During our salvages, volunteers save small native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from local areas scheduled for clearing. NPS Salvages are a great way to practice plant identification, meet fellow plant nerds, and salvage plants for your own naturescaping and revegetation projects.

During our salvages, volunteers save small native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from local areas scheduled for clearing. NPS Salvages are a great way to practice plant identification, meet fellow plant nerds, and salvage plants for your own naturescaping and revegetation projects.

During our salvages, volunteers save small native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from local areas scheduled for clearing. NPS Salvages are a great way to practice plant identification, meet fellow plant nerds, and salvage plants for your own naturescaping and revegetation projects.

During our salvages, volunteers save small native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from local areas scheduled for clearing. NPS Salvages are a great way to practice plant identification, meet fellow plant nerds, and salvage plants for your own naturescaping and revegetation projects.

This walking workshop is a fan favorite! Each year, our Winter Twig ID class has been overflowing with people eager to learn new ways to enjoy our natural world. We invite you to join us and discover the appreciation and delight that learning this unusual skill brings to your winter outings!

Schedule: choose either a morning or afternoon session. You can expect to learn how to identify 20-25 plants in their winter twig form over the course of 2.5 to 3 hours and receive a “cheat sheet” with our top tips for identifying these species on your own.

Join us as we support a large hedgerows ecological restoration project on a local farm. We will focus on laying weed-blocking cardboard and woodchip mulch around the native shrubs and trees to enhance their long-term growth by conserving water, preventing weeds, and improving soil health.

We invite you to join us on Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service as we support a large hedgerows ecological restoration project on a local farm. We will focus on laying weed-blocking cardboard and woodchip mulch around the native shrubs and trees to enhance their long-term growth by conserving water, preventing weeds, and improving soil health.

This is an all-day event, but you can choose the shift option that works best for your schedule, and/or come and go as you please.

Join us and our project partners, Thurston Conservation District, as we sheet mulch our largest ecological restoration hedgerows project to date! We will use both weed-blocking cardboard and woodchip mulch around the recently planted native shrubs and trees to enhance their long-term growth by conserving water, preventing weeds, and improving soil health.

This is an all-day event, but you can choose the shift option that works best for your schedule, and/or come and go as you please.

After over 25 years at our west Olympia location, our nursery is moving. This move is a huge undertaking for our foundation, and we will need all the help we can get!

On Sunday, November 9, we will host our second of two moving events, and we'll focus on moving infrastructure & supplies, while also continuing with moving native plants. There will be a variety of tasks available for people of all abilities.

Join us for our third day of planting our largest hedgerow project to date! This event is a follow-up to the workshop that we hosted on Saturday, October 25th. We will plant any remaining plants then focus on mulching the hedgerow to help with weed control.

Participate to both learn and volunteer on an ecological restoration planting project that supports habitat for native wildlife, water resources protection, and provides agricultural benefits for a local Thurston County farm.

After over 25 years at our west Olympia location, our nursery is moving. This move is a huge undertaking for our foundation, and we will need all the help we can get!

On Saturday, November 1, we will host our first of two moving events, and we will focus on transporting the plants to their new home. There will be a variety of tasks available for people of all abilities.

Join us for our second day of planting and mulching of our largest hedgerow project to date! This event is a follow-up to the workshop that we hosted on Saturday, October 25th. We will plant any remaining plants then focus on mulching the hedgerow to help with weed control.

Participate to both learn and volunteer on an ecological restoration planting project that supports habitat for native wildlife, water resources protection, and provides agricultural benefits for a local Thurston County farm.

Join us for the fifth hands-on workshop in this “Discover Hedgerows!” series with our ongoing educational partners, Thurston Conservation District, and our landowner demonstration-site partners, Broadfields Farm.

In this workshop, we’ll explore how the design of this hedgerow will meet multiple goals, including expanding wildlife habitat, enhancing livestock health and productivity, and water-quality protection. We’ll learn techniques for excluding livestock from our waterways and other off-limits spaces using specific plant placement and the right species of native & waterwise trees and shrubs, and hear more about agroforestry from our special noontime speaker!

