April 2019 eBulletin
“We are a community of partners taking action to conserve diverse habitats for the benefit of future generations.”
~ Lower Nehalem Community Trust
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An update from the LNCT Board
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This has been a busy month or two...
On February 16 the entire Board plus two Founding members and other supporters of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust met for the better part of the day to discuss a long term vision for the Trust. Dr. Pat Johnson let us to a conclusion that will guide our work for the next several years. The vision statement is: “We are a community of partners taking action to conserve diverse habitats for the benefit of future generations.” As the expression goes, it takes an entire village to….. Well, we aren’t there yet. We have a lot to do. Please join us in the effort.
On March 9, partnering with the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, the total Board, staff and the community joined forces to clean up our beautiful bay. We worked hard and long and the result shows. As we drive along the edges of the bay or walk its shores, we see the evidence of what can be done when the community comes together to do important work. Thank you to everyone who took part.
On March 22, again with Dr. Pat Johnson’s help, we engaged in the first step of Strategic Planning. With our Vision statement, our Mission, and our agreed upon Core Values in front of us; we began work to identify the areas of focus. By the end of the day, we had agreed upon four key areas. We agreed to focus on the following four goals and identified a Board Member to take lead in the work:
Goal 1: Expand engagement of the community. This goal includes education and outreach to the community. The lead on this will be Allan Olson.
Goal 2: Define future desired Organizational Structure. This goal will focus on future staffing and Board functions. Roxann Balmer will lead this effort.
Goal 3: Grow the Revenue Base. This goal will focus on grant writing, expanding our donor base, bequests, and increasing our sustaining partners. Jim Pendergrass will lead this effort.
Goal 4: Develop Strategic Acquisition Plan. This goal will focus on building relationships with owners of lands that are desirable to protect in perpetuity, and develop Stewardship plans and capacity. Doug Firstbrook will take lead on this goal.
As you can imagine, we will need help. Please consider joining one of these groups as we develop priorities, strategies and resource requirements for each goal. It is important work and we would appreciate your ideas and input as we move forward.
Finally, on March 23, we invited the Boards of the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, the Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, the Hoffman Center for the Arts, and the North Tillamook Library Friends to join us for a day of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training. With the help of our facilitator, Sara Curiel Paez; we dealt with everything from definitions to personal and organizational values. I believe that we each left with new personal perspectives about the importance of our attitudes toward the people around us, all of our vulnerabilities, and our shortcomings when it comes to inclusion. We all have good intensions and a lot to do to be organizations of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
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Nehalem Estuary Cleanup Update
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On March 9th, thanks to 170 Volunteers and 27 Local Sponsors we cleaned up the Nehalem Estuary. Together we collected and removed debris that included:
1 x 30 Yard Garbage Container (full)
133 30 Gallon Garbage Bags
100 Shotgun Shells
32 Assorted balls
10 Tires
5 Joint Tubes
4 Tree Protectors
4 Chairs
2 Refrigerators
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Thank you Nehalem Estuary Cleanup Volunteers...
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Alder Creek Farm Community Garden Plant Sale
Saturday, April 27th
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Date:
Saturday, April 27th
9 to 1 pm
Location:
Alder Creek Farm
35955 Underhill Lane
Nehalem, Oregon
The ever popular annual plant sale is coming at the end of this month. Always the last Saturday of April, this has become a favorite with local gardeners. The event is a fundraiser to support the Community Garden in its effort to educate and share with the community.
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Lower Nehalem Community Trust's (LNCT) annual plant sale will include many of the plants for your vegetable and fruit garden as well as flowers that are either edible or attract beneficial insects. We will again be offering native plants for the community members who want to add these to their garden landscapes. Plan to arrive early at Alder Creek Farm for the best selection of seasonal favorites. Plants are selected to grow in the cool maritime climate of the Oregon coast.
LNCT's annual garden plant sale is a fundraiser for the Trust’s Community Garden Program in which 40 active gardeners come together each week to learn how to grow food using organic techniques, share the work, share the bounty for their families, and share the excess with the North County Food Bank and Senior Meals Program in Nehalem.
