I clearly remember my introduction to the mystery and power of stinging nettle. On a late summer day, I found myself, alongside my graduate cohort, at the …
Read More of Two Burning Houses: A Natural History of Stinging Nettle
Only the hardiest of souls venture to North Cascades Institute’s Environmental Learning Center on Diablo Lake, 2 hours east of Bellingham, in the winter. Highway 20 might …
Read More of Mountain School: Local students learn in the North Cascades
For the members of Cohort 14, everything is starting to come full circle. The Learning Center looks as it looked when we arrived last July: Pyramid’s faces …
Read More of The Trifecta: C14's Last Natural History Retreat
One of the pillars of North Cascade Institute and Western Washington University’s M.Ed. graduate program is a “sense of place.” This can be hard to define, but …
Read More of Uplift: Youth in Action for the Colorado Plateau
While the majority of our Mountain School sessions focus on the Ecosystems Exploration curriculum, geared towards fifth graders, the grads and naturalists at the Environmental Learning Center …
Read More of Cascade High School's Carnivore Curriculum
Time has a variable quality when you live in the mountains. Spring can descend on you with no warning, like it happened overnight, but a day can …
Read More of Passing the Paddle: Cohort 13 Graduation
One of the highlights of this my time in this graduate program so far (seven months!) has been our seasonal natural history retreats. In the fall, Cohort 14 …
Read More of Chasing Winter: A Natural History Retreat
by Rachel Gugich, M.Ed. Graduate Student “The point at which two or more things are connected, A feeling of understanding and ease of communication between two or …
Read More of Connections in the North Cascades
At the start of 2015, the themes of change and transformation are on my mind. It seems impossible not to think of these with so much attention …
Read More of The Story of Jumping Mouse
I remember my first introduction to the world of primitive skills – the day my employer and mentor first showed me how to make fire by friction.
Read More of Primitive Skils: A Lesson in Reconnection
