Each year as a Wetlands & Wellies auction item, Paul Engelmeyer and Esther Lev offer a tour of TWC’s central coast preserves. The tour is an all-day adventure, touring TWC properties and restoration projects, meeting with land owners, and sharing stories and food with TWC’s coastal partners.
This year our eight intrepid attendees embraced the rainy weather and came away with new understanding of the ecology and people of the central coast. “We learned about the ins and outs and connections of the waterways, sloughs, estuaries”and how “TWC creates opportunities for many different land owners and groups to come together to conserve larger areas of rivers and wetlands and forest land.”
The tour began with a visit to private landowner Eric Horvath’s restoration project in Upper Beaver Creek. After an hour in the rain, the Brian Booth State Park visitor center provided a dry respite to learn about the current conservation efforts and future vision for the Yaquina, Beaver Creek and Alsea watersheds. With a break in the rain, we headed to Yaquina estuary to buy oysters and look out on TWC’s projects in McCaffery and Poole sloughs. The day ended with a potluck adjacent to our Bayview Oxbow Preserve, sharing food and stories with TWC neighbors and other coastal partners. Needless to say it was a full day!
