Chattermarks

What is a summit experience?  For the 10th cohort of graduate students  in NCI’s residency program, the 9-day backpacking trip that culminated their first quarter of graduate school was a summit experience, both literally and figuratively.  This year the cohort split into two groups, with six students and one instructor with each group.  Team veg started on the East Bank Trail of Ross Lake, climbing Desolation Peak on their fourth day.  Team bourbon started on the west side of Ross Lake, hiking through old growth forests and over Big Beaver Pass.  On the 5th day, Gerry Cook of the National Park Service met us with the MULE to transport each team to the other side of the lake.  Team bourbon then hiked Desolation Peak and backpacked out along the East Bank Trail.  Unfortunately, an injury on team veg necessitated an evacuation.  The team decided to stick together and continue learning about the North Cascades through front-country camping experiences in the Methow Valley.  While the two groups had very different experiences, all students finished their trips elated, exhausted and in desperate need of showers!  Here are reflections from each student about the experience….

» Continue reading Summer’s summit

It’s hard to believe but almost one year has gone by since I started my residency as a graduate student at the North Cascades Institute. Through a partnership with Western Washington University, NCI affords students the opportunity to live, learn, teach, and work in the North Cascades while working towards a Master’s in Education. As part of our professional residency we are required to design an event at the institute to learn the programming side this line of work. Being an environmentalist and somewhat of a movie nut, I had just the idea, we would hold an environmental film festival.

Several years back I attended the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. Having no idea of what to expect I went with the hope of seeing some great films. What I left with was a revamped sense of duty and motivation to explore, protect, and do whatever I could to help my community. I believe this is called a movie-high. Endorphins are released by the excitation of some body part and immediately react on the brain stimulating a sense of joy and wonder and oftentimes…invincibility.

Yes, I felt invincible. Watching environmental films made me feel like I could do anything. Laugh if you will, but is it really that hard to believe? Think about it, you’ve felt this too when rolling into camp after a long day of hiking, the high you feel after a long run, for some of you the smile plastered to your face after church can even be attributed to endorphins. And if you try really hard, I bet you can remember leaving a really great movie reciting funny scenes, or reenacting certain moments cloaked in a shroud of happiness. These are endorphins my friend.

Louie's Pond from my dock in Michigan.

Well, this is how I felt and driving home I couldn’t help to think of all the change, and good I was going to do. When I woke up the next morning I drank my coffee outside looking at the pond in the backyard and decided to pick up trash from the road. Later on in the day I even built a table from scrap wood that was laying around…I’m not sure what the table has to do with anything, but it felt good to work with my hands. I spent the next several days combing the internet, looking for local farmers and environmental organizations searching for ways I could help or volunteer. I was plugging myself into the community.

Artist rendition of the table I crafted from scrap wood.

The one nag I had with the festivals I have attended in the past was that I did not feel they did enough to plug me in with the environmental organizations and efforts in my area. Most of this work I did on my own when I got home. For this year’s Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival we have created an itinerary that is meant to enhance each of the evenings films and provide avenues for participants to direct their “movie-high” attention, should they feel so inclined. In addition to offering hikes, and farm tours, we have also invited several prominent organizations to present from the surrounding area. The Methow Conservancy, Friends of the Forest, The North Cascades Conservation Council, the Nature Conservancy and the North Cascades National Park will all be in attendance to clue us into what they are doing in our communities and what we can do to help.

In retrospect, I found that the best part of the Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival wasn’t the films, or beer, or food, it was my response to the event that truly delighted me, the change I saw in myself. Which, I suppose was the idea all along.

We were very excited to have Cliff Mass as one of our instructors for the 2010 Northwest Naturalists Retreat, and then thrilled when he posted a piece about the weather in the Learning Center’s neighborhood on his popular blog:

A green-blue mountain lake with towering mountains, snowfields and glaciers, as well as a fascinating meteorology–the is what I found during a pleasant stay this weekend at the North Cascade Institute this weekend, where I was one of the instructors for their Naturalist Weekend Retreat. The location of this beautiful facility is on Diablo Lake (see maps below), behind Seattle City Light’s Diablo Dam. A very pleasant place to take environmentally oriented classes or to use as a base for exploring the North Cascades.

