A Year of Growth and Gratitude: Celebrating the Community Nature Center and Fern Gully’s Expansion

As the seasons turn, Fern Gully Forest School celebrates one year since acquiring the Community Nature Center property — a space where learning, connection, and conservation grow side by side. This milestone marks the expansion of our forest school programs, the protection of two additional acres of forest, and the deepening of our shared commitment to nature and community.

The new Community Nature Center property acquisition protects 2 more acres of the magical Fern Gully Forest. Located on Boulevard and 15th Ave SE. Just around the corner from the Preschool location on Brown St.

A Year of Growth and Gratitude

As the leaves turn gold and the air grows crisp, autumn invites us to pause and reflect on all that has blossomed through care and community. This season, Fern Gully Forest School is celebrating a remarkable milestone: one full year since the acquisition of the Community Nature Center and protection of more of the magical Fern Gully Forest that includes the Creek and Woodland Trail system access.

What began as a seed of a dream, to save this forest and create a place where children, families, and nature could grow more resilient together, has taken root and expanded! Over the past year, this beloved space has evolved into a vibrant hub of outdoor learning, forest play, team and skill-building, and community gathering. It has become a home for stories, song, and stewardship — a living classroom that reflects the beauty of connection between people and the land.

Expanding the Forest School

With this first anniversary comes another exciting chapter in our story. This Spring, we opened the new classroom for our NatureWise Enrichment Programs. This space allows us to welcome more families into the forest while offering deeper learning experiences for older kids that build self and nature awareness, creativity, hands-on learning, and environmental stewardship. We are proud to be safeguarding more of this precious woodland for generations to come. Each cedar, fern, and wild animal now has more space to flourish, and each child more wild places to explore, connect, grow, and wonder.

A Gathering Place for the Community

The Community Nature Center is a place to gather, connect, and celebrate the rhythms of the seasons together. Over the past 5 years, our community has come together for classes, volunteer days, music gatherings, fundraiser events, and joyful seasonal celebrations. Every gathering adds new layers of belonging and care to this shared landscape.

This fall, we invite you to join us for an extra special Annual Harvest Party on Sunday, October 19th at the new Community Nature Center (2210 15th Ave SE, Olympia).

We’ll share in a wholesome harvest potluck, featuring garden-fresh foods the children helped plant, tend, harvest and cook --- from seed to table --- and celebrate the season with making apple cider, enjoying fireside stories, eating delicious food, community connections and gratitude.

Parking is available along Brown Street (please be mindful of the neighbors' driveways), or you can take the short forest trail from the Preschool to the Nature Center.

Limited accessible parking is available down the one-lane drive at the end of 15th Ave SE.

Growing Together

This anniversary reminds us that growth (whether in forests or in communities) takes time, tending, and togetherness. Each seed planted, each path cleared, each child’s laugh beneath the canopy carries forward our shared mission: to nurture connection, resilience, and reverence for the natural world.

We are deeply grateful to every parent, volunteer, donor, and child who has helped bring this vision to life. Thank you for helping us protect this land, grow this learning community, and make the forest a home for all who enter.

Charissa Waters welcoming you to the new Community Nature Center for Forest School Classes and Events