Forests Forever to Add an Educator in 2025 – Sponsored by Hampton Lumber!
New Educator to Reach More Youth
As education and outreach have grown over the years at Forests Forever, thanks largely to our partnership with the OSU Extension Service in Clackamas County, so has demand for our youth programs. We’ve never had to advertise because schools and teachers find us, but with our current staff, we’ve been turning requests away.
During 2024 the FFI Board of Directors took on the challenge to add an educator position to work with our OSU Extension Forestry partners, Peter Matzka, Glenn Ahrens, and Sarah Cameron. The new position will be an FFI contractor with three areas of focus:
- Establishing an Outdoor Day School at Hopkins
- Developing opportunities for home-schooled youth; and,
- Expanding our base youth “Science in the Forest” programming throughout the Portland metro area. These are all important needs we have been unable to serve.
A presentation to the Oregon Forest Resources Institute’s Board of Directors this past July resulted in interest in our proposal by Hampton Lumber. Hampton agreed to provide 50% of our funding request for three years to launch programming. Hampton was also interested in challenging others to match their funding. By year’s end, the Walker Family Foundation offered to match the Hampton gift which means the position now has secure funding for three years!
At FFI’s December Board meeting, the position description, timeline, and a search process was reviewed and approved for action. We will begin advertising this position in early 2025 with plans to have a new staff member ready to begin work with us in the spring.
We especially want to thank Hampton Lumber and the Walker Family Foundation for supporting our programs. Please thank them as you can. The new education position at Forests Forever is going to make a huge difference in our programs and expand the number of youth, teachers, and adults we reach every year. Being able to work side-by-side with the OSU Extension Forestry team at Hopkins will be a wonderful opportunity for the new educator as they settle in and build programming.
Watch for more exciting news in 2025!