As a “solutions journalist,” Nhatt Nichols is committed to telling stories that focus on people making the world a better place — not merely complaining.

That ethic developed from her early years as an environmental activist protesting at the World Trade Organization in Seattle in 1999. She was in Cancun, Mexico, in 2003 when Lee Kyung-hae, president of the Federation of Farmers and Fishermen of Korea, committed suicide at a conference to protest job losses caused by globalization.

“It was a pivotal moment for me,” Nichols recalled.

Her latest venture is an exhibit at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum in Ilwaco. “Nhatt Nichols: The Willapa Oyster and Its Environs” opens Friday and runs to March 1, and will feature more than 30 large-format comic panels about oysters and Willapa Bay.

Among the issues highlighted include strategies the Shoalwater Bay Tribe and others are taking amid threats from ghost shrimp and invasive green crab. “I know there is a lot of controversy, but it is exciting to reflect this industry back to itself.”

She addresses land use trends, including ownership of tidelands. “The history of what we eat is the history of who we are,” she added.

The exhibit is the second of three environmental art projects. Others feature water rights issues in the Cuyama Valley north of Los Angeles and commodities farming on the prairies of eastern Colorado. “I am putting a lot of miles on an elderly station wagon,” she said.

Nichols is based in Port Townsend, Washington. She described herself as a “multi-disciplinary artist and poet, focusing on intersections between humans, animals and the environment.”

She has served as a writer-in-residence in the Seattle Public Schools and is the founder-editor of an online newspaper, the Jefferson County Beacon, launched six months ago.

She contributes nonfiction journalism comics to news outlets like Civil Eats, Modern Farmer, High Country News and The Daily Yonder. And she has published a graphic poetry book, “This Party of the Soft Things.”

Nichols was not an artist in her youth. Originally from Tonasket, Washington, she spent 10 years in England working as a bicycle messenger.

Delivering a package to a London art school, she saw a sign for sponsored drawing classes. That led to sketching the Royal Ballet at Buckingham Palace and meeting Camilla Parker Bowles, now Britain’s queen consort. “It was a wild time,” Nichols said. “Camilla liked my hat!”

Nichols will lead a gallery talk at 5 p.m. Friday, followed by the opening reception for the exhibition. She will also host a free workshop called “Documenting Our Stories: Graphic Journalism and Visual Storytelling,” 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, open to sixth-graders through adults.

‘“Nhatt Nichols: The Willapa Oyster and Its Environs’

An exhibit of comic panels at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum, 115 Lake St., Ilwaco, on display through March 1.

Gallery talk and opening reception, 5 p.m. Friday.

Regular museum hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; admission is free.

Free workshop, “Documenting Our Stories: Graphic Journalism and Visual Storytelling,” 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. To reserve a spot, call the museum at 360-642-3446.