Welcome to Alder Creek Children's Forest! For a background click here, or view an introductory slideshow. We offer a 78-acre forest site in southern Douglas County, and collaborative agreements with other landholders in the surrounding 2500-acre Alder Creek-Jordan Creek catchment, to provide field and related classroom and online opportunities for inquiry-based learning. We also offer, in conjunction with the Oregon Natural Resource Education Program, two training days each year; here are some images from our recent Project Learning Tree training day.

If you'd like to tour ACCF, you first need to make an appointment; please visit our contact page for our phone and email address and for directions to the ACCF site.

One major initiative we are currently developing is called Oregon Explorers, a field, classroom, and computer lab-based opportunity for youth to learn about Oregon’s natural resources and watersheds and contribute to their sustainable use. We are piloting Oregon Explorers in the Alder-Jordan catchment over the next few years, and invite you to join us. If you'd like more information, here is a concept paper on Oregon Explorers, and here's an August 2006 talk.

There are lots of activities your students can do online, including:

• A virtual tour of the ACCF site, complete with 360 degree panoramic views and a treasure-hunt format to encourage learning about forests and forestry
• A simple forest quiz, consisting of "puzzle pictures" we and students have taken on the ACCF site and Alder-Jordan Creek watershed

ACCF offers a complete online course management system called Moodle. Moodle, used by thousands of educational institutions worldwide, can be used to provide online enhancements to direct instruction, or to develop a completely online educational experience. You as a teacher can utilize Moodle resources developed by ACCF and participating instructors, and develop resources for your courses, right now: there is no fee, and we offer complete guidance.

Click here to enter the ACCF Moodle site. We urge you to drop by the School Forum to check out opportunities and remain in touch automatically via email. You may also want to check out educational activities happening via the ACCF site page.

Please drop in and offer your thoughts via our Guest Forum, and please contact ACCF if you would like to benefit from our learning resources.