Annual Report 2025
Reflecting on a Fulfilling Year of New Beginnings
Dear Friends,
Writing this message each year for the annual report requires reflection. A pause. Looking back. But that can be surprisingly hard to do in the world today, where so much is based on moving forward quickly.
As I go to reflect on North Coast Land Conservancy and what transpired in 2025, I do so on a vibrant spring day in 2026, and I stretch my mind to remember past events, some of which took place almost a year and a half ago. It’s when I’m walking through a meadow of beautiful fawn lilies that a flood of memories suddenly comes into focus, causing me to stop in my tracks. Wow.
It’s been a couple of big years for NCLC, and a truly extraordinary number of things have happened since the fall of 2024, when our fiscal year technically begins. At that point, we had just moved into our new offices and community space at Circle Creek Conservation Center. It immediately felt like home, and it’s still hard to believe we’ve only been here a year and a half.
In that short amount of time, we’ve invited all fourth graders in the Seaside School District for outdoor nature journaling; added thousands of native plants as a part of our ongoing restoration; purchased an additional 20 acres to expand the reserve, including ½ river mile of Circle Creek to the south; and hosted more than 20 Indigenous weavers from across the Pacific Northwest to collect maple and cedar bark for cultural craft and ceremony. And that’s just been at Circle Creek!
Beyond that, we’ve onboarded five new wonderful board members; started the complex project of rewilding the road network on the Rainforest Reserve by decommissioning old logging roads; expanded the Blind Slough Habitat Reserve; and protected lands in the Neacoxie Wildlife Corridor.
Plus, we get to do all of this with valuable partners, like watershed councils, Tribes, cities, neighbors… and you. Thank you for yet another remarkable year for local conservation, and cheers to the 40th anniversary of NCLC.
With love and gratitude,
Katie Voelke
Executive Director
A Model of Long-Term Service, Support and Dedication
When it comes to dedicated volunteers, Pat and Ken Lehman serve up a prime example.
For more than two decades, they’ve been supporting North Coast Land Conservancy (NCLC) in a variety of ways, taking part in several chapters of the organization’s story.
The couple came to NCLC on slightly different paths. Pat started volunteering at the Discovery Center on the Necanicum Estuary in the early 2000s, doing one afternoon per week.
“I always like to know where I am in space, in my environment,” she says. “I like to know something about my place.”
Over her time at the center, different people associated with NCLC would stop by and they would have lovely conversations. “Everyone was just delightful,” she says.
Meanwhile, in 1994, Ken met Neal Maine—the founding executive director of NCLC and a former science teacher in the Seaside School District—during his tenure as the superintendent of Jewell School District. He struck up his volunteerism with NCLC in 2006, mowing Scotch broom on the coastal prairie and the meadows at Circle Creek Habitat Reserve. He also did odd jobs around the old farmhouse that formerly served as NCLC’s offices.
For him, mowing has always been about more than cutting grass and weeds. He’s improving the pasture for elk, deer, and other wildlife, and feeding the swallows and red-tailed hawks with insects and moles along the way.
Having grown up on a 40-acre subsistence farm in Wisconsin, Ken says, “Conserving things and making things work has always been a part of my life, from the very early stage.” Additionally, several prominent conversations come from his home state, so “it’s kind of in the air out there in Wisconsin,” he adds.
Pat Lehman, NCLC Supporter
“[The Oregon Coast] is one of those beautiful places with aspects of it that are quite unique. There is a lot about it that is definitely worth preserving.”
Pat is especially drawn to the people aspect of the organization. She loves being part of the Outreach Committee, preparing food for house parties, taking hikes and walk on the land, tabling at farmers markets and other community events, and connecting people in community to NCLC’s conservation efforts on the Oregon Coast.
For her, it is just about “participating with all these wonderful people in an organization that is the best-run outfit I’ve ever been involved with,” she says. “Everything is so well-planned, intentional, and focused on the mission. That’s why I’m still here.”
What’s more, she believes the Oregon Coast “is one of those beautiful places with aspects of it that are quite unique,” Pat says. “There is a lot about it that is definitely worth preserving.”
