The ethics of natural resource conservation runs deep in the Cape Meares Community. The community has worked to protect Nature-Culture-Future in a variety of ways not least of which is by protecting water and land, cultural, and historic resources.

Cape Meares Community Forest

In 2007, Stimson Lumber Company contacted the Cape Meares Community Association (CMCA) to determine if there was interest in receiving a donated parcel of land from their property which was located in the middle of an ancient landslide.  Because CMCA was not a 501(c)(3) association at the time the donation of the land had to first be accepted by Tillamook County Board of Commissioners.  This transaction took place on August 30, 2007.   The parcel is located a short distance south of the Cape Meares community and is shown in the map above.

After the Tillamook County Board of Commissioners accepted the parcel in August, they decided to dedicate a portion for County Road Purposes (Loop Road) and then transferred the land to CMCA on October 3, 2007.  The Tillamook County Board of Commissioners specified that the parcel was to be “for open space for perpetual public use” pursuant to ORS 27.033(3). In 2014 the CMCA incorporated as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization with a property tax exemption from Tillamook County for the 106+ acre Cape Meares Community Forest.

The CMCA Watershed Conservation Project seeks to expand the existing 106+ acres of Cape Meares Community Forest with the purchase for conservation, the contiguous 119+ acres of forest, all within the watershed of Coleman Creek.

Cape Meares Community Forest within the Coleman Creek Watershed

Beachfront Wetland Habitat

In 2021 a small parcel (.56 acre) of Cape Meares beach front wetland habitat was donated to the Cape Meares Community Association by the Williams-Blair Families. The photo gallery below offers just a glimpse of this special little Beachfront Wetland that the CMCA has set aside for conservation.