Chattermarks

The celebration of my 28^th year happened over the second half of the Instructor Exchange last weekend. For those unfamiliar, Instructor Exchange is a fun-filled, long weekend with our fellow environmental education instructors from Wilderness Awareness School (WAS) and Islandwood. We hosted the first half of the Exchange in January and now it was our turn to visit them.

The Exchange stated with a sunny and beautiful early morning drive. When we arrived at WAS we were greeted by a gang of smiling instructors who seemed happy for the company. Wilderness Awareness School is a woodland community of environmental instructors who focus on community building, survival skills, awareness, education, appreciation of nature and are, by far, the most skilled naturalists of us all.

To start things off, we commenced in Malalo Yu Chui – The Lair of the Leopard – for a ceremonial fire and story telling. After hearing the yarn of the school’s founders, we were given our nature names.  I am now known as Destroying Angel in some circles of friends. We departed Malalo to a trickster transformer series of lessons demonstrating diverse teaching styles on fire making, bird talk, tracking, and animal signs.  The highlight of the first evening was a wild and locally-inspired pasta dinner, which included salmon and a pasta sauce made of dandelions and stinging nettles.

(Title) All instructors participate in a bow drill exercise, Photo by Martine Mariott  (Above) Introductions were held at Malalo Yu Chui at Wilderness Awareness School, Photo by Erin Fowler

» Continue reading Our visit to Wilderness Awareness School and Islandwood

A flit of gold. A flicker of green. Soft song notes from within a tangle of blackberry vines. A surprising whoosh of hovering wing-sweeps, mere inches above ground.

Birds. They are some of the Skagit Valley’s most compelling and charismatic creatures. In winter, the Skagit farmlands teem with all kinds – song birds, raptors, shorebirds, local and migratory waterfowl. You need not have fancy equipment nor years of experience to be a birder here. What it takes is the curiosity to know more and the patience to practice deep observation.

(Title) Graduate students of Cohort 9 extend their birding eye on the Skagit flats (Above) The Hayton Reserve is one Skagit Valley location to go bird watching

» Continue reading Becoming bird observers

My dreams within Environmental Education are like that of the Skagit River’s watercourse.

From its headwaters, my dream begins in the tiniest of raindrops, collecting in glaciers perhaps and trickling down to alpine streams. The dream builds to a river, solidifying as do the sturdier banks supporting the way of the water. Weaving out and around, the dream’s course is composed, at times, of rapids raging, then pooling in softer shallows. It exits the mountain peak domain to enter a gentler, more gradual flow—that of farmland and forest—though still bringing with it reminders of the lessons learned in higher places. The channel widens, as does my dream’s scope, the hint of salt in freshwaters. As river converges with ocean, a chorus commences. Ideas, like nutrients, swell. Life is rich, vibrant. Just as the Skagit River feeds the Salish Sea, so the sea replenishes the river.

» Continue reading From headwaters to sound

Along the Skagit River, the month of December marks the beginning of an incredible display of interaction among two of western Washington’s most prominent species – eagles and salmon.

The Skagit, whose headwaters begin near Hope, British Columbia, travel by the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, and end in the estuarine confluence of Skagit Bay southwest of Mt. Vernon, is the Puget Sound’s largest river and second in size only to the Columbia in Washington. All 5 Pacific salmon runs, including sockeye, chum, chinook, pink and coho, reach up along various locations of the Skagit.

With an especially high pink salmon run, an estimated 1.2 million salmon by Washington state fish biologists, along with a current chum spawning run, this season could make for some surprising eagle sights.

» Continue reading In the presence of eagles

The ninth cohort of graduate students at North Cascades Institute finished their first quarter of graduate school with a nine-day backpacking trip across the North Cascade mountain range.   Each student reflected upon one day of the trip to create this summary of their adventure.

» Continue reading Nine days with cohort 9

As a year of residential learning for one graduate cohort ends, another begins. For Cohort 8, it is hard to believe that it was a year ago that we started this journey. So much has happened and so much has been experienced, learned and mastered. For the new cohort, I’m sure it feels like a whirlwind of a start with classes, books, conversations and adventures like camping, hiking and canoeing.

» Continue reading A paddle down the Skagit

Who says graduate school has to involve sitting in classrooms listening to lectures?

The first two weeks of class for the ninth cohort of students in the M.Ed program at North Cascades Institute and Western Washington University have been anything but traditional. After a couple of days of orientation to the program, Cohort 9 headed into the field. Students observed bald eagles at Padilla Bay, took time to journal on top of Mount Erie, and poked around the mouth of the Skagit River before heading to Bay View State Park for a barbeque.

» Continue reading Poking Around

There are eight members of the current NCI graduate class.  There are eight members on a  Ski to Sea team.  It seemed meant to be.  We called ourselves Natures Calling.  The name has multiple meanings and origins.  As Mountain School instructors we carry the “Natures Calling Kit”, for those times on the trail when, well, nature’s calling.  Its a regular topic of discussion, because teaching 5th graders how to use the kit can be awkward and funny as well as educational.  The other origin, which may seem more obvious to some, is the fact that Nature is calling and asking all of us to get outside!

» Continue reading Natures Calling

Prys, draws, sculling, sweeps, posts and something called the Duffek, no these are not different ways to rid yourself of mosquitoes, they are just some of the 15 paddling strokes we learned to maneuver canoes safely and efficiently. Who knew there were so many?

» Continue reading Diablo Paddling Perfection

Reflect on everything you have experienced in the last two years. Now create an hour-long presentation about it. Your friends, family, colleagues, mentors, and peers will be the audience.

This was the assignment that cohort seven of the Institute’s master of
education program recently completed. Over the last two years, they explored the North Cascades, taught students of all ages about the region’s natural and cultural history, learned to create and run their own nonprofit business, and analyzed the theories and practices of education.

For those of you who couldn’t attend, here’s a short synopsis, accompanied by photos of the distinguished speakers.

» Continue reading Sum up your last two years