Chattermarks

North Cascades Institute is pleased to announce Summer 2012 Applications are available online for high school students interested in the Cascades Climate Challenge or North Cascades Wild programs. Both programs are tuition-free and focus on leadership, community, stewardship, outdoor skills and connection to the natural world through wilderness experiences in North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

A CCC student takes a moment to appreciate the small wonders of the natural world while studying climate change.

Cascades Climate Challenge (CCC) students will spend three weeks camping, canoeing and backpacking while working alongside natural resource managers and Institute staff learning the science behind climate change and how students can effectively communicate ways to mitigate the effects of a changing global climate on human communities. Upon returning home, students design and implement a service-learning project in their community teaching others about ways we can address climate change. In November they will be encouraged to attend the Youth Leadership Conference in the North Cascades to share their experience with other youth. Applications for CCC are due March 30th.

NC Wild students on board the NPS Mule on Ross Lake.

North Cascades Wild features 8- and 12-day summer wilderness expeditions in North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Students canoe, camp, backpack and complete conservation service projects while developing leadership skills and learning about the local natural and cultural history of the North Cascades region. The program includes spring and fall monthly field trips for students from Skagit and Whatcom County, WA, a fall reunion and a Youth Leadership Conference at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center. Students currently in any grade in high school from WA and OR are eligible to apply. Applications for Skagit/Whatcom students are due February 16th while students from the rest of WA and OR are due March 30th. 

Applications are found on our website along with quotes, photos, blogs and video!!

North Cascades Wild Information and Application

Cascades Climate Challenge Information and Application

Youth Leadership Conference

Teachers – Stay tuned for news of a climate change teacher training opportunity this August with North Cascades Institute!

If you have any questions please feel free to call or email Aneka Singlaub (email: aneka_singlaub@ncascades.org; 360-854-2595) regarding Cascades Climate Challenge, or contact Amy Brown, North Cascades Wild Program Coordinator, regarding North Cascades Wild (email: amy_brown@ncascades.org; 360-854-2582). Thank you.

Leading photo of NC Wild students after successfully summiting Desolation Peak in North Cascades National Park. All photos courtesy of North Cascades Institute.

Gerry Cook caps 44 years of service with the US National Park Service with a beautiful retirement party at Eagle Haven winery

Story by special guest Elisabeth Keating.

On a sparkling October evening at a winery in the foothills of the North Cascades, over 300 friends and family members gathered to celebrate Gerry Cook’s 44 years of service to North Cascades National Park and to wish him well in his future adventures. Gerry has served the park in many roles since 1967, working initially as a ranger and a fire lookout in 1970 at Desolation Peak, 1971 at Sourdough, and 1972 at Copper.

And as a designer, Gerry’s buildings and shelters grace many campgrounds and gathering places throughout the Park, including the viewing platform and Goat Shelter at the Visitor Center, shelters at the Environmental Learning Center trails, the Hozomeen Shelter at the north end of Ross Lake, and many accessible campsites. He’s currently designing and building the Park’s West Portal Entrance, a beautiful and unique sculpture that will be completed in the spring of 2012 and will evoke the mountains, rocks, water and glaciers that set the North Cascades apart from other wild regions of the country.

I recently asked Gerry which creation was his favorite. “Of all my design projects, I enjoy the Rock Shelter at the North Cascades Visitor Center in Newhalem the most as it feels the most creative. The “West Entrance Portal” has been fun and different.” The Rock Shelter is also where Gerry and his wife Hannah were married.

Climate Challenge students explore Native American history at Gerry’s Rock Shelter. Photo by Elisabeth Keating.

The Hozomeen Shelter is another beautiful creation of Gerry’s. Photo by Elisabeth Keating.

» Continue reading Rock On, Gerry!

Sunday August 21^st was the last Mule trip for the 2011 season of North Cascades Wild. The Mule was buzzing with the noise of old and new friends swapping stories and sharing laughs. This day was especially significant because it was also Captain Gerry Cook’s last official day on the Mule with summer youth. Ending the season in style, Gerry was accompanied by his beautiful ladies: wife Hannah and daughter Kerri.

