The Columbia Land Trust and the Espy Foundation celebrated their partnership championing environmental writers and conservation of the Long Beach Peninsula's natural landscape. On Sunday, June 25, 2006, at the Oysterville Schoolhouse, the celebration's reading and social gathering drew about 50 people on a sunny day cooled by the afternoon north wind. Sandwiches and savories were offered by local chef Jeff McMahon and rhubarb lemonade by Nahcotta's Bailey's Bakery and Cafe.
In June of 2006, Columbia Land Trust sponsored a month-long Espy residency for an environmental essayist. At the gathering, the selected writer, Seattle's David Berger, spoke on changes in American environmental writing over the last century.
Special guest Franklin Glenn read from a letter written by himself as a member of a local cranberry-grower family to the Columbia Land Trust. He outlined challenges facing present-day cranberry growers and described the beauty of a family-owned forest hosting a heronry.
The Trust's Executive Director Glenn Lamb explains the Trust's commitment to writers and the Espy Foundation: "I have long felt that environmental writers are among our best observers, and that through their eloquence we can all become aware of things, right in front of us, that we would otherwise have never seen."
The Columbia Land Trust's mission is to conserve "signature landscapes and vital habitat together with the landowners and communities of the Columbia River." Their Long Beach Peninsula conservation efforts include Hines Marsh and Tarlett Slough.
Also on the program, Ilwaco High School students read their writing as winners in the Espy Environmental Essay Competition. Jason Huntley wrote about environmental commitment after coring for ghost shrimp with his father. Jon Briggs debated issues concerning Willapa Bay's spartina grass invasion. Kristina Freese's essay, read in her absence by Oysterville writer Sydney Stevens, describes a lyrical morning on the Bay. This competition is part of the Foundation's Arts and Humanities Program at the local school.
"The celebration," according to Espy Foundation President Polly Friedlander, "was to show appreciation to the Columbia Land Trust for all their wonderful conservation on the Peninsula and to the writers who focus on environmental issues."
For next year's deadline and application for the June Environmental Essayist residency, see our Residency page.
Written by Ann Spiers
