For more than 30 years, the Nisqually Reach Nature Center has offered environmental education to thousands of youth and young adults at Luhr Beach in Olympia, Washington, and in the classroom. The Center provides field trip opportunities, supplemental classroom activities and summer camps.

Since our beginning in 1982, our mission has expanded to include community outreach and citizen science research and monitoring activities. The Center played a key role in the establishment of the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve, created in 2011 by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. The Aquatic Reserve’s Citizen Stewardship Committee, under the auspices of the Center, monitors activities within the Reserve, engages in community education and conducts citizen science projects.

We receive use of our building through a cooperative agreement with the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, which also maintains a boat launch at Luhr Beach. The Center has four salt-water tidal aquariums filled with crabs, sea stars, anemones and other marine animals that live in the waters of South Puget Sound.

We are organized as a nonprofit corporation, with 501 (c) (3) status, governed by a board of directors with members drawn from the local community, higher education institutions, and state resource management agencies.