On March 31, North Cascade Institute Graduate M.Ed. student Gina Roberti had the wonderful opportunity to attend a presentation by Roger Christofersen, biologist for North Cascades National Park, during the  Institute’s Spring Dinner. Roger was an engaging speaker, and since so much of the information he presented is relevant to the work we do as educators, Gina took careful notes and sent them to me, the Blog Editor, to share.

Through this post, we hope to relay some of the information we have learned about wildlife in the North Cascades Ecosystem. Happy Exploring!

Ecosystems are not only more complicated than we think,

they are more complicated than we can think.”

~ Frank Egler, 1927

For context, the North Cascades National Park Service Complex consists of two National Recreation Areas (Ross Lake NRA and Chelan NRA), and North Cascades National Park. Collectively this comprises approximately 683,000 acres of land, with 93% of that landscape designated as wilderness. The North Cascades Complex also hosts over 200 species of birds and 75 species of mammals. So why is there such a wide variety of life within the North Cascades compared to other national parks?  Read More from “Iconic Carnivores of the North Cascades”