Post it our our calendar

Thanksgiving is this week. Our family, like most families, has plenty of traditions surrounding Thanksgiving. Many of them are food-related – the brining of the turkey, the mashed-potato volcanoes, and the little oddly shaped dish whose only job, it seems, is to hold the green olives.

But we’ve created other traditions over the years. One of our most recent is a post-Thanksgiving trip to the Tillamook Forest Center to create our annual holiday wreath. 

Every year for the past six years, our family has made the trip down the Wilson River to spend the day at the interpretive center. We hike the trails. We wear the firefighter’s hat. We play in the fish bubble. We also build a giant wreath for our home. Oregon Department of Forestry staff members collect branches and forest products from within the Tillamook forest and bring them to the center. Native tree species including Douglas-fir, hemlock and noble fir make a great base for a hardy wreath. Pine cones, holly branches and even a little Oregon grape help add to the cheer.

You can find information about these wreath-making activities on OFRI’s calendar of events. In fact, we invite everyone to regularly visit the OFRI calendar of events to see what’s happening, and encourage you to submit your events to the calendar using the handy online form.

The OFRI calendar of events is intended to be a community-supported calendar. If you have any forest-related events that are open to the public, the OFRI events calendar is a great place to market them. Whether you’ve got an upcoming tour, hike, workshop or yes, even a wreath-making party, submit your event and spread the word.

Enjoy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Jordan Benner
Public Outreach Program Manager