Our Team
Maggie Peyton
Executive Director UNWC
Executive Director and founding member of UNWC (Est. 1996) and the Nehalem Basin Partnership (Est. 2023), Maggie began her career through volunteer efforts, establishing a foundation of trust and building investments in conservation with a diversity of stakeholders, advisors and funders, and watershed inhabitants.
She has lived in a maturing forest by the Nehalem River for 34 years and has connected with the river since childhood, spending cherished time with her beloved Grandma at her oceanfront cottage just south of Nehalem Bay, and crawfishing with family elders along the Nehalem River in the summertime of her youth.
At age 16, Maggie lived on the Malheur Wildlife Refuge as a member of the Youth Conservation Corp, where she obtained a strong work ethic and a deep appreciation for conservation of natural ecology in working landscapes. As a young adult, she began studying landscape technology, ecology and watershed processes. Maggie volunteered at the Audubon Wildlife Rehabilitation Center as a den mother for Boy Scouts of America, and with the Nehalem Valley Izaak Walton League conducting spawning surveys, collecting stream temperature data and planting riparian trees. She is a member of the Vernonia Grange #305 (Est. 1901) and has served for over 22 years supporting Patrons of Husbandry and the local community with Faith, Hope, Charity and Fidelity.
As a devoted mother and grandmother, Maggie plans her life and legacy for the seventh generation, seeking tribal relations for life enrichment through traditional knowledge. I love world travel, drumming, creating art, photography, architecture, astronomy, archeology, history, fitness and exploring humanity.
Zachary (Zac) Mallon
Executive Director NBWC
Zac has been the Director of the Nehalem Bay Watershed Council since October of 2018. Formerly an Ecologist at the Adopt a Stream Foundation, Zac brings over a decade of experience with invasive plant management, Salmonid surveys, and habitat restoration to the Council. He holds a Masters of Environmental Horticulture from the University of Washington, Seattle. There he managed wetland mitigation in Yesler Swamp, wrote his thesis on management of Arum italicum, and focused on habitat restoration project management in his coursework. He’s also worked with the Northwest Watershed Institute, WDFW, ODFW, Alaskan Observers, and the North Coast Watershed Association. With the LNWC he manages fish passage projects, in-stream habitat enhancement, riparian plantings, strategic planning, collaborations, and keeping the wheels on this non-profit cart.
A transplant from Vermont, Zac enjoys botanizing around the Nehalem Basin, mushroom foraging, hiking, and canoeing all accompanied by his rescued Siberian Husky, Persephone. Not so secretly, he’s also a juggler and object manipulator who enjoys learning new tricks with props and then setting them on fire.
Our Partners
