The Spring Creek Project

Join the Arts Center and Spring Creek Project for the opening reception of two exhibitions by artist Natalie Niblack: 66 Birds/3 Degrees and Return to Life. The opening celebration will feature three Pacific Northwest artists offering poetry, essay, music, and paintings at the intersection of climate change and the precious species of our world.

TONIGHT, Sept. 17, 5:30 p.m.
Corvallis Arts Center Main Gallery (700 SW Madison Ave)
Free and open to all
Learn more: https://theartscenter.net/66-birds-3-degrees-return-to-life/

About the Exhibitions:

66 Birds/3 Degrees features Pacific Northwest birds that are at risk if global warming is not mitigated. Inspired by a National Audubon Society study assessing the impact on North American bird species if the climate warms 3 degrees. With the help of Dr. John Bower, a diverse set of at-risk birds were chosen, with species representing forest, grassland, montane, freshwater, and marine habitats. Chosen were well-known and common species, as the intention of the project is to make an impact on the viewer through what is familiar, known, and possibly deeply felt.

Return to Life depicts birds pushed to near extinction due to human activity, yet that have subsequently begun to recover population growth. Their recovery often highlights the immense effort scientists, environmental organizations, governments, and even hunters have put into helping birds regain populations, not to mention the resiliency of the birds themselves.

66 Birds/3 Degrees | Return to Life - The Arts Center On View in the Main Gallery September 17 - November 7, 2026. Meet the Artist and hear from her collaborators September 17, 5:30 - 7:30 PM.

Arctic and Antarctic scientific research helps us understand how polar regions are changing—and why those changes matter. Poetry offers another way of engaging with these changes and asks questions that data alone cannot answer. 

PRAx, Spring Creek Project and Terrain.org invite poets to create one to three original poems in response to polar science research papers from Oregon State University scientists, with topics ranging from deep time, arctic drift, ice algae, humpback whale migration, and more. 

Poems may engage directly or indirectly with scientific ideas, follow a particular image or question, be inspired by a single detail, or explore broader themes. The work may be personal, lyrical, narrative, experimental, contemplative or playful.

Poets will receive $100 for each selected piece and publication in Terrain.org. Selected poets may also be invited to a reading in Corvallis, Oregon, on October 29, 2026. 

Submissions are free and due August 26, 2026.

Learn more & see submission guidelines: beav.es/polarpoetry

Join us to celebrate a new book by environmental advocate and longtime editor-in-chief of Sierra magazine Jason Dove Mark that offers antidotes that everyone can use to resist ecological amnesia and make lasting progress to repair and revive a livable planet. In "The Earth Said Remember Me," he puts forth simple but powerful rules for a life lived in communion with the Earth.

July 14, 6 p.m., at Grass Roots Books (251 SW Madison Ave).

During the event, Mark will be in conversation with local author and poet Charles Goodrich. This event is sponsored by Grass Roots Books and the Spring Creek Project. Free and open to all!

Spring Creek Project co-sponsored the 2024 Public Humanities Collaboratory on Watersheds, a program that supported the development of public projects on the theme. Watershed Fellow Caitlin Scarano worked with us to produce a four-part podcast series exploring creative work about watersheds as part of her project. Scarano used these conversations to deepen her creative research into the cultural, political and ecological interrelationships within the Skagit River watershed.

Scarano served as guest host of these watershed-focused conversations, interviewing author and journalist Lynda Mapes, author and photographer Amy Gulick, photographer Christian Murillo, and Indigenous poet and author Rena Priest. The full series of conversations is now available on the Spring Creek Podcast.

Find it wherever you listen to podcasts, including Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/2rfELtDkfcaVrfxMEoQENw

Join us for the Campus Wild Celebration this Wednesday, June 3. Hear from student winners in six creative categories as well as from Dan Blanchard, curator of living plant collections at the OSU Arboretum. Refreshments will be served.

Learn more and RSVP here: https://prax.oregonstate.edu/events/campus-wild-celebration

Friends, we invite you to join us for the Campus Wild Celebration this Wednesday, June 3! Learn more and RSVP here: https://prax.oregonstate.edu/events/campus-wild-celebration

Join us at PRAx on Friday, May 22, as the Oregon Repertory Singers Youth Choir and Third Angle New Music present "Eras," co-presented by PRAx and Spring Creek Project.

The evening's program will include a piece called "Following Fire." The creative journey for this wildfire oratorio began in April 2025, when students from the ORS Youth Choir and Third Angle Ensemble visited the World Forestry Center to see the exhibition "Following Fire," a powerful collaboration between photographer David Paul Bayles and ecologist Frederick J. Swanson that documented the cycle of wildfire destruction and regrowth in the Cascade Range.

Bayles and Swanson led the group through their exhibition, and then members of the youth choir spread out amongst the photos of skeletal trees and budding fireweed to write poetry. This poetry was then transformed by composers of Third Angle into music set to the children’s own words.

The evening's program also pieces celebrating Third Angle’s 40-year history. Happy hour begins at 6 p.m. and will include presentations and photography exhibits related to "Following Fire."

Use coupon code ANGLE26 for free tickets, which are available at the link in Spring Creek Project's bio.

[Wildfire photography in the collage image by David Paul Bayles.]

The Public Lands Collaborative Residency supports creative teams engaged in storytelling projects that have the potential to help re-imagine and shape the future of public lands in the United States.

In a time of ecological and cultural transformation, public lands call us to rethink stewardship — not as ownership or control, but as an ongoing conversation across generations, disciplines, and cultures. Public lands invite questions about who belongs, who decides, and what values guide our shared future.

This opportunity is open to interdisciplinary collaborative pairs. One person in the pair must be a creative writer. The other person may be an artist working in any discipline, someone working in the humanities (e.g., historian, philosopher, theologian), someone working in ecology or a related science field, or another writer working in a distinct field (e.g., a creative nonfiction writer working with a poet, a fiction writer working with a policy writer). Each recipient in the pair will receive $3,000 in funding and three weeks in residence at Shotpouch Cabin in the Oregon Coast Range.

Applications are due June 1.

Learn more: https://prax.oregonstate.edu/residencies/opportunities/public-lands-collaborative-residency

Everyone in the OSU and Corvallis community is invited to participate in Campus Wild, a celebration of the more-than-human life that surrounds us on the Corvallis campus. This program invites us to notice all the species and pockets of wild around us — to slow down, look closely, and creatively respond to the neighbors that share our campus ecosystem.

To participate, choose a living being on OSU’s Corvallis campus — a tree, bird, insect, fungus, flower, moss, mammal, or other organism. Spend time observing it.

Then, create a response inspired by your encounter. Your submission may take the form of poetry, prose, a field guide entry, visual art (sketch, painting, etc.), photography, or video/audio.

Organizers will award $100 student prizes in each category. Submissions are due May 4.

Learn more and share your submission here: https://prax.oregonstate.edu/2026-campus-wild