Rebecca Smith joined the North Coast team in 2019 as a Preserve Ranger. After four years, she has been promoted to Assistant Preserves Manager, and spends her time managing and stewarding the lands in the North Coast region and provides outdoor education and conservation training to our partners at Outward Bound Adventures every summer.

For ten days in late July and early August, the air at Seawood Cape Preserve was filled not only with the usual sounds of crashing waves, birdsong, and rustling leaves but also with the giggles, chattering, and bantering of 11 young people visiting the north coast to help heal the land and, in doing so, hopefully, find nourishment themselves.

The Preserve welcomed the group of youth from Outward Bound Adventures, a high-school program based in Pasadena, CA, to camp on the Preserve and join us as stewards. For several participants, this was their first experience camping, and while the news of a refrigerator and water heater for showers was a relief, the update about recent bear activity caused some unease. Their first lesson as stewards was that we share this place with numerous other creatures and respect is the key to coexistence.

Watch a photographic exploration of native plants found on the preserve. Image by Tim Haywood, Preserve Steward