help Rebuild the Lost Valley Bridge
Honoring Legacy • Strengthening Community • Growing the Future
What happened to our bridge?
In January 2024, the Pacific Northwest was hit by an ice storm that has come to be called “Icepocalypse”. This extreme weather event resulted in the loss of the pedestrian bridge that crossed Anthony Creek, when a mature Douglas Fir tree uprooted and destroyed the structure.
The bridge had quietly supported the life and inhabitants of this land for over forty years, connecting the main campus to the Creek Garden, our largest and most productive garden on site. It’s where we grow much of the food that feeds our community, and where students and interns gain hands-on skills in permaculture and regenerative agriculture. That bridge also carried water from our well across Anthony Creek, provided access to the Native Foods Nursery, which supplies native plants to our campus and regional restoration projects, and linked us to stewardship zones that serve as outdoor classrooms for our educational programs. For our larger events, we frequently partner with a neighbor who provides overflow parking, requiring visitors to cross the creek to attend the events.
The destruction of the bridge has been a huge loss to our community and business, and we are determined to rebuild. However, as a nonprofit environmental education center that also provides low-income housing, we lack the funds to take this on ourselves. So, we are seeking broader community support to construct a new bridge onsite that will help build the educational bridges regionally and internationally.
A bridge of legacy
Our new bridge will be dedicated to honoring:
Founders Dianne Brause and Kenneth Mahaffey, whose vision and leadership brought Lost Valley into being.
Generations of community members who have stewarded the land and shared its teachings.
The Kalapuya Peoples and surrounding nations, whose relationship with this land stretches back countless generations.
Why This Bridge Matters
A new bridge would reconnect access to Lost Valley’s Creek Garden that supports community food security, as well as the Native Foods Nursery where many residents are employed.
As a nationally recognized hub for permaculture education, land stewardship, and cooperative living, Lost Valley regularly hosts courses, educational retreats, and gatherings that reconnect people to regenerative lifeways.
This bridge would increase safe and reliable access to core facilities for educational programs and cultural events.
We have multiple permits with the county that are already approved or are in the county’s queue awaiting approval. We were able to move forward with these using funds raised at this Spring’s Propagation Fair (thank you so much to everyone who contributed at that time). Some of these permits take a long time for approval, so getting them started early has been very helpful in this process.
We are working with McGee Engineering, a local, values aligned bridge engineering firm, to design our new bridge. They have walked the creek with us and listened to many of our ideas and concerns. They understand our commitment to rebuilding this bridge with minimal impact to the riparian zone or the broader environment, and our desire for the bridge to blend well with the surrounding forest.
As McGee Engineering finalizes our design, we will begin vetting local contractors in McGee’s network to find the perfect match for bringing our project to life. Sourcing materials from our land and as local as possible is a high priority for us.
Our current timeline has us looking at having a new bridge completed by late Summer of 2027.
We are seeking support from donors who recognize the need of physical infrastructure to support our broader mission to spread environmental connection and education. Contributions at every level help move us toward this shared goal, but larger gifts ($5,000, $10,000, $25,000+) will be transformational in bringing the bridge to life.
Where We are
Join us in rebuilding!
Donation Tiers:
Bridge Ally - $100 - $1000: Helps cover essential hardware like galvanized bolts, rebar, and connectors to secure the structure.
Bridge Builder - $1,001 - $2,500: Helps purchase decking boards, and funds safety features like railing sections and anti-slip surfacing for safe crossing.
Bridge Sustainer - $2,501- $5,000: Supports the cost of milling and preparing timber, as well as inspections, consultations, and testing that ensure the bridge meets safety standards.
Bridge Partner - $5,001 - 10,000: Helps fund the purchase of heavy timbers, glulam beams, and steel that form the superstructure. Supports engineering and foundational work for concrete footings or piles that anchor the bridge safely across the creek.
Bridge Champion - $10,001 - $20,000: Contributes to engineering, permits, and major foundation/abutment work.
Bridge Visionary - $20,001 - $50,000: Anchors the entire project by covering a large portion of the superstructure and foundation costs, contractor labor, heavy equipment mobilization, and site preparation, ensuring the bridge is built to last and certified for emergency egress.
Contribute here
Partner with us
We want to honor donors who fund large portions of the project, and would love to connect about ways that we can meaningfully recognize your partnership.
If you would like to become a partner with us on this project through helping to connect us with donors, offering technical expertise, or supporting our fundraising efforts in other ways, we would love to hear from you. Please reach out to us to start the conversation about partnership, legacy giving, or donor recognition opportunities.
Please contact Lost Valley’s Fundraising Coordinator, Kaylee Sweet at fundraising@lostvalley.org to get in touch.
Thank you!
Lost Valley Education Center is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community land trust, whose mission is to educate youth and adults in the practical application of sustainable living skills. We achieve this by offering hands-on education in ecological design, restoration forestry, equitable community governance, and regenerative farming, while we steward 87 acres of diverse ecosystems for oak savanna habitat restoration, increased biodiversity, and old growth forest characteristics.
Donations to Lost valley are tax deductible and can be made on a recurring basis.
