Fern Ridge Shores is nestled at the end of Jeans Road in a beautiful, quiet spot at the end of a peninsula, and is surrounded by Fern Ridge Lake and in between several county parks and a wildlife reserve. Less than 3 miles down the country road is the historic town of Veneta, established in 1912 by Edmund Eugene Hunter, who named the settlement after his five-year-old daughter. Just across Territorial Highway there's a convenient shopping center with Ray's Grocery store, ACE Hardware, Banner Bank, O'Reilly Auto Parts, several restaurants and a Bimart department store and pharmacy. The town boasts a beautiful city park with a large outdoor, public swimming pool, which is open to swimmers during the summer months.

Located just 12 miles west of the city of Eugene, Oregon, Fern Ridge Lake is a popular recreation area for sailing, fishing, power boating and water skiing. Sailboat owners and sail boarders love the lake because of the consistent winds. Six park sites locally and several remote access points around the lake offer a variety of day use recreation opportunities such as picnicking, swimming, fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing. The area includes extensive wetlands and provides unique habitat for a variety of wildlife and wintering waterfowl populations.

In the warmer months, highs are typically in the 80's at Fern Ridge Shores, perfect for water sports or just relaxing by the lake. Overnight summer temperatures typically dip down into the 50's for very comfortable sleeping. During the wintertime highs are usually in the 40's with winter lows in the 30's overnight. The area gets a normal amount of rain, most of it occurring from November to March. The many local attractions and variety of outdoor recreation will entice you to visit many times!

Fish in the lake consist of crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass, and cutthroat trout. The lake is drained in winter to allow for flood control, but the resulting marsh (and wildlife refuge) hosts tree frogs, newts, ospreys, rare purple martins (in spring), black-tailed deer, red foxes, beavers, muskrats, minks, pond turtles, and great blue herons. There are 250 bird species to be observed including tundra swans, northern harriers, Canadian geese, mergansers, and peregrine falcons. Perhaps the most eye-catching are the egrets because of their white plumage and large size.