NatureSkills Weeklong
Spend
a week exploring the natural world and learning outdoor survival skills
with Wilderness Awareness School’s most experienced instructors.
Classroom instruction will be paired with mentored dirt time in the field where we take theory into practice tracking, birding, studying plants, and exploring the natural world. It’s a wonderful mix of nature awareness, outdoor survival skills and wilderness survival skills training.
A full day will be spent exploring each of the following areas...
Field Observation Refine your physical observation skills and learn to integrate intuitive awareness into your study of nature. Chris Laliberte weaves stories, current research on human perception and brain patterning in with concrete practices for learning to see and hear more in nature, while expanding both your awareness and ability to retain new learning!
Wildlife Tracking Practice track and sign location, identification, interpretation, aging, ecological tracking, and trailing. A mix of technical skills training and dirt time provides the opportunity to both build skills and work through challenging mysteries with a mentor looking over your shoulder to guide you. Jenn Wolfe guides your study for the day.
Edible and Medicinal Plants Develop your identification skills and learn to use plants for food and medicine. Collection and processing techniques are covered. John Gallagher guides you down the path towards a deeper relationship with wild plants.
Wilderness
Survival & Outdoor Living Skills A skilled naturalist must
be comfortable traveling and living in the natural world. Learn shelter
construction, fire making, crafts for primitive outdoor living and other
wilderness survival training basics with Dan Corcoran.
Bird Language Interpretation As the master tracker Olaus Murie wrote "One should always listen to the warnings of the birds." Learn to recognize the different calls and alarms of the birds and a whole new world of awareness opens up to you. A day in the field with Alexia Stevens will transform your awareness of what’s going on in the forest around you.
Although class will be held in the beautiful forests of the Pacific Northwest, you will leave with a set of invaluable core routines you can take anywhere. This class covers indispensable skills for naturalists!
NatureSkills.com, our content web site with numerous free articles, is a great supporting resource for this class!
Register for NatureSkills Weeklong
| Add to Cart | Ages Adult $785 Food and camping included. July 18-24, 2010 6:00pm Sunday-12pm Saturday Our land in the foothills of the Cascades, near Duvall, WA Airport shuttle available. |
Instructor Biographies
Emily
Gibson, lead instructor for the NatureSkills Weeklong
is Adult Programs Coordinator, Assistant Summer Camp Director, a Youth
Courses Instructor, and our Outreach Coordinator. Emily studied Wildlife
Science at the University of Washington and was a research assistant for
several years studying the effects of urbanization on songbird populations
in the Puget Sound region. After graduating from the Residential Program
in 2005, Emily participated in the Instructor Training Apprenticeship
and was an Apprentice Instructor with the Residential Program. She has
also continued her study of wildlife tracking through the Tracking Apprenticeship
and Tracking Intensive.
John
Gallagher, L.Ac., CCH shares his passion and experience with
edible and medicinal plants. He is a staff specialist in herbal studies
at the Residential Program, and a marketing and technology specialist
for Wilderness Awareness School. Since 1991, John has served in many
positions, most notably 10 years as Independent Studies Director. He
was also the design editor for the Kamana Naturalist Training Program,
and has also completed the course as a student. He is a licensed Five
Element Acupuncturist, and a Community Centered Herbalist. John and
his wife Kimberly run LearningHerbs, a business that teaches simple
herbal medicine making through products they designed.
Alexia
Stevens shares her skills and passion with Bird Language
and Behavior. She is a 2002 Residential Program Graduate, and serves
as a staff specialist in Bird Language at the Residential Program and
other adult courses. Alexia and has worked as a bird biologist in the
North Cascades and Olympic National Parks, and has a degree in Environmental
Science with a concentration on bird behavior and communication. She
is currently recording an audio guide to bird behavior.
Dan
Corcoran shares his passion and experience with wilderness
survival skills and naturalist studies. He serves as the Director of
the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and as an instructor with Youth
and Adult Courses at Wilderness Awareness School. Dan received his B.S.
in Biology from Indiana University, is a 2003 graduate of the Wilderness
Awareness Residential Program, is a Kamana graduate, and a Wilderness
First Responder.
Jenn
Wolfe shares her experience and passion with wildlife tracking.
She has trained with Jon Young and Wilderness Awareness School since
1995 in the arts of animal tracking, mentoring and naturalist training
skills, as well as completing a 9-month Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship
course with Jon Young and Mark Elbroch in California. Jenn has been
a Lead Instructor for 6 years on Adult
Expeditions, tracking animals in the wilds of Idaho’s backcountry
as well as working with adults locally through Tracking
Club, tracking intensives and other adult courses in the Puget Sound
Area for 12 years. She has been a public school teacher in Seattle since
1989 with a BA in Education and a BFA in Art.
Chris
Laliberte: Chris shares his knowledge and expertise
with nature-based mentoring and wilderness survival crafts. He has worked
in the field of outdoor education since 1992, designing and leading
courses that incorporate wilderness adventure and natural history. In
1996 he founded Wilderness Awareness School's Community School for teens.
He has a Master's Degree in Environmental Education from the Audubon
Expedition Institute and is currently working towards his Ph.D. in Mythological
Studies.
