We’d like to introduce our new Executive Director, Sarah Kreisman! Join us in extending Sarah a warm welcome and read on to learn more about Sarah.

Nature Summer Day Camp 2023 was a success! Our Education Director Liz Bianco shares camp highlights and this summer’s unique program.

Long term relationships, what makes them work? Founding board member Suzanne Willow shares about the relationships The Crest holds with the natural world and our community.

We have fun Crest community events planned! See our upcoming events.

Looking for a meaningful way to get involved with The Crest? Board Chair, Stacy Scott, shares an opportunity for involvement on The Crest’s board.

Finally, check in with the natural world at Willow-Witt Ranch with this month’s “Who’s Flying, What’s Blooming?”

I am honored to be at the helm of such a fantastic team and I am excited to facilitate this time of growth and expansion for The Crest and for the communities that we serve.

My first month on the job has been very stimulating. Getting to know all of the wonderful characters who operate the ranch, the burial ground and the educational programs, learning and listening to the facts and figures while also taking in meaningful information from the subtle layers of the land and the hearts of those who tend it.

I look forward to becoming an integral part of this community. I want to meet you, to hear from you the inspirations that have guided you to it. The Crest is in a pivotal moment of creative transformation.

We are hard at work putting the structures in place to cultivate financial stability for the organization while working to provide field trips at no-cost to Title 1 schools throughout Jackson County. We need your support! Please reach out to me to share your ideas and connections. The Crest is ripe and ready for an infusion of new energy and community uplift.

Join us as we work to expand our reach and share the precious gifts of the land and creatures of the Willow-Witt property with those who need it most. Onward!

Sarah Kreisman
Executive Director
exec@thecrestatwillowwitt.org

This summer, Nature Day Camp continued to serve youth in our valley with environmental education in a safe and nurturing outdoor environment. Kids participated in all the traditional Crest summer camp activities, such as tie-dying their produce bags, participating in farm tours, visiting goats, visiting tasting tables and hiking to the turtle pond. Our counselors brought new games and activities to the ranch as well. We developed a pollinator inventory lesson to have the children help survey the native bees, butterflies, and beetles, and learn more about the wildflowers in the meadows.

We created a new “sense of place” scavenger hunt trail activity, enjoyed birdwatching and observing the Sandhill Crane and red-winged blackbirds in the wetlands, and went on compost safaris while learning about soil decomposers. We also made spearmint tea and solar oven pizzas, played wilderness olympics, hiked to tree island and built forts, fairy houses and nature sculptures, and bonded with baby goats.

We were lucky to have counselors who were diligent about creating a safe space and passionate about developing new activities to increase the campers’ appreciation for nature. Many of our campers this summer have expressed interest in wanting to come back as junior counselors in the future. 

Aren’t we all in a long-term relationship with the natural world? How can we assure continued health for all of us, humans and the natural world? Curiosity. 
 
The Crest is a young organization, incorporated in 2017. Suzanne and Lanita began relationship with the property known as Willow-Witt Ranch, home of The Crest, long before. We started learning about this fascinating and diverse piece of land when we purchased it as a derelict ranch in January 1985; there was something…not the run-down house or falling-down barn…that called to us. Was it the pastures, ringed by forests, the way the fog hangs over the meadows in fall and winter, the diversity of plants and animals who share this space?
 
We formed The Crest to share what we’ve discovered about nature: she’s the most generous teacher and helps us belong. How can we help people of all ages find the belonging we’ve found in nature? How can we help ensure the health of the world? Sitting in nature. Listening. Feeling. Being alive in nature. This is what The Crest brings to students all year long:

• We bus 6–11-year-olds to The Crest for Nature Summer Day Camp and send them home with organic vegetables they get to choose.
• We bring 5th or 6th graders for 3 to 5 days of residential Outdoor School at the ADA-accessible Crest Village and empower them to form safe and curious new relationships with nature and each other. 
• We run half-day and full-day field trips for all schools in the area. 
• We introduce students to welcoming farm animals and teach them caring relationships. 
• We host residential programs for schools or groups that want to experience the natural world in safety and comfort. 
• We help teachers with place-based well-developed curriculum covering all aspects of nature, taught through a trauma-informed lens.
• We’ve formed ongoing relationships with Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and other organizations.

We have received wonderful program grant support some years. The Crest is committed to offering programs even when there aren’t any grants; summer 2023 was such a year.  Though no grant funds were available, we managed to give partial or full scholarships to almost 50% of summer campers! 
 
This is where you come in.  The Crest needs to establish long-term relationships with supporters to continue and expand the amazing programs we offer ALL students. We invite you to ‘invest’ in the future of our kids and the natural world by becoming a monthly supporter of The Crest’s programs.

It’s easy; click here to sign up to donate. 

And please come up to The Crest to see what it’s all about; Willow-Witt Ranch is open to visitors 11am-5pm every day.