“Another day of  a lifetime” – Hannah Cook

A fulfilling career spanning over four decades, Gerry Cook has enriched the lives of many; including Tasha Lexin, host for the day and a lead instructor for North Cascades Institute.

Emotions ran high as Tasha eloquently announced Gerry’s retirement. “You are a light and have touched so many hearts and I don’t have words to express how much you mean to the park, this program and our community.”

Gerry has worked with Tasha and many other NCI staff for several years and asserted how inspirational they have been in his life as well.

Students discussing job opportunities with rangers Sarah Faubion and Kerri Cook.

One of the highlights of riding on the Mule with Gerry is getting to hear some of his experiences during his 44-year career with the National Park Service. The classics involve mishaps with transporting bears, removing pack animals that die in the backcountry, and the fascinating individuals that you meet manning the fire lookouts. What tops it all for Gerry, is the education that takes place on the Mule with summer youth participants.

“I truly believe that these kids will be stewards of this planet for the rest of their lives. Once you take a turn down that path, you cannot turn back,” says Gerry. Hannah and Gerry later described it is a “path of service and path of knowledge.”

The Cooks have shared some amazing and unique experiences together on Ross Lake.

Although it was his last official Mule trip with summer youth, Gerry has a hard time grasping not working in this capacity. “Everyone of these students are smart, motivated, great young people,” he remarked. “They are changing the face of the park… this work has too much meaning to me and I think we’re on the brink of bigger things.”

We’ll just have to wait and see what is next for Gerry in his path of service and knowledge.

» Continue reading Captain Gerry Cook’s message of hope

Sixteen high school students hailing from Oregon and Washington arrived in the North Cascades on June 26th to begin an unforgettable adventure. These young leaders came to participate in the third year of Cascades Climate Challenge, one of North Cascades Institute’s youth programs. The youth started off by splitting into two groups to go on 12-day backpacking and canoeing trips on and around Ross Lake. For many, this was the longest time away from home, the first time paddling a canoe, and the most physically challenging experience they have had.

CCC2 stands on a bridge over rushing Lightning Creek

CCC1 canoers “raft up” in the mouth of Devil’s Creek

Students learned many new skills each day, in addition to lessons about climate change, invasive species, presenting and naturalizing. Everyone took turns cooking meals, cleaning up following Leave No Trace guidelines, building fires, and leading the group. Spending so much time in North Cascades National Park (NCNP) provided a great opportunity for hands-on service work, and a chance for the students to give back to the park they were learning and living in. Mike Brondi, volunteer coordinator for NCNP, met up with both groups to teach them about invasive reed canary grass, which the students pulled in order to promote native grass growth. They also planted native seeds to restore the banks of Dry Creek and cleared the trail between Hozomeen and Willow Lakes.

Members of CCC1 manage to fit six people in a bear box

Students took turns cleaning up after each meal

Each group’s 12-day trip included waking up at 5am one morning to climb up Desolation Peak, gaining breathtaking views of snow and glacier-capped mountains, at the expense of one thousand vertical feet per mile. Youth who had been strangers on the first day supported each other like family, encouraging one another to the top of the mountain. This was just one of innumerable moments of awe and inspiration on the trips: listening to eerie loon calls at Hozomeen Lake, paddling silently to the mouth of Devil’s Creek, or holding 20,000 year old pieces of wood flattened by glaciers, preserved in clay next to the Skagit River.

Canoes float below Desolation Peak, about to paddle their hikers to the Desolation trailhead

CCC2 poses in triumph, with Jack Mountain and Ross Lake as a backdrop

After the two smaller groups completed their “backcountry” trips, they reunited at the Learning Center for the luxuries of “front country” camping, and ten days of focusing more intently on the science of climate change and its impacts on the North Cascades. Students met with specialists like NCNP geologist, Jon Riedel, to learn how climate change is affecting the park’s glaciers, Gina DiCiccio, NCNP climate change intern, and Katie Fleming from the Cool School Challenge. Their lessons allowed students to explore a variety of ecosystems, including Baker Lake, Baker River, Thunder Knob, Rainy Lake and Diablo Dam powerhouse.

