Thurston Nature Center Committee meetings are held monthly, on the third Monday of each month, from 7:00-8:00 pm in the library of Thurston Elementary School. Meetings are open to the public, and interested parents, students, teachers, and neighbors are cordially invited. At these meetings, committee members discuss and develop plans and ideas for environmental education activities and debate more complex issues such as long-range plans to preserve or enhance the overall environmental health of the Nature Center so that its value as a regional resource for environmental education will not be diminished in the years ahead. To read the minutes of each of the TNC Committee meetings held so far during the 2003-2004 school year, click on the appropriate date below:
November 15th, 2004
Spring and Fall Work Days
Special Work Days are scheduled during certain weekends each Fall and Spring. Signs announcing the dates of these work days are placed at strategic points throughout the neighborhood several days ahead of time to alert potential volunteers. On the work days, students, parents, and neighbors work together to do such things as help move gravel to the berm, lay down fresh wood chips on the trails, trim brush growing too close to the trails, and cut back invasive exotic shrubs such as buckthorn and Japanese honeysuckle. Such invasives can overwhelm or outcompete the growth of desirable plant species and diminish the overall diversity of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, as well as the animal habitats these provide, throughout the Center. The members of the Thurston Nature Center Committee are deeply grateful to all those who help or who have helped, over nearly four decades, in sharing the stewardship of our Center.