Chattermarks

Psychologist Warren G. Bennis once said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.” Sixty-three high school and college students and fourteen conservation organizations did just that November 11-13th for the second annual North Cascades Youth Leadership Conference. Brought together by common goals to improve their leadership skills, learn about future opportunities, and reconnect after their original conservation experiences, these dedicated individuals were the heart and soul of the weekend. Hosted by North Cascades Institute in partnership with North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, the second annual conference built upon last year’s success. As part of the planning committee, I came into this weekend excited for an energetic, life-altering experience with youth and adults like. I was not disappointed.

High School sophomores, juniors and seniors and college freshman from the Pacific Northwest converged in the heart of the North Cascades to reminisce, learn, and explore the beauty of this fall landscape. Most of the students had participated in North Cascades Wild, Cascade Climate Challenge, Student Conservation Association, Youth Conservation Corps, Mountain School, and other conservation-based programs.

The event was a success due to the hard work of our staff and partners. The North Cascades Institute, National Park Service, US Forest Service staff, Western Washington University graduate students and other partner organization representatives dedicated their time as small group leaders and mentors, lodge chaperones, Masters of Ceremony, breakout session leaders, and logistics coordinators.

» Continue reading Recounting the 2nd Annual Youth Leadership Conference

Hello friends of Mountain School! If you haven’t yet heard, we’ve started a new Mountain School Stewardship program in Bellingham. After a class has come to Mountain School, we meet them at a city park within walking distance of their school to do a service project. The students revisit what they learned at the Environmental Learning Center, explore the nature in their backyard, and learn about their role as stewards of the forest. So far, we’ve had trips with Whatcom Hills Waldorf and Lowell, both with great fall weather, a lot of hard work and lots of fun. Here is an update from our latest trip with Lowell.

First and foremost, I want to thank our grads, Kiira, Susan, Matt and Ashley for coming. They did an amazing job organizing the kids, keeping track of their groups, doling out little educational tidbits, and keeping the kids motivated while pulling blackberries and mulching. I think they deserve the “making blackberry removal fun” merit badge. Its a skill. Plus, they’re just plain cool. Thanks again you guys! We’ve also been working with Rae, the Volunteer Coordinator with Bellingham Parks and Recreation. She has invaluable tips of the trade, like how to doggy-dig mulch into a bucket and how to drive a pickup filled with blackberry vines with the equipment for 35 volunteers stacked on top. She’s amazing. Join us next time for when she saves the world!

» Continue reading Mountain School Stewardship

With the start of a new school year, autumn is often a time of new beginnings. For North Cascades Wild participants, the season is a chance to reconnect and continue building on experiences from the past summer.

From June through August, 50 high school students from Whatcom, Skagit and King counties spent 12 days canoeing, backpacking and completing stewardship work. In addition to outdoor skills and stewardship, participants acquired skills in leadership, community building and natural history. Trips were held in North Cascades National Park and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.

During the 12-day trips many challenges were overcome, accomplishments made and lasting friendships created. In order to prepare students for their experiences over the summer, spring day trips were held to introduce participants to the NC Wild program. Throughout this fall season, several weekend day trips occurred that provided NC Wilders opportunities to continue strengthening these recent experiences and re-engage with the NC Wild community and North Cascades landscape.

» Continue reading NC Wild: Fall Experiences Build on Summer’s Past

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.

Please join North Cascades Institute and REI as we present Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and co-founder of the Children & Nature Network, Thursday, May 12; 7 p.m. at Town Hall, Seattle and Friday, May 13; 7 p.m. at Sehome High School, Bellingham. Tickets available online or at the door; information at www.ncascades.org/events.

Co-sponsored by US Forest Service, Village Books, Sierra Club, ParentMap and the Bellingham Herald.

A Conversation with Richard Louv

Q: Why did you decide to follow up on the successful Last Child in the Woods?

