Founders’ Statement

This amazing journey began with our efforts to create public greenspace on the shores of Yaquina Bay in Newport, Oregon. A few fruitless attempts and some years later, we arrived at the founding of Yakona Nature Preserve & Learning Center. Along the way, a deepening love of the land and all her life forms coalesced around a dream of educating people of all ages in her natural systems and cultural history.

Countless hours of exploration and research revealed the fortunate accidents of history and benign neglect that conspired over the previous 100 years to allow Nature to reclaim much of the 400-acre peninsula that is home to the Preserve. As we prepare to pass along the care of this land to future generations we’ll never know, we gratefully acknowledge the friends, old and new, who’ve lent their time and talents over the years and collaborated to prepare Yakona, and us, for this transition.

We met and married later in life and Yakona became the child we never had together. We’ve nurtured and tended a small remnant of the vast fog belt forests that once blanketed the Pacific Northwest coastline. Colonization decimated the indigenous, original caretakers and intensive logging destroyed the majority of the region’s Sitka spruce-dominated ecosystems.

We present this Founders’ Statement to convey the critical tenet that must guide all considerations for Yakona’s future: the native flora and fauna, large and small, shall be the primary consideration in all decisions. Any proposal that threatens their health and welfare must be revised or abandoned.

Black Bear symbolizes our resolve to preserve the wilds of Yakona. When she acclimates to living near humans, Bear inevitably confronts trouble and loses any contest for dominion. Human activities must minimize intrusions on the habitats where native wildlife traverse their life cycles and restore rather than diminish the land. Yakona shall always be a safe home for Black Bear. This is the legacy we wish to leave, naming nothing after ourselves. Therefore, in all decision-making, the preeminent question that must be asked is this: Will the proposal be in the best interest of Black Bear? It must be answered in the affirmative without compromise or equivocation.

We’ve been guided by our deeply held beliefs: that we cannot truly care about a place unless and until we come to know it; we care most deeply when we come to know it intimately; we care most instinctively when we know it from a young age. These have inspired us to offer enticing opportunities that bring young people into Nature and foster a healthy balance between time spent indoors and time in the wild. They’re meant to persevere at Yakona for all time.

Is it possible to design a plan for 300 years into the future? Founders and creators of the world’s iconic parks and public green spaces certainly believed it is. We strive to follow in the footsteps of dreamers who established urban green spaces, National Parks and perhaps most importantly, labored and sacrificed to preserve wild places that dot the continents of our world. It’s a big dream and one for which we never trained, but to which we’ve dedicated the late years of our lives.

Soon enough our child, Yakona Nature Preserve & Learning Center, will be entrusted into the care of people who will glimpse the two of us merely as historical figures. It’s not easy to contemplate a world in which we’re only a distant memory, but we’ve set ourselves to that hard task in order to ensure her future. It is our hope this Founders’ Statement inspires and guides the caretakers of 300 years from today.

We urge you to spend weeks and months learning the environs of Yakona, rambling her contours in all the seasons, tending something small or large that speaks to your heart. Please do not keep her at arm’s length when serving on a board of directors, as staff, or signing on as a volunteer. Rather, immerse yourself in Yakona’s forests. Stand reverently in the presence of an ancient spruce that has witnessed the turning of centuries and given far more than she has taken from the earth. Be still with her and feel small. Embrace the uncanny yet heart-expanding sensation of insignificance.

Allow Yakona to seep into your soul, however you define that. Let yourself truly know and come to love her. When you do, protecting and preserving her will naturally follow.

With full hearts, we thank you.

JoAnn and Bill Barton
Newport, Oregon
March, 2022