After more than two decades with the Dungeness River Nature Center — the past 12 as its director — Powell Jones is shifting into a new regional role.

Jones will relinquish his position as the center’s director and park manager at the end of April to take another position with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe as its Land Stewardship Manager, overseeing numerous conservation properties on the North Olympic Peninsula, including Railroad Bridge Park.

“I am so grateful for continued and growing support that (visitors) have shown the (Dungeness River Nature Center) and to myself as director,” Jones wrote in a press release. “Without your belief, and the support that comes with it, the center would not be in the wonderful position it is today. Together we have made a huge impact in our community and beyond.”

Jones, a Sequim High graduate, said in an interview that he started with AmeriCorps in 2002 working at the River Center before being hired as an education coordinator under a National Audubon Society grant.

In 2008, he and other River Center staff became tribal employees, and in 2012 he became the center’s director.

Growing up, Jones said his grandmother enjoyed National Geographic and the Audubon Society, and since he was 10 or 11 he thought he was going to work for one or the other.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash/ Dungeness River Nature Center director Powell Jones gives directions to field trip-goers.

“I held onto that through college, and [the AmeriCorps job] fell into my lap,” he said.

He was working in Alaska at the time when his wife Laura got a teaching job in Sequim.

“I wasn’t planning on coming back but I’m glad I did, because all my closest friends from high school ended back up in Sequim, too,” Jones said.

Seeing the River Center and park grow has meant a lot to him.

“Being from here, it’s been incredible,” he said, attributing that growth to efforts of staff and volunteers.

“I don’t think I would have imagined it looking anything like this in 2016. So to see it come this far, I’m extremely proud of it.”

Background

The River Center, 1943 W. Hendrickson Road, opened in 2001 as the Dungeness River Audubon Center through partnerships between the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, National Audubon Society and Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe.

Community members worked together to purchase the Railroad Bridge and a half mile right-of-way as Railroad Bridge Park, also the first piece of the Olympic Discovery Trail in Clallam County.

The tribe assumed responsibility for the awarded grants and ownership of the land and buildings, expanding the park by 10 acres east of the river to house the Sequim Natural History Museum.

The center started as an idea come to fruition by Annette and Mark Hanson to construct the Sequim Natural History Museum in 1984, an entire model watershed from mountain to sea, filled with specimens of the flora and fauna in floor-to-ceiling dioramas.

Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash / Powell Jones, executive director of the Dungeness River Audubon Center, shows students how to use tools like a McLeod for clearing trail in 2017.

Reflecting on the River Center’s transformation in 2022 after massive renovations, Jones said he loves he “got to help people’s dreams come to fruition.”

He adds that he’s proud of the dedicated exhibit space and that he lobbied for the outdoor cedar hat classroom.

“As an educator, I love that space,” he said.

Search

The search for a new director is underway with the tribe posting the position on its website.

A final selection of a new director would be made by the River Center’s Board of Directors.

For more information, visit jamestowntribe.org/careers.

As for the next director, Jones said he hopes they don’t feel the need to fill his shoes, as they should walk their own path.

“When it was (renovated), there was a lot of talk about it becoming a world-class nature center, and now the world needs to know about it,” he said.

“The next person has a lot of opportunities to do that. The world is wide open for the center.”

Overseeing Railroad Bridge Park, Jones said it’s also world-class showing people how to treat rivers and their properties.

“My next step is to have the park meet the same level of excellence that the building and center do, too,” he said.

Jones said the Land Stewardship Manager position is in part what he is assigned to do now.

“As director and park manager, there’s not a lot of time to do the parks part, and the Railroad Bridge Park deserves more,” he said.

For his new position, Jones said he will look to help enhance habitat, maintain and improve recreational opportunities, and assist in monitoring these conservation properties over time at Jamestown properties along the Dungeness River, on the Miller Peninsula, and more.

“Looking at at all these pieces of land that are being restored interests me,” he said.

For more about the Dungeness River Nature Center, visit dungenessrivercenter.org.

Editor Michael Dashiell contributed to this story.