It has been an ongoing goal for NCLC: Offering Circle Creek Habitat Reserve as a place for local youth to learn about the ecology of the North Coast and connect with nature in a meaningful way.
In the fall of 2025, this dream became even more of a reality, as busloads of fourth graders from Seaside School District’s Pacific Ridge Elementary School arrived at the reserve to learn about nature journaling.
While they were not the first students to visit Circle Creek—NCLC hosted students from West Exchange School earlier in the year, as well as Fire Mountain School for tree planting—it marked a unique milestone in the organization’s desire to invest more time in engaging youth, particularly with the local public school district, NCLC Outreach Manager Lynette Villagomez says.
“We are cultivating future stewards of the land, connecting kids to nature,” she adds.
Each fourth-grade class got to visit Circle Creek individually. NCLC volunteers KT Blue and Marilynn Blacketer, longtime practitioners and advocates of nature journaling, led the sessions with the students, accompanied by Lynette. Pacific Ridge’s STEAM teacher, Brett Deur, was also an integral part of introducing the kids to journaling.
After a brief overview about Circle Creek Habitat Reserve and how NCLC is conserving and stewarding the land, the students got to walk the trails to various spots to roam about and have a quiet time of writing or drawing in their own journals. At the end of the session, the students gathered back together to share their observations.
Based on the experience this past fall, NCLC is now working with Cannon Beach Academy to offer nature journaling lessons and two fieldtrips to engage in the practice outdoors. Lynette says the hope is to take them out somewhere in Cannon Beach, such as Ecola Creek Forest Reserve, whose conservation NCLC helped facilitate. There’s also the opportunity to bus them to Circle Creek as well.
“We want students to learn about nature in their community or town,” she adds. “We hope this will be an ongoing relationship with two of the local elementary schools and that it can be offered annually.”
Comments