The Rainforest Reserve through a pilot’s eye

North Coast Land Conservancy board member Randall Henderson is dedicated to conservation. He’s also passionate about flying his RV-6 airplane, which he built and keeps at the Seaside Municipal Airport. And he’s a decent photographer. After retiring as a software engineer last year, he also joined Lighthawk, a nonprofit that works with scientists and conservation organizations such as NCLC to, according to its website, “reveal the earth in ways that inspire conservation action.”

Peaks of the Rainforest Reserve rising above Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach

 

In December Randall returned to the sky over the proposed Rainforest Reserve; the result is what you see in these photographs. It’s one thing to picture the reserve on a map (click and scroll down), but to see it from the air reveals the habitat connectivity between the mountain summits and the nearshore ocean in a more tangible and profound way.

Onion Peak summit topped with cloudcap

 

Since 2016 North Coast Land Conservancy has been working to raise $10 million to conserve this 3,500-acre property adjacent to Oswald West State Park. We’re getting close; as of the end of 2020 we’d raised $9.5 million. With the community’s help, we hope to purchase the property as soon as this summer. Now is the time to join Randall and Jeanne Henderson and many others and become a part of this legacy project. Read about how people are investing in the Rainforest Reserve, or jump straight to our donation page.

Basalt spires at summit of Onion Peak, and a bit of airplane wing

 

Cape Falcon and Neahkahnie Mountain in Oswald West State Park, with Rainforest Reserve summits to the north