Gorging the Senses on Gorge Lake
Though I moved to the Environmental Learning Center last August, I had visited many times before during my first summer while living in Bellingham as a graduate …
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Life at the Learning Center
The Snow and The Shining
A small avalanche across Highway 20 just east of Newhalem at milepost 121 had residents of the Environmental Learning Center stuck at home Monday morning through Thursday …
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Hooked!: Saying Farewell to Our New Friend Tele Aadsen
Crewing on a commercial fishing boat during prime salmon season isn’t exactly conducive to writing a memoir. “No writing happens on the boat except on my arm,” …
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Holy Gaia! I've Been Saved!: The Nature of Education and Vice Versa
There’s a t-shirt that proclaims, “SAVE THE HUMANS.” It’s usually accompanied by an image of a cartoon whale, or maybe a panda bear. Have you seen it? …
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Make a Love Connection: Biophilia in the North Cascades
Five pairs of fifth graders are scattered on the Buster Brown Trail. In each pair, one is blindfolded with a colorful bandana, being carefully – the teacher …
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Fresh Tracks of the Sun Chaser
The glow begins as it would, blanching the sky to make invisible the cosmos. Black becomes cornflower and a fiery fuchsia lights the very highest tips of …
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A-Hunting for the Details
Today I went on a hike looking for wildflowers. I failed, miserably. But this was accounted for in the strategic plan, a given before I’d even cinched …
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Late Morning, Rainy, Wabi-Sabi Writing
How often are you given the task to slowly, silently develop your awareness of beauty? Even more rare, perhaps, to be mindful of this tempting trait as …
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Sensory Awareness: The Gateway to Environmental Empathy
Guest post by Katherine Storrs Nothing beats the moments when you witness a student make connections between the environmental education lessons taught here at the North Cascades …
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A Writer’s Residency: Like Fishing?
Guest Post by Tele Aadsen Six weeks into my time with the North Cascades Institute, I’m thinking that a residency is something like a fishing season. As …
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