By the end of the trip, students were experts at tent construction

Students hiked the still-snowy trail to breathtaking Rainy Lake for lessons about glacial landforms

After some rainy nights camping at Newhalem campground, resulting in the overnight formation of tent lakes, the group returned to the Learning Center for their culminating project: putting together an hour-long presentation and lessons on their experience, what they learned and how the students will be applying their new knowledge when they return home. The students shared this with the Kinship Conservation Fellows, a group of eighteen international leaders who are actively working to integrate a practice of conservation and environmental awareness into business. The students in turn got to learn about some of the kinds of jobs they could pursue to help preserve the environment they are so passionate about.

A student snorkels in Ross Lake, looking for small red-sided shiner fish

Twenty-two days after these sixteen students first came to the Cascades, they had to find a way to say goodbye to both a place and a community that had become a home and a family. As instructors, we hope that the students left with as much inspiration and confidence as they gave us. Getting to teach, lead, and mentor such exceptional young adults is a privilege. Spending three full weeks 24/7 watching these youth grow individually and as a group is a process that, while exhausting, is simultaneously one of the most rewarding experiences an educator can have. These bright-eyed and enthusiastic youth remind me of myself at a younger age, which gives me hope that they will continue becoming leaders that will not settle for “business as usual” and a planet that cannot support the systems and amazing organisms we cherish. NCNP maintenance foreman Gerry Cook shared the following words with the members of Cascades Climate Challenge, which they have all taken to heart: “I cannot change the world, but I can change the world around me. And if we change the world around us, we will change the world.”

Mountain School is not yet over but the summer youth program team is already pulling big shifts and long hours in preparation for the arrival of the Cascade Climate Challenge and North Cascades Wild students. Countless calories must be packed and cached, payloads of gear have to be inventoried, cleaned and organized and mounds of student information needs to be reviewed and entered into spreadsheets. We assembled a few photos shot during the week to give folks a behind-the-scenes look into summer youth programs.

Ian, Amy and Kevin review equipment options.

(12 x 10 x 8) + (2 x 20 x 4) = ??? Tasha evaluates the food-packing progress.

Ian and Scott inventory and grade the condition of the equipment.

Amy outlines the structures and goals of the two summer youth programs in a presentation to new staff.

Still smiling, Kate prepares a bucket to be cached at the Ross Lake Resort.

Ian lays out the objectives of an instructor skills session.

One of the many spreadsheets and organizational charts we create and use.

102, 103, 104… Program T-shirts are inventoried.

Still packing food. Clint orders Codi to quit dancing and get back to work. Fortunately, she is ignoring him.

Stewardship and friendship were at the heart of the efforts during the third North Cascades Wild spring day trip in May. More than a dozen participants from Whatcom and Skagit counties came together at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center as a final chance to meet with their peers before we set out together in the wilderness this summer.

Some program participants met earlier this spring to volunteer a day of service at North Cascades National Park’s native plant nursery and also attended the Migratory Shorebird Festival at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. This day’s trip was set aside for NC Wild participants and staff to volunteer during North Cascades Institute’s annual Stewardship Weekend, an event bringing volunteers of all ages together to assist in plant restoration efforts on Learning Center grounds. It was also a chance for NC Wild youth to familiarize themselves with both canoe and paddle, as it will serve as a mode of transportation for the program.

This summer these students, as well as others from Northwest Washington, will embark on 12-day backpacking and canoe wilderness expeditions in North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. During these trips participants will focus on leadership development, community building, sense of place and stewardship. Spring and fall day trips, such as this one, provide a chance for students to build community through service work.

» Continue reading Building Community Through Stewardship

It’s that time of the year when North Cascades Institute is gearing up for another year of exciting programs for youth and we’re actively recruiting students to be a part of North Cascades Wild, Cascades Climate Challenge and Mountain School in 2011. Please help us spread the word to parents and teachers about these amazing opportunities.

North Cascades Wild

Recruitment is underway for North Cascades Wild, our successful youth development and wilderness conservation program in partnership with North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. While the due date for Skagit and Whatcom students has passed, we’re currently recruiting 9th -11th grade students from Seattle, Tukwila and Lake Forest Park — applications are due April 15th.

