Spring 2025 Institute Photo Round-up!
Why does spring seem like the most “blink and you miss it” of seasons? For sure, here at the Institute it’s when things are really revving up: adult field excursions have launched, the Learning Center is bustling with Mountain School, the Youth Leadership Adventures team is prepping for summer trips, and we’ve started registering what will amount to thousands of participants for Skagit Tours. Programs are barreling full speed ahead into summer! A hearty thank you goes to everyone who paused to snap these photos and document how we work, learn, and play together!
Mountain School
In this 35th year of Mountain School at the Institute, we celebrated the completion of another jam-packed season on June 6. More than 1,300 students, teachers, and chaperones joined us this spring at the Learning Center from schools around the region. We hiked through an old growth forest, explored topics like ecosystems, wildfire and stream erosion, and asked big questions about our place in the world. One student shared a moving reflection, “I love the forest and the trees, they calm me and take away stress. I love hearing the birds and the waves on the lake, and the many sizes of rocks, and most of all, the friendships.” Thank you, Mountain School team and Learning Center operations staff for helping make these experiences possible!
Youth Leadership Adventures
Spring is a scramble of logistics for the YLA team—ordering food, organizing gear, reviewing student applications, and staging a 6-day training trip with the field instructors. Amidst it all, they still made time for other great projects and collaborations. In March, staff and students attended the YESC Environmental Symposium to meet other environmental pros and participate in workshops. Together with Vamos Outdoors Project and Glacier Peak Institute, they participated in an overnight field leadership trip on Diablo Lake to share and learn strategies for supporting youth outdoors. In May, they supported Whatcom Intergenerational High School’s Forest School, helping almost 70 students gain outdoor experience in camping and hiking. Neal, Kate and Eva make sure YLA is a year-round expression of our mission!
Field Excursion
Spring Adult & Family field excursions had participants sloshing around the Nooksack River Valley looking for amphibians, getting briny with seaweed at Fort Ebey State Park, and carefully counting snakes in the Methow Valley. In recent years, the hard work of Hannah (Adult & Family Programs Coordinator) is much to credit for this robust piece of Institute programming. We’re grateful for her thoughtful strategy in designing a diverse list of classes, organizing hundreds of details with our guest experts, engaging class participants with warmth and enthusiasm, and photographing many of the moments that help us tell the story of these classes. Thank you, Hannah!
Community and Outreach Events
Outreach efforts had Britt (Outreach & Events Coordinator) and other staff zig-zagging up and down the I-5 corridor this spring with engagement opportunities in Bellingham, Seattle, and stops in between. Our Spring Nature of Writing Series boasted 16 author events including an evening with Lynda Mapes at Children of the Setting Sun, and another with Robert Macfarlane attended by over 600 book lovers. A particularly special engagement took place at Seattle Children’s Hospital where the Institute delivered a version of Mountain School to in-patient youth through interactive, hands-on activities. We also had the privilege of gathering with other local nonprofits for Experience Momentum’s Sweat for the Environment fundraiser as well as a Community Impact Night with Backcountry Essentials. And that’s only a few of the highlights from Outreach!
And Lastly…
A handful of other great shots we couldn’t leave out. Thanks for coming along on this photo round-up and, as always, we invite you to share your own North Cascades adventure pics with us. Send them to photos@ncascades.org and they just might appear in our next round up!
