To Protect and Preserve. ..

 

Our Mission :   Help with the Connection

 

Here at HEF, we believe that it is absolutely critical to help provide opportunities for your youth to get outside and make a connection with the environment around them. Giving students and community members a way to have an understanding of the basic of how ecosystems function, and why we play such a large role in the affects to the environment. 

 

Taking the time to go into the classrooms and talking to students about their "back yard habitats", and physically taking the students out on field trips to plant trees, test the water quality of their local stream system, teaching them how to journal in field notebooks, or just talking a walk in the woods, is a way that HEF can play a role in reconnecting them to the ecosystem around them.   

 

It never fails to amaze us how these students, parents, and community members just light up when they are out and actively working with nature.  During discussions, you can see how the students are starting to understand how the trees are connected to the forest floor, which is connected to the hydrologic soils, which is then connect to the stream systems and all the habitat types in between.  The understanding of how this vast ecosystem is all connected starts to make sense, and it is a wondrous thing.

 

The gap between the never ending and always expanding technological world, and the desire to work with the earth with all its abundance is consistently growing.   The future of agricultural practices, and forestry are slowly shifting as the demands for different types of products change. With the use of creative and forward thinking, combined with the abilities of the newest technology, the ideas of "mass production" are starting to take a different shape.  Keeping the ideals and knowledge of the human connection with the environment is more important than ever. Providing "Outdoor Classrooms" and "Outdoor Laboratories" is an essential component to the future understanding of our past decisions.   

 

HEF wants to make sure we play an active part in "keeping the connection".

 

With perseverance, outreach, and community efforts, we believe we can ALL make a difference!

 

Some Amazing Projects around the Chehalis Basin

 

* Students learning about Pre-Settlement in the Pacific Northwest

 

* Learning about Water Quality in the Chehalis Basin

 

* Outdoor Classrooms around the basin

 

* Tree Planting Projects - Understanding the world around us