Oregon’s South Slough Reserve transformed the unhealthy forest around their visitor’s center in the fall of 2019.

The project was designed to reduce fire risk, improve forest health, diversify habitat, and enhance educational opportunities at the visitor’s center.  As a result of the work, the Reserve was able to donate 120 cedar logs harvested from the project to two local tribal nations, the Coquille and the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw. Other logs were used to make visitor benches and milled into boards for future wildlife education programs.

Over 2,300 students were educated at the South Slough Reserve in 2019, and the marriage of a major stewardship project to education expanded the Reserve’s capacity for 2020, and benefited the local tribal community too. Now that’s a win-win!