Wenatchee River Institute

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.

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.

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.