North Cascades Wild is a tuition-free program for 9th-11th graders from Seattle, Lake Forest Park, and Skagit and Whatcom Counties. Established in 2006, the program features:

* 12-day summer canoe camping, hiking and conservation service trips in North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
* Spring and fall Saturday outdoor/service field trips (for Skagit and Whatcom County students)
* a fall Reunion, and
* the opportunity to attend a 3-day Youth Leadership Conference in November at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center

Students earn 30 community service hours after completion of post-program requirements while receiving training in leadership development, conservation service, community building and natural and cultural history. Students are eligible for job and internship opportunities on public lands after their participation in the program and can also build their Senior Culminating Project into their experience. The program is intended to be a gateway program for students, to turn them on to stewardship, leadership and community building and while developing their sense of place through the study of natural and cultural history.

For an application, please contact Amy Brown, North Cascades Wild Program Coordinator, at 360-854-2582 or
abrown@ncascades.org.

Cascades Climate Challenge

Know a high school student interested in the environment and science? Tell them about Cascades Climate Challenge!

Cascades Climate Challenge is a tuition-free program dedicated to turning today’s youth into climate change leaders for communities in the Pacific Northwest. North Cascades Institute conducts the program in partnership with North Cascades National Park and the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

Students meet in North Cascades National Park and spends three weeks in the North Cascades during either the July or August session, where they study climate change science in the field and develop their presentation skills. Hiking to glaciers, interviewing scientists and resource mangers, and participating in service projects with park personnel all allow the students to connect with the park and see the effects of climate change up close. In the final part of their summer experience, students create and teach lessons to an outside audience in preparation for their fall service projects.

Each year, 40 high school students from Oregon and Washington are selected on the basis of teacher recommendations, service and leadership experience, an essay application and a personal interview. Students from a wide range of communities and backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Applications, more information, photos and a cool video are all online at www.ncascades.org/programs/youth/climate_challenge/. You can also keep up with the latest news by “Liking” Cascades Climate Challenge on Facebook. For more details or questions, contact us at nci@ncascades.org.

Mountain School

Learn in the mountains this year! Mountain School, our award-winning environmental education program for elementary, middle and high school students and teachers based at the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center, has a few slots available in April and May. With blooming flowers and extended daylight hours, spring is a wonderful time to visit the Environmental Learning Center.

Looking ahead, we also have opportunities for classrooms in the fall.

For questions or to register, contact Aneka Singlaub, Youth Outreach Coordinator, at 360-854-2595 or aneka_singlaub@ncascades.org . For more information on the program, including a fun video, visit www.ncascades.org/school.

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Last but not least, check out our new Youth Leadership Conference video, featuring alumni from the aforementioned programs!

To explore your own backyards and expand your sense of place—this was the central goal of the 2010 North Cascades Wild’s (NC Wild) first fall day trip, held on Saturday, September 18th.

Sense of place. What is that? Ask any of this year’s students of NC Wild and they would be quick to tell you an answer. As one of the four core themes we emphasize in NC Wild, sense of place is embodied by a student’s increased awareness of and appreciation for the history—both through nature and culture—of a landscape. And the landscape of choice for September 18th’s day trip was that of Blue Lake and Dock Butte, in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

Easily bypassed for the more popular Mt. Baker National Recreation Area at Schreiber’s Meadows, tucked away among Pacific silver firs and Mountain hemlocks, Blue Lake and Dock Butte afford amazing access to subalpine flora and fauna, geology and hydrology, and astounding views of the North Cascades with only minimal effort.

(Title) Mt. Baker as viewed from the road ascending to the Blue Lake and Dock Butte trailhead (Above) Which way to chose? You can access both Blue Lake and Dock Butte from the same trailhead

» Continue reading NC Wild begins fall exploration

By Elisabeth Keating, guest blogger

How can you help kids retain their learning when you’re teaching something as complex as climate change?

These tips from park rangers Will George of Lewis & Clark National Park and Autumn Carlsen of North Cascades National Park can help convey climate change to children in a compelling and powerful way.

