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Wilderness medicine courses at the Environmental Learning Center

Wilderness medicine courses at the Environmental Learning Center

Oct 18, 2018North Cascades Institute

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What Water Holds: From the North Cascades to Village Books
Meet the Bigg’s Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)
The Power of Patience: Building Community in Youth Leadership Adventures
Sourdough Fire closes Learning Center through 2023
Nature of Writing Speaker Series ⎸ Fall 2023

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY North Cascades National Park Comple

HAPPY BIRTHDAY North Cascades National Park Complex!

55 years ago today in 1968, the North Cascades National Park Service Complex was established—a sprawling reserve that includes the North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake and the Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas in the upper left corner of Washington State.

Today, we celebrate the ongoing story of these mountains and salute the people who have championed their protection, appreciation and stewardship throughout history. These magnificent mountains, lakes, rivers and forests are here for all of us to enjoy because of earlier generations' stewardship and activism. Thank you!

📸: John Scurlock

@ncascadesnps

📍 The North Cascades region is the ancestral homeland of many Native Nations who have stewarded this land since time immemorial: Nłeʔkepmx Tmíxʷ (Nlaka'pamux), Nooksack, Coast Salish, Sauk Suiattle, Skagit, Colville, Yakama and others

Happy October! Looking for your next great read to

Happy October! Looking for your next great read to cozy up with this autumn?!

Hosted in partnership with our friends at @village_books, the Fall Nature of Writing series includes inspiring presentations by authors, poets and naturalists sharing their latest works.

On Oct 1, Tele Aadsen sits down with Holly Hughes to share and discuss "What Water Holds", a series of lyrical, reflective essays first shared at Oregon’s FisherPoets Gathering. Aadsen examines questions of equity, identity, community, the changing climate, and sustainability with loving, detailed attention, revealing the complexities within their many shades of gray.

On October 3, we're excited to celebrate the release of "Teaching in the Rain" by John C. Miles. Miles shares the story of five young men who loved teaching, the natural world, and the North Cascades, and dreamed of creating a field school to teach about the place and its many histories. The North Cascades Institute emerged from that dream in 1986, and grew from humble beginnings to become a model nonprofit environmental education organization admired throughout the United States.

On October 21, through lyrical language and enchanting illustrations, "Wild Heart" transports young readers to wilderness landscapes across the globe—from majestic mountains to mysterious rainforests, golden deserts, frozen tundra, arid savanna, to the ocean depths and more. But is wildness found only in faraway places? Where and how do you find your very own wild heart? Join Kim Freir to explore the answers...

And on October 27, poet, essayist, and nature writer Tim McNulty, shares "Salmon, Cedar, Rock & Rain : Washington's Olympic Peninsula." It's a celebration of the wild, water-carved corner of the Pacific Northwest that represents one of the most diverse natural areas on the planet. With an incredible lineup of regional writers and naturalists, and a depth of tribal perspective, this book is a stunning celebration of place and call to collaborate across difference.

📖 Space is limited - RESERVE YOUR SEAT TODAY by clicking the link in our bio.

#naturewriting #authorreading #writing #northcascadesinstitute #poetry #readmorebooks #reading

Online Art Workshop: BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES & WILDFLOW

Online Art Workshop: BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES & WILDFLOWERS BLOCK PRINTS

Learn how to create a hand-tinted block print in this fun online session with artist, author and popular Institute instructor, Molly Hashimoto.

Molly will guide you through creating a design, carving it on easy-carve material, printing proofs, and then making oil-based ink prints which you can then hand-tint with watercolor paints.

TIME: October 14, 10am - 1pm

REGISTER: Follow link in bio to "Class & Excursion Sign-Up"
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#onlinelearning #onlineworkshop #onlineartclass #blockprinting #natureart #learningisfun #northcascadesinstitute #environmentaleducation

“Hey, careful man, there’s a beverage here.”

“Hey, careful man, there’s a beverage here.”~The Dude⁣
It’s nice after a summit, long hike, setting up camp and camp chores, to take a moment and enjoy your surroundings with a hot beverage or perhaps a cold one.

What are your favorite beverages to take with you on the trail? 🫖☕️🍻

📍Ancestral homelands of the Nlaka’pamux, Sauk-Suiattle, Syilx (Okanagan), Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
📸: @wayward.woman

A deep dive into a unique feature of the North Cas

A deep dive into a unique feature of the North Cascades from @wyatt.mullen:

“What causes a glacial lake’s unique color? Why do they vary from robin’s egg blue to jade green to even milky white? What makes Diablo Lake so instagrammable? The simple answer is glaciers & glacial flour—basically an extremely fine sediment created by the grinding of glaciers on bedrock that remains suspended in bodies of water & contributes to their unique color, but I was not satisfied by that answer. I wanted to know why there was such variance in the colors of lakes.
Warning, the next section gets physicsy.
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An alpine lake’s color is determined by both the concentration of glacial flour & suspended particle size. We can understand this better if we take examples from the extremes. Pure water (like Crater Lake) appears blue to our eyes for a similar reason to why the sky is blue. Water molecules scatter shorter wavelengths (violet and blue) of light preferentially (due to an inverse relationship with wavelength that scales with 1/λ^4) thus giving deep & clear water an indigo-blue tinge. At the other extreme, thick, silty, or muddy water—generally seen in recently uncovered milky lakes with large amounts of active sediment—has a high density of large particles & scatters light non selectively across all wavelengths (in the sky this is why clouds are white).
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When the level of sediment and particle size are just right, something unique happens. Particles less than 2 μm in diameter (like those in glacial flour) preferentially absorb shorter (blue & violet) wavelengths of light. This means the violet and blue wavelengths scattered by the water are absorbed by the glacial flour before they can reach our eyes. The only wavelengths that remain are the intermediate wavelengths (which is this case correspond to a blue/green color). The denser the sediment, the more the hues will shift towards green until once again it gets so dense the lake becomes opaque.
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This image is from filaments of glacier flour immediately after they exited a glacier & before they had a chance to mix more homogeneously. From different perspectives this lake appeared green, silver, and blue.”

📸: @wyatt.mullen

IT'S THE LAST WEEK TO VOTE! Have you voted for u

IT'S THE LAST WEEK TO VOTE!

Have you voted for us through Target Circle?! If not, there’s still time. See how you can help direct Target’s giving to benefit North Cascades Institute and our community by visiting target.com/circle.

🎯 Vote by this Saturday, September 30th to support transformative learning experiences in nature!

#northcascadesinstitute #environmentaleducation #donate #giveback

Did you get to spend your weekend doing the things

Did you get to spend your weekend doing the things you love with the people you love? ⁣
Tag your bestie/s in the comments and what you love doing with them.

📸: @sarina_pizzala

Have you voted for us through Target Circle?! If n

Have you voted for us through Target Circle?! If not, there’s still time! See how you can help direct Target’s giving to benefit North Cascades Institute and our community by visiting target.com/circle.

🎯 Vote by September 30th to support transformative learning experiences in nature!

#northcascadesinstitute #environmentaleducation #donate #giveback

The weekend approaches. ⁣ How will you spend you

The weekend approaches. ⁣
How will you spend your two wild and precious days? Camping, hiking, backpacking, couch surfing, popcorn eating (guilty).

📍Ancestral homelands of the Nlaka’pamux & Nooksack people
📸: @tgood07

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