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LNCT Stewardship
The land that LNCT protects and conserves requires attention. The stewardship of our land is graciously performed by volunteers from our community. They monitor each of our properties observing any changes to our conservation values. Volunteers also care for the land by enhancing existing habitat conditions and restoring land back to it's natural state as a home for wildlife.
Come learn about the land while giving back to the natural environment we enjoy.
Stewardship volunteer opportunities are announced by email each week. If you would like to be receive these announcements send a note to shane@nehalemtrust.org
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Stewardship volunteers fence project
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Dave & Sheila constructing bridge materials
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Jill removing blackberries & Carl on bridgework
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Emily clearing blackberries
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Habitat area signs Finished and Installed on the Nehalem Teaching Trail
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The Nehalem Teaching Trail project has been a long learning process for its creators. After a couple of years of thoughtful design and development the new habitat area signs have been finished and installed. We are grateful for the work of artist Sally Lackaff for her beautiful renditions born of keen artistic skill and years of natural world observation on the North Oregon Coast. The signs describing the 5 basic habitat areas featured in this native plant educational trail were installed this past week by Trust volunteers Scott Wagner, who crafted the sign stands, Barry Marshall, Barbara Rippey, Evan Janac and Judith Jones, Judith also worked closely with Mary Corey another local artist, in designing and producing the individual plant identification signs. The volunteers have installed the first 20 of those as well with more to come by years end. We would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Tillamook County Cultural Trust, who has consistently supported the development of the Teaching Trail from its conception to the design of signage through its small grant program. Multi year support from private donations by Trust supporters have also played a large part in creation of the infrastructure and purchase of plant materials.
Located alongside the Community Garden and near the Tractor Shed fueling area from its dairy farm days, we have been working in mostly highly compromised soils. It has been a slow process trying to rebuild the soil and nurture young plants only to have the local deer population use the trail as their hors d’oeuvre tray. Though the split rail fence and gates had served to deter the local elk population the deer saw it as an area protected just for them. It should be noted that native plants once established can handle browsing quite handily. However, under these circumstances where introduced into poor soils and some exceptionally dry summers, their development was being highly arrested. Fortunately the entire LNCT Stewardship crew came to the rescue and installed an interior wire fence to further deter browsing. As spring moves into summer, we anticipate additional volunteer help from students at Wilson River School in Tillamook and St. Mary’s of Medford. Participation of the aforementioned students alongside our regular LNCT volunteers has proven to be a pleasure for all involved. Beyond the energetic labor they provide, their youthful enthusiasm and willingness to engage in an exchange of experiences and hopes for their future helps to build the soil of renewal for all of us. Simply stated, the Nehalem Teaching Trail is not just about plants.
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Click to see video of a Western White-Ribboned Carpet Moth pollinating a Huckleberry on the Nehalem Teaching Trail.
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Save the Date for Living Locally
SATURDAY, JUNE 1st
Enjoy the extraordinary setting of the Trust’s Alder Creek Farm, with celebratory wines, local beer, live music, and delicious catering by Julie Barker, chef/owner of Buttercup.
Tickets are $100 apiece ($60 tax deductible). Limited seating.
Auction items will be presented for your advance review on-line after May 15.
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Explore Nature
Events, now posted @
www.explorenaturetillamookcoast.com
Explore Nature is a collaboration of environmental agencies, including our Community Trust, working together to provide meaningful nature based events that showcase the uniqueness of Tillamook County and the work being done to conserve the area's natural resources.
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Lower Nehalem Community Watershed Council
Board Meeting and Speaker Dr. Stephen Lancaster
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Date & Location:
April 11th, 2019
Pine Grove Community House
225 Laneda Ave, Manzanita
Agenda:
6:00 LNWC Board Meeting
7:00 PM Presentation
8:30 PM Adjourn
This event is FREE and open to the public.
