Field Notes from the North Cascades / October 2024 eNewsletter
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Happy Fall! Summer is in the rearview mirror now—hopefully you've stored up plenty of good memories of being outdoors in nature from the sunny season—and it's full steam ahead into Autumn.
We love experiencing the changing colors of Fall (check out Juan Aguilera's Guide to Photographing Fall's Spectrum class in the national park Oct. 12!), watching for spawning salmon in the Skagit River's tributaries and poking around for mushrooms in the forest (lots of mushroom classes coming up too!).
October 2024
▸ AFFINITY WEEKEND, DOCTOBERFEST AND YLA ALUMNI REUNION
▸ NATURE OF WRITING SPEAKER SERIES IN BELLINGHAM AND SEATTLE
▸ SUPPORT SPOTLIGHT ON DAF FUNDS DAY
But our favorite sign of the season is seeing yellow school buses pull up to our Learning Center and the sounds of excited students learning and bonding in the woods—the Return of Mountain School is here!
We have lots of events down from the mountains too, with our Nature of Writing Speaker Series underway at Village Books in Bellingham and - for the first time ever! - Third Place Books in Seattle. We are also sponsoring two intriguing films about the natural world as part of the Pickford Film Center's Doctoberfest. Read on for details and we hope to see you at one of these exciting engagements!
HIRING AT THE LEARNING CENTER!
In addition to food service positions, we are also recruiting for a newly-designed Operations Director position! These are exciting opportunities for anyone interested in supporting environmental education in the North Cascades ecosystem. Learn about our location, values, housing options and current openings at ncascades.org/job.
Learning Opportunities
FIELD EXCURSIONS AND ONLINE CLASSES
Oct 12 | Fall Colors Photography with Juan G. Aguilera
Oct 20 | Befriending Fungi AM session / PM session with Evan Holmstrom
Oct 26 | Baker Lake Fungal Foray with Erin Moore
Nov 1-3 | Last Base Camp weekend of the year
Nov 2 | Mushrooms of Cascadia with Evan Holmstrom
Nov 13 | Science and Story: A Conversation with Betsy L. Howell - Online
Dec 7 | Skagit Valley Winter Birding with Libby Mills
Dec 8 | Snowy Cascades Watercolor Workshop with Claire Giordano - Online, new!
Military, student and disability discounts + scholarships are available for most programs.
SNOWY CASCADES WATERCOLOR WORKSHOP | Online, December 8In this class, Claire will share her favorite techniques for painting winter landscapes in the Pacific Northwest. After exploring some of the magical (and unpredictable) effects of watercolor, we will put our new skills into practice as we paint a winter scene with step-by-step guidance from Claire. The painting could make a great gift or card for the holidays! |
FALL MUSHROOMS | Field |
STAY & PLAY IN THE NORTH CASCADES
We have added two Fall Weekend Base Camps for Learning & Lodging at the Environmental Learning Center at reduced Shoulder Season pricing! Stay for 1 or 2 nights with lodging, delicious meals and guided outdoor activities in North Cascades National Park. Couples, families, friends and solo adventurers all welcome!
Fri-Sun, Oct 4-6 | A perfect time to come up to the mountains to witness the glorious golden forests of "larch madness" on the eastslope of the Cascades. Limited space left this weekend!
Fri-Sun, Nov 1-3 | A great time for mushrooming and fall colors over the final Base Camp weekend of the year.
Institute News
NATURE OF WRITING FALL SPEAKER SERIES: OCTOBER EVENTS
Calling all nature lovers and bibliophiles! Discover your next great read for the Fall & Winter months in presentations by authors, artists and naturalists sharing their new works during our Fall 2024 Nature of Writing speaker series, in partnership with Village Books in Bellingham and Third Place Books in Seattle. This season we will cast flies across rivers with Steve Duda, leap into the world of frogs with Tony Angell, glimpse the changing Arctic with Jon Waterman and more.
Hiking the Wonderland Trail by Tami Asars
Thursday, October 10 at 6 pm, Village Books
Frog Day With Tony Angell
Thursday, October 10 at 7 pm, Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park
Food Planet Future by Robert Dash
Sunday, October 20 at 3 pm, Village Books
SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT: |
YOUTH LEADERSHIP ALUMNI REUNION OCTOBER 12Were you a Youth Leadership Adventures student last year? Five years ago? Ten years ago? We’re hosting a YLA Alumni Day on October 12th from 2pm to 5:30pm at Bay View State Park. At this event, YLA alums and their families will get to reconnect with the program and each other. Come hang out with trip mates, meet other YLA alums and staff, enjoy a beach barbecue and spend time exploring the shore of the Salish Sea together! |
FRESH ON THE BLOG
There are several new posts up on our blog, including a trip report from Youth Leadership Adventures about how a bilingual group of students overcame language barriers to bond in the backcountry; a survey of storytelling traditions on the Skagit River from the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe to Jack Kerouac & Tom Robbins; and an inspiring look back at the many programs we hosted this summer at the Learning Center & beyond.
AFFINITY WEEKEND GRATITUDES
Last month, Outdoor Asian Washington, Latino Outdoors, and members of Outdoor Afro visited the Environmental Learning Center for our inaugural Affinity Weekend. This special Base Camp offered participants the chance to reflect, connect and explore this beautiful, shared landscape. We are grateful to all the participants, group leaders, staff and sponsors including Washington’s National Park Fund, Washington Trails Association, National Parks Conservation Association, Latino Outdoors, Outdoor Asian, Outdoor Asian Washington, The Wilderness Society, Seattle City Light and Seattle Parks Foundation who made this weekend possible.
DOCTOBERFEST IN B'HAM
The Institute is thrilled to co-sponsor two thought-provoking films as part the Pickford Film Center’s Doctober film festival. On October 4, join us to explore “A New Kind of Wilderness” — an honest, tender reflection on love, loss and growing up in harmony with nature. Then, on October 12, we’ll celebrate the world’s best-known grizzly bear with the Doctober premier of “399: Queen of the Tetons". Stick around for a Q&A on local grizzly bear issues following the film with Conservation Northwest's Joe Scott, North Cascades National Park's Jason Ransom and Sierra Club's Rick Eggerth!
GIVE THROUGH YOUR DONOR ADVISED FUND
Mark your calendars for the first-ever DAF Day on October 10th! DAF Day is a new day of charitable giving dedicated to supporting nonprofits through Donor Advised Funds (also known as DAFs). A DAF is an investment account similar to a 401(k) that allows individuals, families, and companies to effectively increase their charitable giving while receiving an immediate tax benefit. DAFs have surged in popularity in recent years because they provide one of the easiest and most tax-advantageous ways to give.
Top Image: All-Staff Day at the Learning Center, September 2024. Photo by Jason Ruvelson.
