Wenatchee River Institute

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.

We will be hosting plant foraging workshops to introduce people to the abundance of local plants and their edible, medicinal, and functional uses. Each workshop will feature a new plant at its unique harvest time.

The featured plant for this workshop is horsetail.

We will meet at Wenatchee River Institute and van/carpool to the Infuse Organics farm.
Registration required.
Space is limited, so sign up fast! Class size: 15
Cost is Pay What You Can. Choose a price that is reasonable for you. WRI offers this in recognition that not everyone can afford to pay for classes. We hope that people who can, will pay to help those you cannot.

Wild Stories from the History of Bird Migration Research. This event is hybrid! Attend in-person or via livestream. Register for either version at the event website!

We’ve all heard amazing facts about bird migration—the long distances that birds travel, the ways that they navigate, etc. But did you ever wonder how we figured all of this out? While working for the American Ornithological Society, Rebecca Heisman became fascinated with the varied and creative techniques that scientists have used to study bird migration, and this eventually became the basis for her book Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration.

This event is supported by A Book For All Seasons. Heisman’s book will be available for purchase at the event.

Registration for the Keynote, as well as field trips, will open on March 26th.

Join WRI for our Plant Foraging Series.

Nettle is a highly nutritious plant with a history of uses for traditional medicine, food, tea, and as a material for textiles. Known as “stinging” nettle it has small stinging hairs that inject a chemical which can lead to a rash or stinging burn if touched. These hairs can be neutralized when soaked or cooked allowing for the many uses of this plant.

Registration required.
Space is limited, so sign up fast! Class size: 15

Streaming link: https://youtube.com/live/yi-1k113bWU?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.

Pacific Northwest forests face catastrophic losses from wildfire, drought, extreme temperatures, and insect mortality. This is largely as a result of climate change and historic land management practices. On top of that, these forest ecosystems now face a crisis of biodiversity loss, which threatens their integrity and the services they provide.

This presentation will be accompanied by a field trip to one of the ponderosa pine dry forest sites that is managed.

Join us for a field trip to a ponderosa pine dry forest site to learn more about land management and fire risk reduction. This site, managed by Tyler Larson as a family forest, has had a variety of fuel reduction treatments including a prescribed burn in October 2023.

FREE to attend, registration required.
The location is 50 minutes from Leavenworth in the Teanaway, and will be provided after registration.
We will be walking for a few hours through easy to moderate terrain.
Please bring your own food and water for the field trip.

Streaming link: https://youtube.com/live/d4mzUuX_31o?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.

Are you someone who frequents risk-inherent environments like the mountains? Join us for a community engaged mental health discussion in the Red Barn. Instructors, Aimee Huffman and Sasha Dingle, will explore the power of mind-body training like breathwork, yoga, meditation, and nervous system regulation exercises. We’ll talk about how these practices can impact stress resilience and improve performance and help first responders and outdoor athletes recover from traumatic events.