The lake has a green-bluish tinge due to the very fine particles produced by the surrounding glaciers (glacial flour). Why greenish blue? Why is the sky blue? A similar reason–what is known as Rayleigh scattering of visible light. Very fine particles scatter short wavelengths (like blue or green) far more than longer wavelengths (like red or yellow). Thus the shorter wavelengths are scattered back to your eye producing the bluish or greenish tint.

Some of the most exceptional meteorological features of this location are the diurnal (daily) winds. Nearly every day in summer the winds pick up on the lake around noon, with the flow accelerating up to 12-25 mph, often producing whitecaps. The wind is from the west, flowing directly up the Skagit  River valley (see map above). During my stay I noted a strong correlation between this westerly wind and the pressure difference across the Cascades; when eastern Washington pressure fell relative to the west, the winds accelerated. Thus, the winds appeared to be gap winds, which are roughly proportional to the pressure difference across the gap. The interesting thing for me, is although the gap is very clear to the west (the Skagit River Valley), to the immediate east there is considerable blocking terrain until one gets to Mazama. But clearly the air rushing up the Skagit is going somewhere as it pushes to the east. Since the pressure difference increases during the day (eastern Washington heats up, air there becomes less dense, and thus the pressure falls), the wind strengthened late morning into the afternoon.

Read more at http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2010/08/diablo-winds-in-north-cascades-and.html

Every North Cascades Wild trip is special, from the deep bonds formed in new communities of friends to the service projects to students’ self-discovery and leadership development to views of glacier-capped mountains seen from sweatily climbed mountain peaks to learning how to canoe to the close connections students feel to public lands by the end of their adventure.

But North Cascades Wild Trip 3 was something completely new and different. After completing twenty successful North Cascades Wild trips in the Ross Lake area of North Cascades National Park, Trip 3 ventured out July 19th through 30th for twelve days of canoe camping, backpacking and service projects in a new location for us in Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

What was so special about our North Cascades Wild trip on Baker Lake and in the Mount Baker NRA? Here are some of our favorite moments:

» Continue reading Getting Wild with the US Forest Service

It’s hard to imagine a more inspiring place than the blooming, alpine meadows of the North Cascades to take a wildflower photography class, or a better instructor than Mark Turner, co-author of the Wildflowers of the Pacific Northwest handbook.

On July 19-21^st with 15 photographers under his wing Mark embarked on a 3-day wildflower photography workshop. On day 1 we did class work (ie: learning your camera and some tips and techniques) and on days 2-3 we undertook amazing hikes and field excursions to implement what we learned.

» Continue reading Wildflower photography with Mark Turner

Northwest Cheapsleeps, the popular blog about “favorite places for budget travelers,” recently visited the Learning Center for our Base Camp program. Here is a report on their family-friendly experiences:

The North Cascades Institute has long been the premiere environmental education outfit in the Pacific Northwest, but I’d never before taken a class with them. Earlier this summer, as I was scanning their beautiful catalog and lusting over courses on landscape watercolor and mountain photography, I stumbled upon a new offering called Base Camp. Billed as flexible, affordable, enriching and fun, this fledgling program appealed to me immediately as an accessible, low-stress way for families to experience the outdoors. We could stay a few nights at the gorgeous NCI Learning Center on Lake Diablo, all meals included, and dabble in guided learning adventures offered three times a day, from hiking to canoeing to arts and crafts.

