Two big announcements today regarding West Seattle-based nonprofit Nature Consortium, known for its forest-restoration work and melding of arts and nature, in education and other activities:

Executive director Merica Whitehall (WSB file photo at left) is leaving after a year and a half, departing in mid-May to become executive director of Fontenelle Forest in her home state, Nebraska.

There won’t be a search for a successor because of the other big news – Nature Consortium will become a project of Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association, the nonprofit that runs Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, where NC is based. According to DNDA’s David Bestock, NC will be “retaining its own branding and programs, but with operations and finances run through DNDA,” and that’s why it won’t have its own executive director any more.

Bestock adds, “All NC programs will continue as they are, as well as NC staff other than Merica, who was sought out and recruited by the organization she’s moving to in her home state of Nebraska. Willard Brown, DNDA’s Properties and Housing Director, who has been spearheading DNDA’s environmental justice programming in Delridge and partnering with NC, will become even more involved in supporting NC’s staff and programs. … We are still working out details for how this will look structurally, but it made lots of sense to everyone when Nature Consortium approached us with their proposal. Our missions have a ton of overlap in terms of social and environmental justice, preservation of local greenspace, etc. The staff and board of both orgs feel that together we can do more for our shared community by combining our resources to address the educational, health, and economic disparities that exist in Delridge.”

The official news release about all of the above is here.