(Photo: Chas Hundley)
This story is from Chas Hundley, editor of the Gales Creek Journal. It was first published by Salmonberry Magazine.
A long-planned evolution in the development of the Salmonberry Trail took its first steps recently with the announcement by the Tillamook Forest Heritage Trust that the Salmonberry Trail Foundation would be formed.
The foundation will take over assisting with Salmonberry Trail development from the Tillamook Forest Heritage Trust (TFHT), a nonprofit established in 1999 to push for the development of the Tillamook Forest Center located along the Wilson River Highway in the Tillamook State Forest.
With the Salmonberry Trail, the trust found itself once again assisting in a major project in the state forest, supplying staff and their legal status as a nonprofit to the Salmonberry Trail Intergovernmental Agency (STIA), the governing body that is tasked with building the Salmonberry Trail.
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In a letter to STIA dated November 10, 2018, Nels Gabbert, Chair of the Tillamook Forest Heritage Trust, said that the time for the nonprofit to get back to its core mission was now.
“In the early days of organizing for the Salmonberry Trail, the existing non-profit Tillamook Forest Heritage Trust agreed to provide temporary capacity and energy for start-up fundraising efforts to compliment the Salmonberry Trail Intergovernmental Agency (STIA) mission of developing the trail. The Trust was well positioned for this start-up role given its primary focus on the state-owned forests of the Oregon Coast Range, and its existing governance as a supporting organization to the Oregon Department of Forestry, one of the state agencies leading STIA.”
Alana Kambury, Communications and Outreach Director for TFHT, has been tasked with the development of the foundation, and in an email to the Banks Post/Gales Creek Journal, said that she expects the foundation will receive nonprofit status from Oregon and the IRS as early as May 2019.
The trust, with a mission “To acquire, obtain and maintain funds, materials or labor for donation in the development, operation, management and maintenance of The Salmonberry Trail,” according to Kambury, is identifying board members, seeking partnerships with organizations with similar interests in the Salmonberry Trail, and identifying funding sources.
For inquiries, email Alana Kambury at alana@salmonberrytrail.org.
— Chas Hundley, @chashundley on Twitter and GalesCreekJournal.com.
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