Join us “behind the scenes” as we stage plants, tools, and educational supplies in advance of our 5th “Discover Hedgerows!” hands-on workshop the next day (Sat., Oct. 25) at Broadfields Farm in south Tumwater, WA.

Enjoy a day of fresh air, exercise, and learning as we get everything organized for a successful learning and planting project! Come when you can, stay as long as you want — no need to come at the beginning or stay until the end.

We are requesting a few volunteers to help us prep the hedgerow planting space by pre-drilling some of the planting holes with a power auger (large drill). This activity requires a bit of strength and a bit of height! We intend to pair two people at once to manage the auger and keep the workload lighter and hope to have a few volunteers who can take turns, so everyone has little breaks in between the drilling.

Join us and spend a few hours maintaining McLane’s trails, while appreciating the diversity in this wonderful example of a Puget lowland forest. We mindfully trim back growth along the trail, remove leaf debris from boardwalks, and clear the paths of any large debris.

Join us and spend a few hours maintaining McLane’s trails, while appreciating the diversity in this wonderful example of a Puget lowland forest. We mindfully trim back growth along the trail, remove leaf debris from boardwalks, and clear the paths of any large debris.

Join our team of eco-instructors to discover the unique plants of these outer coastal substrates, from the sandy backshore to the mucky saltmarsh. We’ll discuss the natural processes that shape these ecosystems and study the unusual plants that can withstand the rigors of life in this zone — an ever-changing beach profile with the seasons, extreme storms and tides, and water/nutrient-limited substrates.

Join us and spend a few hours maintaining McLane’s trails, while appreciating the diversity in this wonderful example of a Puget lowland forest. We mindfully trim back growth along the trail, remove leaf debris from boardwalks, and clear the paths of any large debris.

Join us for an evening of hedgerow weeding at Oyster Bay Farm in NW Olympia! This is a great hands-on learning experience, especially if you are unable to make the tour later in the week. We can provide tools and a limited amount of gloves. Further details will be sent upon signing up!

These informal botanical walks at McLane Creek Nature Trail are a great way to learn native plants, botanize with friends, and enjoy a beautiful evening outdoors! Our Plant ID Outings observe the South Salish lowland forest and riparian ecosystems.

Join us and spend a few hours maintaining McLane’s trails, while appreciating the diversity in this wonderful example of a Puget lowland forest. We mindfully trim back growth along the trail, remove leaf debris from boardwalks, and clear the paths of any large debris.

Join us for an evening of hedgerow weeding at Oyster Bay Farm in NW Olympia! This is a great hands-on learning experience, especially if you are unable to make the tour later in the week. We can provide tools and a limited amount of gloves. Further details will be sent upon signing up!

We'll share a potluck supper, recognize our Community Partners, Volunteers, and Donors, and celebrate 31 years of action & education in our community.

Plus, we have thank-you goodies for all our friends — plants, art, hats, and stickers galore!

Come for the camaraderie, stay for the all-you-can-eat Olympic Mountain gourmet ice cream, sorbet, & non-dairy ice cream buffet!

Explore a section of South Salish Prairie & associated Garry Oak woodland to identify the many native perennial and annual flowers, grasses, trees and shrubs (and maybe a few lichens!) Spring on our local prairies is spectacular, with an ever-changing bloom cycle, and we are timing this Excursion to capture the blooms of many special species.

These informal botanical walks at McLane Creek Nature Trail are a great way to learn native plants, botanize with friends, and enjoy a beautiful evening outdoors! Our Plant ID Outings observe the South Salish lowland forest and riparian ecosystems.

Join us and spend a few hours maintaining McLane’s trails, while appreciating the diversity in this wonderful example of a Puget lowland forest. We mindfully trim back growth along the trail, remove leaf debris from boardwalks, and clear the paths of any large debris.