Nestled on 200 acres in the redwood forest our center offers a wonderful environment for experiential education.

Flowing through the middle of our property, Dutch Bill Creek provides an inspiring place to explore and learn about watershed education. 

We are located in western Sonoma County six miles from the Pacific Ocean, a special place for tide pooling and studying marine ecology.  Our challenge course develops team building, communication and leadership skills. 

Current cool teachable moments:

 * Nothern Spotted Owl onsite October 20th, 2008

-----check it out on You tube click here

We offer a variety of 3 to 5 day programs including:

• Redwood Forest Ecology
• Marine Ecology and Tide pooling
• Stream Ecology and Watershed Education
• Challenge Course and Teambuilding
• Restoration Ecology and Service Learning Projects
• Night Ecology, Astronomy, and other evening programs

We focus on five key principles of ecology:

 1.Energy Flow   2.Cycles   3.Interconnections   4.Diversity   5.Change

Westminster Woods provides a nurturing, hands-on learning environment designed to support your classroom curriculum.

Our professional team of teacher/naturalists creates a safe, supportive atmosphere for learning.

Click on the left hand column links

for further information.

Email David Berman for more information or to sign up for the

EE Program.

Our Philosophy and Primary Goal
The primary goal of our program is for students to appreciate, understand, and care for the Earth community.

Appreciating the Earth
Our hope is that by exploring, observing, and spending time close to the Earth students will develop a deeper relationship with the natural world. Through hands on exploration and observation, we as teacher naturalists can cultivate and inspire a sense of wonder in the students. Meeting this goal requires that we create a physically and emotionally safe and healthy learning environment for students. We seek to create a balanced educational atmosphere which includes excitement, learning, relaxation, reflection, and fun.

Understanding the Earth
We teach about the Earth as a whole system. We use the scientific process to study and observe the Earth. We explore the ecological principles of community, cycles, similarities and differences, and change. We focus on our connection to the Earth's natural systems and our dependence on the Earth for our food, air, water, and shelter. How can we reinvent the human on a species level as part of the whole not apart from it? We practice active listening, with each other and the Earth. We explore each others questions in a respectful manner.

Caring for the Earth
When we come to deeply appreciate and understand something it helps us to want to care for it. By understanding how we impact our ecological communities and how they function, we can learn the skills and behaviors necessary to care for the Earth. We inspire students to respect, reuse, reduce, and recycle. When we have the opportunity to do so we coordinate restoration/conservation projects onsite, so that we may teach skills for students to take back to their communities.