Connecting to the natural world was tough when I was younger. I was taught that understanding the natural world was the domain of a scientist, …
Read More of Submarine Parents: How Orcas use Social Strategy in Parenting
Driving east on Highway 20, in route to my first day of class at the North Cascades Institute, I remember being struck by the wide valley narrowing …
Read More of Life After Glaciation: Upper Skagit River Bull Trout
It was two in the afternoon on a Friday in July and I had just gotten off work. I stopped in town for a sandwich, where I …
Read More of Endangered Orcas: An encounter on San Juan Island
When I was growing up in Western Washington summer was a glorious time. The cold weather and relentless rain would finally cease, and the warm embrace of …
Read More of Playing With Fire: A Cultural History of Wildfire in Western Washington
It was a cold, rainy day and I was hiking up to North Cascade Institute’s iconic hike: the Sourdough Waterfall. I was shadowing my first Mountain School …
Read More of Sweet Treat: Licorice Ferns in the North Cascades
If you asked me how I would describe myself on any given day, I might say that I am an educator and a student, a (slow) runner …
Read More of Citizen Science: An Ode to Collaboration
What’s fierce, agile, and doesn’t hunt fish? A Fisher! The Fisher (Martes pennanti) is a medium-sized member of the weasel family that despite its name rarely eats …
Read More of The Return of the Fisher: The Reintroduction of a Carnivore in the North Cascades
Love can defeat that nameless terror. Loving one another, we take the sting from death. Loving our mysterious blue planet, we resolve riddles and dissolve all enigmas …
Read More of Rivers: Rebuilding Relationships with the Natural World.
The North Cascades Ecosystem is full of wonders I never thought I would experience when I first moved here from Florida. From snow on the mountain tops …
Read More of Cold-Blooded and Cold-Tolerant: Finding Reptiles In the North Cascades Ecosystem
When I’d chosen to write a natural history project on wasps, the only lead I had was that maybe I should pay a visit to Twisp. There …
Read More of Between Fear and Fascination: Studying Vespids in the North Cascades