• Focus on telling stories, not bombarding kids with boring abstract statistics.
• Involve the kids with interactive exercises like movement, song, and quizzes. You might ask kindergarteners to paint recycling bins, for example.
• Use puppets and other props to teach abstract topics.
• Keep it local. Talk about how climate change will impact the world kids know. For example, kids in the Pacific Northwest understand salmon and watershed topics. Kids who live in mountains might relate better to stories about pika and bear habitat shrinking. City kids might relate to hotter summers and needing to use more air conditioning.
• Have fun and show how we all benefit from taking care of the planet. Taking care of the planet doesn’t have to be depressing or boring. Think, “Less stuff equals more fun!”
• Set measurable, clear goals and objects for what students will learn.
• Check in frequently with your audience to assess how you’re doing. For example, as we ate lunch, the rangers asked the students to close their eyes and answer a question with a thumbs up, thumbs down, or middle thumb sign: “Think about what we did this morning. How helpful was the map we looked at the morning in learning about the North Cascades”? There’s a universal display of enthusiastic upturned thumbs. “That’s a great, very quick assessment technique to use with little kids when you’re teaching” they explain. “Be sure to check in regularly and make sure they’re interested and staying with you.”

One more tip from a recent New York Times article, Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits, reveals new cognitive research that seems to prove that the brain retains knowledge best when the study environment is varied.

“The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time, the authors say, regardless of whether those perceptions are conscious. … Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding.

“What we think is happening here is that, when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting,” said Dr. Bjork, the senior author of the two-room experiment.”

If so, the Cascades Climate Challenge students should have no problem retaining the knowledge they’ve gained in the North Cascades. In the 2 days I spent with the students, our classrooms varied from the map diorama in the North Cascades Visitors Center to an auditorium where we watched an excerpt from a documentary, to an outside deck with a view of the Pickett Range, to a rocky riverbank to the inside of a tree to a cedar platform overlooking a 1400-year old ceremonial cave, to a campfire, to a humming Skagit River powerhouse. And that was one of the tamer weekends!

Elisabeth will be posting more stories from her time spent with the Cascades Climate Challenge over the coming days — stay tuned, and a big thanks to her for visiting us and writing about it in turn!

Top photo of Autumn by Rick Allen; bottom photo of Chip Jenkins and the Climate Challenge students by Benj Drummond.

By guest blogger Elisabeth Keating

“The coolest part was when we went snorkeling in Ross Lake, looking for fish. Remember how cold it was?”

“We met a Spanish forestry Ph.D. student on the boat on Ross Lake. She’s here to study how we manage our forests because in her country, the forests have been logged so much they barely have any trees left. She told us she couldn’t believe how huge and unspoiled our forests are!”

“My favorite day was when we learned all about bears and the effect of climate change on bear habitat. I didn’t know the bears we have here were endangered, I thought it was all about the polar bears.”

“I’ll never forget watching the meteor showers when we were lying on the dock last night!”

“Remember how we held hands and ran the final few yards up to Desolation Peak? I couldn’t believe we made it!”

It’s a beautiful Saturday morning in the North Cascades at the North Cascades National Park Visitors Center in Newhalem, WA. As I walk the trails, I’m regaled with tales of scientific discovery and high adventure by 19 very enthusiastic and bright high school students. Freshly back from 19 days of hiking to Mount Baker’s glaciers and summiting Desolation Peak, riding out thunderstorms on Cascade Pass and exploring the underwater world of Ross Lake, the students are full of stories and it’s all I can do to keep up. Best of all it’s not over yet: still to come are 2 final days of camping, planning school projects that will extend the students’ learning to elementary school students, brainstorming and rehearsing presentations. Tomorrow, we’ll get an inside look at Diablo Powerhouse to learn about hydro electric power—a renewable energy source that must be balanced with protecting salmon habitat.

On today’s agenda: learning about national parks and putting in some time to plan what projects the students will bring home to their schools in the fall. Last summer, I spent an incredible day exploring the glaciers of Mount Baker with the 2009 students, and I can’t wait to learn about what this year’s crop of Cascades Climate Challenge students has been up to.

At ten AM, we meet the two Park Service rangers who will be our guides for the day: Will George from Oregon’s Lewis and Clark National Historic Park, and Autumn Carlsen, from North Cascades National Park.

» Continue reading Student for a Day at North Cascades National Park Headquarters