A: Once in Seattle, while I was giving a talk, a woman said, “Listen to me, adults have nature-deficit disorder, too.” She was right. In Last Child in the Woods, I introduced that term, not as a medical diagnosis, but as a way to describe the growing gap between children and nature. By its broadest interpretation, nature-deficit disorder is an atrophied awareness, a diminished ability to find meaning in the life that surrounds us, whatever form it takes. This shrinkage of our lives has a direct impact on our physical, mental, and societal health.

Over the last few years, I’ve heard many adults speak with heartfelt emotion, even anger, not only about the deficit for children but about their own as well. The Nature Principle is not age-specific. It has a much broader scope and includes the latest research related to nature’s impact on human beings, as well as accounts of the personal discoveries of poets, artists, scientists and other thinkers.

What is the “Nature Principle?”

The Nature Principle holds that a reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival, and that the more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need. This book suggests how we can apply the principle to where we live, work, learn, and play, and asks, What would our lives be like if our days and nights were as immersed in nature as they are today in technology? And how can each of us help create that life-enhancing world, not only in a hypothetical future but right now for our families and for ourselves?

So, we all need to move to the country?

No. The Nature Principle can be applied in our cities, suburbs, homes, and workplaces. In 2008, for the first time in human history, more than half the world’s population lives in cities and towns. What that means is that if human beings are going to have a meaningful relationship with the natural world, that relationship will likely take place in urban areas, but this will require new kinds of cities and towns. There’s a growing urgency.

Why the urgency?

» Continue reading Richard Louv & the Nature Principle

Who would have dreamed that a national forest, a housing non-profit and an environmental education organization would team up to provide Seattle-based Asian and Pacific Islanders with meaningful outdoor experiences? Starting in 2001, the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, the North Cascades Institute and the International District Housing Alliance began a partnership that has expanded over the years to include intergenerational learning for elders, stewardship projects for youth and paid internships for youth. The partnership sparks a better understanding of the connection between the forest and urban environment, and provides mentoring and leadership opportunities.

The United States Forest Service recently awarded these partners with the 2011 Urban Communities in Conservation Award. The conservation award is part of the Forest Service’s Wings Across the Americas program, which works to conserve birds, bats, butterflies and dragonflies.

Each of the three partners plays a distinct role in the program. The first partner, the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the Puget Sound Region of Washington State, is the largest urban forest in Region Six of the Forest Service. The staff works directly with the program’s youth to get hands on experience in a natural setting, often their first time outside the urban environment. The second partner, the North Cascades Institute, is a non-profit organization focusing on education. The International District Housing Alliance, the third partner, is a non-profit organization located in Seattle’s International District…that has successfully worked to improve the quality of life for Asian and Pacific Islanders by providing community building and housing related services to low-income individuals and families.

Youth and elders from Seattle’s International District learn about old growth forests and tree ecology from Rockport State Park staff

» Continue reading Institute Receives USFS Conservation Award

Many hands make light work.

An old saying at the forefront of my mind throughout the first North Cascades Wild spring day trip. A dozen NC Wild participants, several North Cascades Institute instructors and national park staff came together for a day of stewardship work at the North Cascades National Park native plant nursery in Marblemount. In addition to providing some service to the nursery, the effort was also a chance get to know each other and begin building community among NC Wild participants and staff.

These students from Whatcom and Skagit counties, 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 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.

In the North Cascades, signs of spring are before us, as the dark, cold days of winter slowly transform into longer, warmer days, signaling the time to prepare the Park’s nursery for the busy growing seasons of spring and summer. This meant much work was needed to de-winterize the facility and promote healthy plant growth.

» Continue reading NC Wild Springs into Stewardship

Did you receive a letter recently from our executive director Saul Weisberg? Thanks to you, North Cascades Institute is reaching more young people — and affecting them more deeply — than ever before. Because of what they have learned, they are inspired, informed and ready to tackle the daunting environmental challenges we face today. We need your help to do this important work, and set kids off on a path toward leadership and the conservation of Northwest environments.

If you received Saul’s invitation to give, let us hear from you today. If not, just click here for an easy way to give online. Every donation, no matter the amount, helps us achieve our mission to conserve and restore Northwest environments.

Thank you for all that you do to protect this special place!