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This event is part of the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council’s regular Speaker Series. Join us at the Pine Grove Community House each 2nd Thursday in January through May, October and November for natural resource focused presentations preceded by a meeting of the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council's Board of Directors. Join them at 6 pm to get a glimpse behind the scenes of the LNWC’s work!
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North Coast Bird Monitoring Trainings Set to Begin
If you enjoy bird-watching and want to combine that interest with helping protect birds and habitats, you’re in luck. A multitude of training opportunities and monitoring events are set to kick off this spring at various locations along the North Coast. No experience necessary.
Opportunities range from helping monitor western Snowy Plovers on beaches, Black Oystercatchers on our rocky shoreline, seabird nesting colonies off of Cape Falcon and Cannon Beach, and monitoring roosting Brown Pelicans off a number of sites on the North Coast.
“Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife is doing important baseline scientific research, looking a fish and marine invertebrates in Cape Falcon Marine Reserve among other things,” says Nadia Gardner of Cape Falcon Marine Reserve. “...without local volunteers there wouldn’t be research on our seabirds. We are so thankful to those who give their time to help collect this important data both inside and outside of Oregon’s Marine Reserves."
For details on these trainings and opportunities, see the listings below:
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Snowy Plover Patrol Training
Saturday, April 13, 2019
10 am to 2 pm.
Location:
Cannon Beach City Hall
163 E Gower Ave
Cannon Beach, OR
Portland Audubon is partnering with Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to monitor for endangered western Snowy Plovers at five sites on the North Coast (from Clatsop Spit in Astoria to Sitka Sedge beach near Pacific City) starting in April and continuing through mid-July. Surveys twice a month (2-4 hours), can be physically demanding.
Email: asopcoastalbirds@gmail.com
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Snowy Plover Patrol Training
Saturday, April 20, 2019
10 am to 2 pm.
Location:
Nehalem Bay State Park Meeting Hall
34600 Gary St, Nehalem, OR
Portland Audubon is partnering with Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to monitor for endangered western Snowy Plovers at five sites on the North Coast (from Clatsop Spit in Astoria to Sitka Sedge beach near Pacific City) starting in April and continuing through mid-July. Surveys twice a month (2-4 hours), can be physically demanding.
RSVP Email: asopcoastalbirds@gmail.com
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Black Oystercatcher Monitoring Training
Saturday, April 20, 2019
10 am to 12 pm
Location:
Cannon Beach City Hall
163 E Gower Ave, Cannon Beach, OR
The training will cover Black Oystercatcher life history, conservation challenges they face, and instructions on how to participate in this abundance and nest monitoring program. Light refreshments will be served. Brought to you by The Haystack Rock Awareness Program, Audubon Society of Portland and Cape Falcon Marine Reserve.
Email: jliebezeit@audubonportland.org
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Pacific Brown Pelican Survey
Saturday, May 18
5 pm to 7 pm
Location: Falcon Cove
Join us in counting pelicans at our local rocky island pelican roosting sites in the Cape Falcon Marine Reserve just off the community of Falcon Cove between Manzanita and Cannon Beach, Oregon. Easy access. No experience necessary.
Protocol:http://ca.audubon.org/brownpelicansurvey
Email: jliebezeit@audubonportland.org
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Seabird Monitoring Training
Saturday, June 8
10 am to 12 pm
Location:
Cannon Beach City Hall
163 E Gower Ave
Cannon Beach, OR
Do you like seabirds and care about their welfare? Join a volunteer opportunity to monitor seabird nests at Cape Falcon Marine Reserve and at Oregon's iconic Haystack Rock.
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KARLA ALLBRITTON
JEFF CROSSWHITE
SHAUKA DEKKER
SCOTT GALVIN
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STEPHEN GRACE
LESLIE MCCLANAHAN
MIRIAM ROGERS
DARYL SNYDER
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Thank You Business Partners!
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Lower Nehalem Community Trust
532 Laneda Avenue, Manzanita
Monday-Thursday 9am-4pm
(503) 368-3203
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