Chattermarks

North Cascades National Park geologist Jon Riedel teaches students on a misty moraine ridge on the flanks of Mt. Baker

Elisabeth Keating, a freelance writer covering the Parks Climate Challenge, accompanied the students on their hike to a glacier on Mount Baker the second week of July 2009 and filed this report from the North Cascades.

On July 8, I arrived at the Horseshoe Cove campground at Baker Lake where the Parks Climate Challenge students were setting up camp and preparing for their glacier exploration. There are 19 high school students in this new program, each a young leader drawn from five urban areas around the country: Denver, Washington D.C., Seattle, Chicago and the Bay Area.

There are three phases to the Parks Climate Challenge: Phase 1 consists of 30 days in the North Cascades meeting with scientists, camping, exploring and learning. Phase 2 is a trip to Washington DC where students will meet with legislators and work on a service project on the Mall. For phase 3, the students will returnhome to create and lead an environmental project in their local communities. Possible projects could include planting trees, hosting a climate change day at their school or starting a recycling project at their school.

“We weren’t necessarily looking for students who are interested in careers in the environment,” explained Megan. “What’s most important is that they demonstrate leadership potential and that they return to their urban communities as ‘climate change ambassadors’ that the community will respond to.”

For most of these urban students, it’s been a process of many of “firsts”: first camping experiences, first time bathing in a stream, first time eating hummus, first time at a rodeo (the July 4th celebration in Sedro-Woolley!) and even the first time some had “s’mores.

Home Sweet Home: Setting up camp at Horseshoe Cove on Baker Lake

Everyone had fun putting up tents and cooking dinner, along with testing out the mosquito hats. “It’s not cool-looking,” one student noted, “but we don’t care as long as it gets the job done!”

Two Parks Climate Challenge students demo their “campfire style”—mosquito netting hats and sweats!

» Continue reading Parks Climate Challenge meets Mt. Baker’s glaciers

It’s been an exciting two weeks with the Parks Climate Challenge crew. After gathering everybody in Seattle, we took off for the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center to pack for our first camping trip.

This was just one of the many firsts we’ve celebrated on the trip so far: first camping trip, first s’mores,

Refining our s’more technique

» Continue reading The PCC Team is on the loose!

Ladies and gentlemen, meet your 2009 Parks Climate Challenge instructional team, Megan, Nick, Ian and Aneka!

What is the Parks Climate Challenge you ask? From our point of view it’s: one month, four instructors, twenty students, 620 student-days, and 1.8 million calories (Yes, we did the math.) After days of packing food, calling students, counting gear, discussing strategy, rehearsing logistics, preparing lessons and caching equipment, we are finally starting to feel almost ready to receive 20 kids from Washington D.C., Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago. The whole lot of us will spend the month of July traveling all over the North Cascades National Park learning about the National Park Service, climate change and the power of youth leadership.

Gear for twenty-four, or most of it.

The students will be arriving on Monday, so the four of us will spend the next two days buying last-minute items and putting the finishing touches on our lessons before taking one last day of well-deserved rest. Stay tuned for further dispatches!

A fine video from KCTS Channel 9 in Seattle featuring our Executive Director Saul Weisberg and some of our friends in the National Park Service. It is part of PBS’ campaign to highlight America’s National Parks in anticipation of the forthcoming Ken Burns series, “National Parks: America’s Best Ideas.”

What do you think of their representation of the North Cascades? What draws you back to these mountains?

We just received word that KCTS 9, the public television station based in Seattle, will be presenting a special report on the glaciers of the North Cascades and climate change issues on Friday, February 13 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, February 15 at 10:30 am. North Cascades Institute executive director (and former North Cascades climbing ranger) Saul Weisberg will be interviewed on the program, which is part of the “KCTS 9 Connects with Enrique Cerna” series, along with local National Parks Service scientists Jon Riedel and Bob Mierendorf.

» Continue reading North Cascades glaciers on KCTS