• Centers for Excellence
• Center for Sustainable Communities
  • Calendar of Events
  • Dempsey Lecture Series
  • Zena
    • Zena Forest
      • Mission and Goals
    • Zena Farm
    • An Environmental History of Zena
    • In the News
    • Curriculum
    • Research
    • Zena Event Request Form
  • In the News
  • Courses with Sustainability Themes
  • People
  • Partnerships
  • Campus Resources
  • Community Resources
  • Annual Reports

Mission and Goals

As such a unique and significant piece of land, Willamette University hopes to manage the property as an educational facility. Guidelines for this management include:

• Willamette University will protect, restore, manage, and enhance the natural resources and ecosystem services of Zena, following an adaptive ecosystem management model in conjunction with community partners
• The educational mission of Zena will be the primary focus; revenue generation from forest, farm, and facilities will be a secondary focus, it will be driven by ecological and educational objectives, and it will be used to support the educational mission of Zena and the University’s sustainability efforts*

Potential short-term goals at Zena include:

• Establishing a retreat facility, conference hall or workshop center, with lab and classroom space
• Partnering with local educational organizations for teacher training, field trips,and outdoor education
• Developing a Sustainable Agriculture Summer Program
• Providing a cross-country running camp and training space for Willamette University and the Salem-Keizer School District
• Using sustainable forestry practices to meet the Presidents Climate Commitment (PCC 2008) to offset and mitigate Willamette University’s carbon footprint
• Building an outdoor concert hall ‘shed’ on the property that could be the focus for a range of summer programs in music and theater modeled on the Tanglewood Shed, summer home of the Boston Symphony in rural Lenox, Massachusetts.