Lower Nehalem Community Trust

Nancy Chase lives in Arch Cape and Portland. She joined our Board in May of 2006. She has a degree in landscape architecture from Washington State University. Nancy spent her career working in the Portland Metro area for the preservation of parks and natural areas. Until June of 2005, she was the manager of the open space acquisition program for Metro. The open space program implemented a $136 million bond measure purchasing over 8,000 acres in the Portland area.

Now retired, Nancy spends much of her time volunteering on preservation and restoration projects across the nation. She serves on our Board because "I love the Oregon coast and I want to help preserve its scenic beauty and wildlife values."

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Gareth Ferdun worked as a research analyst and planner in California State government for 25 years. He and his wife Georgenne moved to Nehalem in 1998. Gareth was chair of the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council in 2000-01 and guided the development of that Council's strategic and action plans. He served as the Trust's Chair from its inception in 2002 to the fall of 2005. He has self published two books "Understanding the Nehalem Watershed" and "The Nehalem Estuary and Adjacent Wetlands". 

Georgenne Ferdun has been interested in bugs, plants, and critters from an early age. While going to college, graduate school, and raising her family she continued her strong interest in the natural world around her. When she retired from her career in the public library system, she and her husband moved to Nehalem. She joined the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, becoming active in the water quality monitoring program.

In the spring of 2002, she learned that the Anderson Farm with its close connection to the estuary and its long stretch of Alder Creek was for sale. She saw the potential for preservation of open space, restoration of the creek, and community uses. In May 2002, she became a founding board member of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust. She is currently the Trust's Chair.

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Doug Firstbrook has lived in the Nehalem Bay Area since 1976 when he arrived in Manzanita, only to realize he was down to his last $200. Rumor has it, that if he gets $200 together again, he's leaving. In the interim, Doug was a co-founder for the Nehalem Bay Little League, co-founder and chair (97-98) for Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, and served on the Manzanita Planning Commission.

Greatly influenced by the Lopez Island Land Trust, where he spent a vacation working on an affordable housing project, Doug is a board member who sees the Trust as an opportunity to be a voice for wild ones, while seeking creative ways to reintegrate our domestic economy, and our deeper selves.

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Our newest Board Member, Sherri Raschio is an active community gardener in our Coastal Food Ecology Center. She lived in the Portland area most of her life. However, she often spent time at her family's home in Seaside. She moved to Manzanita in February to live with her partner of 8 years, Chip Hall, another loyal Trust volunteer. Before moving here full time, she worked as an Executive Secretary for Kaiser in Portland.

Sherri joined the Trust Board because she believes in preserving land and the natural resources on it. "I hope I can add energy and fun to any project we plan, while being a steward of the planet."

Vivi Tallman moved to Nehalem in 1978, and in her first years here she and her family operated a 40-cow dairy farm. In 1983, she joined with a group of families to start the Fire Mountain School, an alternative elementary school in Falcon Cove, taking on a variety of volunteer roles, including director for three years. From 1992-97 she was the first coordinator of CASA (the Court Appointed Special Advocate program) in Tillamook and Clatsop Counties.

For the last several years she has been studying medicinal and native plants, as well as developing an understanding of our local ecosystems. She is a member of the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, the Tillamook Chapter of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, and serves on the board of the Fire Mountain School.

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In 1985, Olivia left De Anza, and spent a year puttering and traveling to Mexico and Guatemala. A chance stop on a camping trip brought Olivia to our area for the first time in the late 1980s. The crab, bread, and wine she enjoyed at Nehalem Bay State Park "made a lasting mark," and she moved to Bayside Gardens full-time five years later. Olivia has given her time and talents generously to the Trust, pitching in during work parties, performing bird monitoring surveys, working to establish an education program through the Trust, and as a vital member of our grant writing team.