethnobotanist and author of Keeping It Living: Traditions of Plant Use and Cultivation on the Northwest Coast of North America, has completed most of the planning for trail.  The resulting documents include:

• Photos and drawings of the plants (2.1 MB pdf). 

• Nehalem Teaching Trail Map (Spring 2009)