The Ferdun Conservation Award commemorates the steady, committed and visionary work of Gareth and Georgenne Ferdun, two of the founders of Lower Nehalem Community Trust. Their vision and love for the North Oregon Coast has been inspirational since the very beginning of the Trust. The Ferdun’s commitment to conservation is exemplified by honoring others who, like them, have significantly contributed to the protection of our natural world.
Submit Your Nomination FOR THE 2025 FERDUN AWARD by April 22nd!
To nominate your candidate please complete this form, or send us:
- Your name and contact information
- Your nominee’s name, contact information and brief description of their contribution to conservation in the Lower Nehalem Region.
- Send to LNCT, PO Box 496, Manzanita, OR 97130.
- Or email to lnct@nehalemtrust.org with “2025 Ferdun Conservation Award” in the subject line.
LNCT’s Board of Directors will review all submissions and select this year’s winner at the annual Living Locally Gala in June. Employees and current board members of Lower Nehalem Community Trust are not eligible to receive this award.
Since 2014, the Trust has presented this award to a local citizen who exemplifies the Ferduns’ spirit of conservation and deep love of the North Coast. This year’s recipients are…
2024: NANCY HOFFMAN & BRUCE CASLER – WILDLIFE BIOLOGISTS
As wildlife biologists, Bruce and Nancy have logged many years working for various
organizations and government agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management, US
Forest Service and US Fish and Wildlife.
Nancy proclaims that she is “driven to chase habitats and their associated wildlife
species”. Her work has included studying, surveying, managing and monitoring reptiles,
amphibians, birds, small and large mammals and a vast diversity of habitats. She
served as Refuge Manager for 3 million acres in Alaska and before her retirement, she
was the Stillwater National Wildlife Refuge Complex Manager in Fallon Nevada. Bruce’s expertise was highly adaptable to doing environmental work such as surveys, banding and reintroduction of various avian species, tagging and training others to tag monk seals, managing habitat restoration
and other projects.
Since their arrival to the region in 2018, both have engaged in activities to learn about the community
and the local environment. Bruce has served on the Trust’s Lands Committee, does land
stewardship work, and with Nancy, did preliminary standardized bird studies on our
Headwaters property. He has done Spotted Owl surveys on state forest land and
worked on the Forest Service Hebo Ranger Station’s wildlife crew. Nancy lends her
skills to LNCT conservation work and is a Community Garden Committee Leader. She
serves as a board member for Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, is a Tillamook County
Master Gardener, a Nehalem Bay Garden Club member and a Rainy Day Village
volunteer.
Past recipients of the Ferdun Conservation Award:
2023: BOB REES – ANGLER AND CONSERVATIONIST
From his days as a Tillamook Estuaries
A native Oregonian and fishing guide by profession, Bob has been a successful grassroots organizer seeking better habitat protections on private and State Forest lands. Bob has served as the executive director of the Northwest Guides and Anglers Association and was recognized by The National Wildlife Federation in 2019 for his work in Oregon and at the national level in support of wildlife conservation. He is an active participant in the North Coast State Forest Coalition advocating for responsible forest management practices that will protect the watersheds that feed and sustain people and wildlife on the North Coast, including prized wild salmon runs.
2022: Nancy webster – clean water activist
Nancy’s story as a clean water activist starts in 2011, when she first observed the clearcutting of the steep forested hillsides within the 1400-acre Jetty Creek watershed, the source of drinking water for Rockaway Beach. Nancy learned more about the impacts of logging and pesticide spraying on her drinking watershed. Around the same time, she began receiving notices in her water bill that cancer-causing chemicals had exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency limits.
In 2012, Nancy took action and formed a group that is now known as Coastal Communities for Watershed Protection. Today this grassroots group has grown to over 700 members concerned about damage to their watersheds. Nancy has connected the dots for whoever will listen as to how timber clearcutting, slash burning, and pesticide spraying leads to water insecurity. She adds that the threat goes beyond drinking water quality to also include air quality, water quantity, forest habitat, and endangered fish.
City and county employees, elected officials, public meeting participants, Oregon Department of Forestry, the Department of Environmental Quality, and members of the Governors staff have all heard from Nancy over the years. So have foresters and managers of private timber companies. Is it any wonder that Nancy has been referred to as a “dynamo resident”?
2021: TOM BENDER – ARCHITECT, COMMUNITY VISIONARY, and LNCT FOUNDING BOARD MEMBER
Anyone who knew Tom, knew him to be one of a kind. A visionary and trailblazer, he was passionate about energy-conserving design, saving forests, and sustainable economics of community, including affordable housing. Tom’s architectural prowess can be seen locally in the Manzanita Library, Saint Catherine’s Episcopal Church and the Columbia Bank, along with several homes.
Always the leader and working to have a positive impact on his community and the environment, Tom was a founding board member of Lower Nehalem Community Trust, Fire Mountain School, Fulcrum Community Resources, and NeahCasa. He was on the original planning committee for what we now know as North County Recreation District and served as Building Trustee for the Pine Grove Community House.
