December 2018 Photo Round-Up!

Greetings and welcome to 2019! Hopefully the new year has found each of you in good spirits and excited to tackle all the challenges and adventures that await you in the months ahead. It’s now early January in the North Cascades and snow has been falling at the Environmental Learning Center, giving our world a fresh winter glow, and lifting our spirits as we move through the dark and dreary days that usually accompany this season in Western Washington.

For many, winter is a time to retreat indoors with a warm drink and a good book, binge-watch Netflix, and wait until the cold, wet weather gives way to longer days and warm sunshine. But winter can also be a special time of year for those who choose to embrace the cold, layer up, and experience all of the beauty this season brings to the Pacific Northwest. Many of the staff and graduate students at the North Cascades Institute got out in the cold rain and snow last month, and we’ve got plenty of adventures to share in our December Photo Round-Up!

December kicked off on a high note with the successful release of fishers in the North Cascades! The graduate students from the North Cascades Institute’s Graduate M.Ed program were among the lucky few who got to witness the historic event first-hand.

You can read more about this important event in last week’s article here.

When they weren’t hanging out with the fishers, the graduate cohort was engaged in an intensive, 3-week Foundations of Environmental Education course that had them exploring the different ways in which they might teach the subject in preparation for their Mountain School practicum in the Spring.

December also saw the arrival of our season’s first snow at the Environmental Learning Center, which was a welcome sight for all of us who had been waiting for the grey skies to turn our world white.

Fortunately for everyone, late December offers most of us some much needed vacation time to rest and take a break from work and studies. While most of the Institute’s staff and students took the winter break to travel, see family, or relax indoors, a few used it as an opportunity to embrace the cold weather and explore our beautiful backyard on boats and skis!

Finally, I like to end every Photo Round-up with a few shots of Mother Nature doing her thing. Hopefully it will inspire you all to venture out and get a taste of this magical time of year while it lasts! See you in mountains soon!

For more North Cascade Institute photos, be sure to check out our Flickr page.

Thanks for viewing, and stay tuned for our January round-up coming next month! If you have any great pictures you’d like to see in an upcoming photo round-up, please email them to me! matt_ferrell@ncascades.org