Volunteer opportunities and registration for camp and field trip programs are available on our website, nisquallyestuary.org. Inside the Center we have three saltwater aquariums with a wide variety of species from South Puget Sound including sea stars, sea cucumbers, shore crabs, fish, sea urchins, a huge fish-eating anemone, and much more! We're open to the public Saturday and Sunday from 12:00 p
m to 4:00 pm. Other exhibits include over 30 bird taxidermies, fossils, animal pelts, and much, much more. NRNC has been offering estuarine environmental education at Luhr Beach since 1982. Through the years, our emphasis has changed from general public outreach to our current focus on providing supplemental classroom, laboratory, and field trip opportunities for schools in Thurston and Pierce counties and beyond. In a typical year, upwards of 2,000 school kids, mostly in grades 5 through 12, visit the Nature Center with their teachers and parents. We also support and sponsor estuarine research opportunities for South Puget Sound college students. We perform a variety of research from the Nature Center within South Puget Sound. This includes forage fish surveys, pigeon guillemot surveys, and more. NRNC is the site proponent for the Nisqually Reach Aquatic Reserve and we help support related research and outreach. We receive use of our building through a cooperative agreement with the Washington Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, which also maintains a boat launch here at Luhr Beach. We are organized as a nonprofit corporation, with 501 (c) (3) status. We are governed by a board of directors with members drawn from the local business community, higher education institutions, and state resource management agencies.
