Blog
Finding My Wings: Taking Off and Learning How to Fly in Environmental Education
Each summer for the last number of years, Willamette Resources and Educational Network (WREN) has partnered with Mt. Adams Institute and AmeriCorps to provide an internship in Environmental Education. This internship is intended to allow for learning and career growth opportunities for young adults in fields related to land stewardship, natural resource management, and environmental...
Youth Land Stewards Education Program (YLSEP)
Click the image below to watch our Youth Land Stewards Education Program Video:
Meet Our New Environmental Education Intern Nate Jensen!
Meet the newest member of our team, Nate Jensen! Nate is our Environmental Education Intern through the Land Steward Program of the @mtadamsinstitute Nate was born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT. He grew up skiing, hiking, and running in the Wasatch and Uinta mountain ranges. This area allowed him to discover a deep love for endurance sports and the beautiful wild places that he had such great...
Lovely Lichens
By: Kailey Kreienbrink The first time I ever went for a hike in Oregon I was amazed by how green the trees were. I was hiking with my family, and my mom kept commenting on how the trees looked like something out of a Dr.Suess book. Being Minnesotans we had never seen the green plants growing on the trees quite the way they were in Oregon. I never really knew what it was that was growing on these...
Mushroom Madness
12/01/2022 By: Kailey Kreienbrink The month of November had a large emphasis on mushrooms for WREN. We started the month off with Eugene’s famous Mt.Pisgah Mushroom Festival. WREN tabled at the mushroom festival, and got to interact with Oregonians from all across the state. WREN at the Mushroom Festival Our table was set up very similar to our Family Exploration Days, we had pelts, bones, and...
What is a Wetland?
By:Kailey Kreienbrink 11/01/2022 I am guessing you have probably heard the term “wetland”, but do you actually know what a wetland is? As part of our environmental education WREN goes into classrooms in the Eugene Springfield area and teaches students exactly that. We start the programs by asking kids what they think of when they hear the term wetland. A lot of the answers include land with...
Meet Our New Program Assistant Rachel Schneiderman
Rachel Schneiderman is a recent Oregon resident, but a longtime lover of the outdoors. Growing up on the Central California coast, she spent her youth playing in the ocean, hiking in the redwoods, and kayaking through the Elkhorn Slough. Upon moving to Eugene, she fell in love with the ecosystems that the Willamette Valley has to offer and after 6 years as an elementary school teacher, she is...
Welcome our new Programs Coordinator Isabel Justiniano
Isabel has lived in Oregon since late 2018. She recently graduated from Oregon State University with her M.S. in Human Dimensions of Wildlife Science. Her thesis focused on assessing the cultural beliefs of Latin@/x identifying people of the Willamette Valley, and how these influence their outdoor recreation habits and use of outdoor spaces. She has been an environmental educator since 2017,...
Welcome Warm Weather
April 26, 2023 By: Nina McClellan Hi, my name is Nina McClellan and I'm WRENs new Social Media and Strategic Communications intern. I moved out to Oregon 5 years ago to attend the University of Oregon. I majored in Marine Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies. In my free time, I enjoy spending time outside hiking, biking, walking, and photographing wildlife, nature, and people. With the...
Two Geese Resting
By: Ryan Collay I was driving through and thinking how interesting that there is so much of ‘industrial’ West Eugene that I assume people drive by and wonder, “Why is this wet field here in the middle of town?” But this pair of geese know. For them, it's perhaps a new home for the summer, even a place to raise young, and for others, it’s a respite from their long travels heading north....