This year, North Coast Land Conservancy is celebrating 40 years of conservation and stewardship on the Oregon Coast. To commemorate the occasion, NCLC is hosting a 40th anniversary party from 12 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, at the Circle Creek Conservation Center, located at 32825 Rippet Rd. in Seaside.
The public is invited to attend this free event, which will include a guided walk at Circle Creek Habitat Reserve and a short presentation on NCLC’s history by Executive Director Katie Voelke, as well as food, drinks, live music, and activities for all ages. Public Coast Brewing Co. is providing a selection of beverages for the event. They also will unveil a collaborative seasonal beer that involves blueberries grown on their Public Coast Farm, tapping into the spirit of the Oregon Coast and the relationship we have to the land that sustains us.
NCLC looks forward to sharing this special occasion with the surrounding communities, whose support has enabled the organization to help conserve and care for nearly 9,000 acres of land over the past four decades.
“It has been a privilege and a joy to pursue our mission of ‘conserving coastal lands and waters’ for 40 years, but that’s only been possible by finding common ground and building relationships with thousands of individuals, community leaders, and partnership organizations in our North Coast community,” NCLC Associate Director Jon Wickersham says. “We are excited to bring these people together to express our gratitude and celebrate our collective efforts to protect ecologically important lands and waters on the Oregon Coast.”
History of NCLC
As a nationally accredited private, nonprofit land trust, NCLC has been working since 1986 to conserve and connect the landscape of the Oregon Coast, from the Columbia River to the Siletz Bay, by acquiring or otherwise managing lands for their ecological value. NCLC works to ensure this extraordinary region is a place where healthy communities of people, plants and wildlife can all thrive.
NCLC’s first opportunity to take action arose in 1991, when they successfully facilitated a land swap that conserved a 15-acre parcel of private timberland adjacent to Saddle Mountain State Park—a park known for its rare plant species.
It was the first biodiversity-based conservation proposal that state and federal agencies involved in the negotiations had ever seen. That same year, NCLC made its first acquisition of land in what would become a pattern of win-win transactions. The purchase of Wahanna Marsh in Seaside both conserved a saltmarsh and helped create a place for the children of Seaside to play baseball.
Over the course of four decades and roughly 100 projects, NCLC has helped conserve about 14,000 acres of land in Clatsop, Tillamook, and Lincoln counties. These efforts include a combination of purchasing land outright to create 36 habitat reserves; establishing conservation easements; and working with municipalities and other agencies and organizations to facilitate expanding state and national parks and protecting municipal drinking watersheds.
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