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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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Recent Articles

From the Trail: The Secret Life of Snow
“Treaty Justice” discussion with Scott Schuyler, Jay Julius and Lynda Mapes
From the Trail: Bald Eagle Winter Migration
Supporter Spotlight: Ginny Darvill
2025 Nature of Writing Favorite Reads

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Inspiring environmental stewardship through education, exploration and connection since 1986.
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We have openings in our Mountain School schedule f

We have openings in our Mountain School schedule for the Fall 2026-Spring 2027 school year!

Contact us for more information on how you might be able to bring your classroom or school group to the Environmental Learning Center for our award-winning overnight environmental education program.

You can request information at https://ncascades.org/signup/mountain-school or call (360) 854-2599.

#HooDis? Just a short eared owl gliding silently o

#HooDis? Just a short eared owl gliding silently over the landscape. Short eared owls are pretty neat.

🦉 They are easier to see than most owls because they live in open terrain, such as prairies and marshes

🦉 Often active during daylight, short eared owls can be diurnal (active during daylight) and crepuscular (active during twilight)

🦉 Daylight hunting seems to coincide with the high activity periods of voles, its preferred prey. But they eat other mammals as well such as mice, ground, squirrels, shrews, rabbits and gophers.

🦉 When hunting short eared owls tend to fly only feet above the ground in open fields and grasslands until swooping down upon its prey feet first

🦉 They are commonly seen in all seasons in Washington. They breed from Alaska across Canada and from the southern US to Central America, but have disappeared from many southern areas where loss of habitat is the main cause and mammalian predation since they are ground nesting birds.

Don’t forget, The Great Backyard Bird Count starts tomorrow! Check out our post from Tuesday to learn how to participate.

📸: Photo 1: Russell Blakeley
📸: Photo 2-3: Tim Leach

Join us on Feb 27 & 28 at the Historic Everett The

Join us on Feb 27 & 28 at the Historic Everett Theatre for the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour!

Celebrate the world's best mountain films with an exhilarating lineup featuring outdoor adventures, mountain culture, and environmental stories. Each night includes 6 different films, from heart-pounding escapades to soulful, beautifully told stories of wild places.

The Everett stop on this film tour gives back to organizations dedicated to the future health of the lands and people that make these adventures possible. A portion of proceeds from ticket sales will benefit North Cascades Institute.

🎬 Get your tickets today at https://www.livetoplay.com/banffeverett?treferrer=NCI

The Great Backyard Bird Count is happening this we

The Great Backyard Bird Count is happening this weekend February 13-16. Join the world in connecting to birds! Participating is easy, fun to do alone or with others, and can be done anywhere you find birds. Here’s how:

🦅 Decide where you will watch birds.

🦆 Watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days, February 13-16, 2026

🦜 Identify all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location and use the best tool for sharing your bird sightings: Merlin Bird ID, eBird

🐥 Pro tip: If you are a beginning bird admirer and new to bird identification, try using the Merlin Bird ID app to identify what birds you are seeing or hearing.

🐥 If you have participated in the count before and want to record numbers of birds, try the eBird Mobile app or enter your bird list on the eBird website (desktop/laptop).

🦉 By participating in the count you are helping scientists better understand and protect birds around the world. Hooray! 🐣🎉

Who will be participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count this week?! 🙋🏻‍♀️

For more info visit birdcount.org

📸: @chadtesarikphotography

Our new monthly blog series From the Trail offers

Our new monthly blog series From the Trail offers naturalist-inspired answers to common (and not-so-common) questions about Pacific Northwest landscapes—from wildlife encounters and wildflower timing to weather, geology and everyday ecology.

🦅 Kicking things off with a favorite local topic, naturalist, environmental educator, and writer Marissa Bluestein shares tips on observing bald eagles along our local rivers this winter.

Read the first edition of From The Trail on our blog at https://blog.ncascades.org/naturalist-notes/from-the-trail-bald-eagles/

📸 : Nate Bolton

The Nature of Writing Speaker Series is back with

The Nature of Writing Speaker Series is back with an exciting lineup of authors and artists sharing their latest works inspired by the natural world!

The spring season debuts next Tuesday, Feb 10 as the Institute and Third Place Books welcome Se'Si'Le director Kurt Russo, artist and ceremonial leader Chenoa Egawa, and Environmental Conservation student Fiorella de la O for a conversation about "In the Spirit of Right and Respectful Relations: Conversations about Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Being in Nature"–a collaboratively written book centering Indigenous perspectives on conservation and environmental stewardship in the Pacific Northwest.

Learn more and reserve your FREE ticket at https://ncascades.org/signup/in-the-spirit-of-right-and-respectful-relations

An ode to winter: Dust of Snow The way a crow

An ode to winter:

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued

~ Robert Frost

How does winter inspire you?

📸: @adamisaacsonphoto

Here’s some winter mountain trivia! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 🏔 At

Here’s some winter mountain trivia!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
🏔 At 10,781 feet I am the third highest mountain in Washington State ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

🏔 I am located on the ancestral homelands of the Nooksack, Nlaka’pamux & Coast Salish peoples⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

🏔️ I have the second-most thermally active crater in the Cascade Range after Mount St. Helens.

🏔️ I am a popular destination for mountaineers, backcountry skiers/snowboarders and hikers who want to get an up close view of my glaciers without having to climb to my summit.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
🏔 After Mount Rainier I have the heaviest glacier cover of the Cascade Range volcanoes; the volume of snow and ice is greater than all the other Cascades volcanoes (except Rainier) combined.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Who am I? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

📸: @alpine_explorer

At North Cascades Institute, connecting people wit

At North Cascades Institute, connecting people with nature and one another is at the heart of our mission. In times of challenge and unrest, we remain steadfast in this work—standing with our community, showing care and solidarity, and continuing to learn, grow, and move forward together.

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