Every year approximately 5,000 youth and forest landowners come to Hopkins Demonstration Forest for educational programs. It is estimated that another 7,500 public members visit the forest on their own to walk the trails, enjoy the woods, and learn through the interpretive signs.

As demand for services increase so has the need to expand capacity for growing educational programs and improve on-site management for facilities.  Plans are underway to replace an old manufactured home on the property with a modern, all-wood, 2,400 square foot, energy efficient structure to house a caretaker for the demonstration forest and provide a small conference room and two single unit motel-style rooms for overnight guests.

The new Forestry Outreach Center will be a demonstration of the latest advanced wood technologies, including cross-laminated timber, mass plywood, glue laminated beams and energy efficiency in residential-scale construction.  The overnight capability will provide a new opportunity to attract teachers, university students and researchers to our forest for education and fieldwork experiences. 

The OSU Extension Service played a key role in forming the non-profit organization, Forests Forever, Inc. (FFI), 30 years ago with a vision to create a teaching demonstration forest.  OSU and FFI have jointly funded a full-time Extension Educator for the past 15 years who leads the educational programming at the forest.  “So, it’s not surprising that Extension and FFI are working together on fundraising for both the Extension Education Center in Oregon City and the Forestry Outreach Center at Hopkins,” said Mike Bondi, Extension Liaison and Board Member of Forests Forever.