By the time our two-night stay arrived, I was eager for space from the city and quality time in nature. I also couldn’t wait to take a break from planning and making meals for a family of three! We arrived at the NCI Learning Center with just enough time to stash our stuff in our room before the orientation tour. Katie, a recent college grad and Kentucky transplant to the Northwest, showed us around the center, on the shores of Diablo Lake and surrounded by the North Cascades National Park complex. I was amazed at the comfy-looking library stocked to the ceiling with field guides and nature poetry. Brian was impressed with the comprehensive compost system outside the dining hall. Isaac helpfully pointed out the fire pits and sword ferns. Katie gave us the rundown on meal times, showed us the trailheads to the four or five trails that depart from the center, and invited us to join other base campers around the campfire after dinner for local native storytelling. I suddenly felt like I was at camp, a really nice camp.

Read the entire story at http://nwcheapsleeps.org/2010/08/06/north-cascades-institutes-base-camp/

Does Justin go around mumbling about amphibians? Brandi about mycorrhizal fungi? Martine about the medicinal uses of Oregon grape?

Natural history projects are the last big curricular piece of the residency portion of the graduate program. I wonder how Cohort 9’s projects may be pervading their everyday life, since I know my research has seeped into mine. This is clearly shown in the following:

While cleaning the fridge last week I caught myself exclaiming “Ugh – catastrophic!” after opening a container that had clearly been inside too long. Even though the growth upon the leftovers had taken place in a uniformitarian fashion, the visual and nasal effect of this growth was clearly catastrophic on my senses.

You see, my natural history project has been on the geologic doctrines of catastrophism and uniformitarianism. The development of geology as a discipline is greatly comprised of these contrary fields of thought. Both are based upon observations of phenomena in the natural world and are   interpretations of those observations. Catastrophism is based upon sudden and often violent change; uniformitarianism is based upon change as a slow and gradual process.

The two creeks that bookend the Environmental Learning Center campus are wonderful examples of each of these two doctrines.

Sourdough Creek, fed by snowmelt, undergoes a wide array of flow through the year, ranging from being bone dry in late August to potentially torrential spring floods. Notice the lack of moss growth on the boulders and the boulders themselves as evidence of voluminous and rapid flow – smaller substrate particles have been flushed away.  Even the “Texas dip” bridge crossing the creek is proof of the creek’s potential for change.

» Continue reading Changes, rapid and slow, at the Learning Center

August is here and so is the second session of Cascades Climate Challenge!

As summer temperatures begin in earnest, the intrepid second session students have arrived and are getting set to head out into the field. After meeting at Seatac airport, we spent our first few days getting to know each other and our surroundings.

» Continue reading Starting Out Hot!!

Summer has finally arrived at the Environmental Learning Center! Diablo Lake has regained its characteristic green color, peregrine falcon fledglings are learning to hunt near the dam, a new fawn is sporting spots around campus, and the tenth cohort of graduate students have begun their academic journey.

Cohort 10 at Diablo Lake.  Field journaling with Libby Mills (above).

Cohort 10 began classes in Bellingham on June 22nd. The eleven students who are enrolled in the graduate program come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from education to environmental science to multi-media studies. Their summer coursework consists of three classes: Introduction to Place-Based Education, Resource Issues in the North Cascades, and Cultural History in the North Cascades. These courses are interwoven into a series of field excursions in the region, supplemented by readings, projects, and discussions in classes at Western Washington University.

Students learn about mycorrhizae from Brandi Stewart, cohort 9

» Continue reading Welcome graduate cohort 10!

Oh, to be young and wild and free. That common saying, which most of us recognize, is wholly applicable to the wilderness of the North Cascades and of the youth adventures carried out by the first two trips of this summer’s North Cascades Wild program.

After spending 12 days exploring North Cascades National Park (NOCA) by boat and boot, through canoeing and backpacking, 17 students and six instructors, each divided into two trips, had quite the journey to recount.

(Title) Canoeing is a core component of the youth program North Cascades Wild (Above) Trip 1 dressed to impress at Ross Lake Resort

Trip 2 goes wild for NC Wild at Ross Lake Resort

» Continue reading Young, WILD and free