Back in the Swing of Things

Back on campus, new camera, winter training, team teaching, visit to North Cascades Institute, skiing at Mt. Baker.

We took our final for Natural History and Ecology the first week back on campus.  We all have come a long way in learning about the plants and animals of the area.  For those keeping score at home, this is Red Huckleberry.

This past week we team taught in the field.  A student in our field group dug this out of the sand at the harbor.  At first glance it sure looked like a fossil, but turned out to really be concrete.  Still though, I’m not sure how this impression ended up being made and buried under water.

There was no mistaking this find along the marsh loop last week.  A deer carcus picked clean by scavengers.  Our field group found the rib cage and backbone, with one leg attached in the middle of the marsh loop trail.  My co-instructor Gretchen and I had planned to collect macroinvertebrates in the marsh, but finding the carcus changed our plans.  The kids studied the kill, looked around for tracks and other clues to try to figure out who was responsible for eating the deer.  A little further down the trail we debreifed the find by having the students try to tell the story of the deer by peicing together the clues they found.

 

This weekend the IslandWood Grads took part in an Instructor Exchange with the North Cascades Institute and the Wilderness Awareness School.  NCI was the first stop in the exchange.  In a few weeks everyone will visit WAS and IslandWood.   The school is a part of North Cascades National Park, this was the view from the parking lot.

Grads, Instructors, and Staff from all three schools.

In the afternoon two of the grads from NCI led us on a snowshoeing trip, our trail took us past the avalanche in the background.

Looking uphill from inside the slide.

Mike, Erin, Me, Kendyl, Ian, and Lizzie, on Sourdough Mountain.

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