Alder Creek Farm is proof of his dedication to a healthy environment and love of community. He would be pleased with our project to improve energy efficiency at the Farm. The extension of the Oregon Coast Trail through the Headwaters property would have resonated with Tom’s desire to connect people to land. We simply cannot say enough about Tom’s influence at Lower Nehalem Community Trust and the greater area of the Nehalem region.
2019: Barbara Rippey and Barry MARSHALL – ENGAGED COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Two of the community’s most cherished and dedicated volunteers, Barbara Rippey and Barry Marshall. The Bees or B&B, as they are known with great affection throughout the Nehalem Bay community, lead by example. Whether it’s working in the Hoffman Center gardens, planting trees for the Watershed Council or taking on any of a multitude of necessary tasks for the LNCT, they can be oucnted upon to show up. They perform their work with competence and intelligence, and bring a nuanced understanding of the consequences of the work to the people and place in which we live.
Well travelled and keen observers of how the world works, the Bees are skilled in disciplines as diverse as land surveying and organic food production and the necessary hands on work to get the job done. Its long been a mystery to most of the community as to from what deep well they get the energy to provide so much of themselves to this community, both to its institutions and to its individual members. To count yourself among their friends is an honor, and their circle of friends is large indeed.
The Trust is honored to acknowledge Barbara and Barry and their great contribution to defining community while inspiring others to do more to create a livable reality.
2018: PETER WALCZAK – BIOLOGIST, TEACHER
Lower Nehalem Community Trust is pleased to honor Peter Walczak’s contribution to our understanding the need and reward of conservation by awarding him The Ferdun Conservation Award for 2018. Thank you, Peter, for years of committed service to the Community:
For the past 30 years the youth of the Nehalem Bay Region have been blessed with Biologist Peter Walczak of Nehalem, who began his work as a fisheries and marine scientist during his three-and-a half year Peace Corps tour at the Iran Fisheries Research Institute and the Iran Department of the Environment. After finishing with the Peace Corps, he worked at the New York Science Lab, then for close to 10 years as a Fisheries Expert for United Nations in the Food and Agriculture Division.
Upon returning to the Northwest and settling in Nehalem, Peter discovered a real need for hands-on science education in the local school district. He went on to combine science literacy with fieldwork for kindergarten to 12th grade students in the Neahkahnie School District.
Never missing an opportunity to connect the dots of science to their day-to-day existence, Peter has the gift to open the eyes and hearts of children to the natural world in a way that helps them understand their role in it. Many local children who have gone on to work and pursue higher education in science credit Peter with inspiration for their choice. For children of all ages, a walk in the woods or along the shore is a magical experience.
2017: Gwendolyn Endicott – mythologist, storyteller & teacher
Gwendolyn Endicott is a fourth-generation Oregonian. She spent most of her childhood in the forests of Oregon and developed a deep connection with them. As she reached retirement age she discovered a beautiful forest property outside of Nehalem and acquired it to learn about it, experience it more deeply, and protect it forever.
As the late Kathleen Ryan wrote: “Gwendolyn has documented the various flora and fauna on the acreage and kept track of rainfall, weather patterns, and swollen streams. She has partnered with the Watershed Council to restore fish habitat. Gwendolyn is also a shaman who shares the knowledge of our many spiritual connections to the land and its seasonal rhythm. Her inspired publications tell the ancient stories of understanding our creation myths and how the earth nurtures us.”
2016: George Hemmingway – marine scientist and oceanographer
A tireless advocate for wetlands and ocean conservation, George Hemingway was past chair of the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council. George left a legacy that will long be remembered. He and his wife, Jean, moved to Nehalem after retiring in 2006. George assisted in ministry at the local bilingual congregation of St. Catherine’s. He enjoyed fishing, gardening, exploring the natural environment, and researching family history. He was passionate about learning, about protecting the coast’s amazing natural resources, elevating his community, and making friends with people of all backgrounds and experiences.
2015: Doug Firstbrook – a founder and past president of the LNCT Board
Champion of all species in our region, Doug helped found Lower Nehalem Community Trust and conserve Alder Creek Farm. He also organized the first Bay cleanup and was one of the founding members of the Land Trust and served as its chair. Beyond all that, he has spent countless hours in hands-on labor building bridges and fences, making trails, planting trees, making videos, and shoveling muck.
As Gwendolyn Endicott pointed out, “This is one fellow who is always out there working for the health and preservation of this watershed.”
2014 Neal Maine- naturalist and photographer
Neal Maine was the first recipient of the Ferdun Conservation Award. After a thirty-year career as a biology teacher at Seaside High School, he became the first executive director of North Coast Land Conservancy, which he co-founded in 1986. Since his retirement from the land trust in 2010, he has pursued his passion for nature photography dedicated to raising awareness of coastal ecology, wildlife, estuaries, freshwater wetlands and forests.
