Education and Classes

Join WRI for our Plant Foraging Series.  Participants will learn hands-on how to identify, harvest, propagate, and make use of the plant. Our goal is to empower people to respectfully and reciprocally engage with the plants that live here.

Arrowleaf balsamroot is found across the hills of the Wenatchee Valley come springtime, shining brightly with their yellow flowers. They grow in a large bouquet with the arrow shaped leaves shooting out below the flowers. Nearly all the parts of the plant can be used as food or medicine.

Our first workshop will be with local herbalist Kyra Skaggs. The class is designed to instruct you on foraging and harvesting arrowleaf balsamroot along with a few ways to turn it into potent herbal medicines that can be used to heal the body, mind, and spirit. This will be a hands-on class to become more familiar with this plant.

Streaming link: https://youtube.com/live/LtsLjeEFi8E?feature=share

This is a FREE event with a donation basket at the door.
Doors open at 6:30pm for a community social with beer and wine available for purchase. The presentation will start at 7:00pm.

If glass can be recycled infinitely, why have many communities (including our own) lost access to the curbside collection of this resource? Join us to learn more about the complexities of glass recycling and discuss exciting new initiatives around recycling and reuse with local nonprofit Waste Loop and Washington-based start-up, ZEWA.

WRI invites you to join us for a weekend introduction to the language of wildlife tracking. The topics covered over the weekend will include the fundamentals of identifying tracks, developing stories of animal behavior based upon track patterns and signs, and the principles of using natural history to actively look for and find animal track and sign.

Your ticket is for a two-day intro to tracking course. Each day will be a full day spent outside in the field. Be prepared for the day’s weather. Be sure to bring plenty of water and food.

For more information please visit the Wenatchee River Institute website.

This is a FREE event with a donation basket at the door.
Doors open at 6:30pm for a community social with beer and wine available for purchase. The presentation will start at 7:00pm.

Join Wenatchee River Institute and the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery for an update on the many projects occurring on and around their campus. You may have seen the major work on the Icicle River or heard of the new partial reuse aquaculture system that is being tested for more efficient use of water. Don’t miss this chance to hear more about these projects.

Get to know birds like never before in this weekend-long exploration with ornithologist, Suzanne Tomassi. You’ll get the chance to see live, wild birds up-close!

Day 1: 9:00am-4:00pm
The morning will be lecture format with slides, video, and real examples of feathers, skulls, and nests to observe. We’ll go through an overview of bird biology, touching on evolutionary history, anatomy and physiology, behavior, and more. After a quick lunch break, we’ll go over field methods for netting birds and discuss some of the gear involved, and go outside to practice setting up the equipment. We’ll hear how our instructor used these field methods in her 10-year field study in Borneo, and see some beautiful photos of the amazing birds she got to work with.

Day 2: 6:00am-12:00pm
Our second day starts early! We’ll set up mist-nets to trap and measure birds using the techniques we learned about on Day 1. With a little luck, we’ll catch some birds and participants will be able to take photos and learn to handle a bird in a “ringer’s grip,” before releasing them back into the wild. In the late morning, we’ll take down the nets and wrap up with a brief discussion on how to attract the birds we’ve seen to backyards.

Both days of the course are question-driven, meaning that participants should speak up at any time with questions and interests on expanding a topic. Suzanne is happy to adjust course content to meet interests.