The story of Alder Creek Children's Forest starts with Robert and Virginia Proctor of Canyonville, Oregon. Bob and Ginny were active in community and educational service in southern Douglas County for over fifty years. They also took a keen interest in their forest: Bob participated in the Oregon Small Woodlands Association, and Ginny took frequent wildflower walks in the forest. When Bob and Ginny passed away, their children devoted the land they inherited to continue Bob and Ginny's spirit of serving educational and community needs in the region.

Starting in the late 1990s, son Jim met with community and government leaders, educators, natural resource management agencies, and representatives of a wide spectrum of advocacy organizations to build a consensus around possible educational use of the Proctor forestland. These people had many different views about forest policy, but they all believed in working toward a future marked more by consensus and communication than the conflict and litigation that has so often hampered any true resolution of forest and natural resource controversies in the Pacific Northwest.

And they also agreed on a strategy to work toward a better future: focus on the children, the next generation of Oregonians. Encourage them to learn, and exchange opinions, and make up their own minds. Give them an opportunity for experiential forest and watershed education devoted to a sustainable future, and let them learn from their own choices.

Thus, the name Alder Creek Children's Forest was born: Alder Creek is a stream that runs through the Proctor forest, and the children's forest concept of hands-on management by youth is our unique focus. Alder Creek Children's Forest was thus formed as an Oregon nonprofit corporation on October 25, 2002, and now looks forward to a bright future working alongside the hardworking, talented, visionary youth of the region.