Resources
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2009 Year in Review
Greetings Cascadia Wild members:
Spring is here, and Cascadia Wild is busy planning our next
year of classes and programs, so we thought this would be
a good time to take a minute and update you on what's been
happening this last year.
The Wolverine Tracking Project is winding
up another successful season. Volunteer trip leaders had a
great time teaching people animal tracking and searching Mt
Hood for signs of rare carnivores. This year we had the largest
number of trip leaders yet (seventeen!). Check out the picture
below of Paul's latest invention, a device that will improve
the lighting so that you can see more tracks. It really works!
Bear, cougar, coyote, marten, and many other animal tracks
were seen again this winter. We are still searching for the
elusive wolverine. Our hopes are up this year, however, as
a wolverine was photographed three times on Mt Adams recently,
practically in our backyard (for a wolverine, that is, which
can roam up to 100 miles a day). Marten, another target species
and indicator of a healthy old growth forest, left tracks
for us to see in the same locations as they have been seen
in previous years, showing that their populations continue
to be stable. Even though the project was entirely volunteer-run
this year, we were still able to reach many new participants.
A few things may have taken longer than ordinary, however,
so if you were one of the people we took a long time getting
back to, thank you for your patience! Many of our trip leaders
pitched in with in with the advertising and administrative
aspects, and lots of fun and learning was had by all.
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An
exciting addition to the tracking project occurred
this year. The Forest Service bought five cameras for us to
use to monitor wildlife. These cameras are triggered by heat
and motion to take a picture when an animal moves in front
of them. They have been placed in remote locations in the
forest, baited with a scent to lure the target species in.
These cameras have been quite an adventure; for instance,
when the Forest Service says "scent lure", they
mean it! It is made of mustelid pheromones (think skunk) and
is currently stored in a glass jar wrapped in five plastic
bags, placed in an airtight cooler, and still needs to be
stored outside because it smelled up the office so bad! The
cameras will provide another method, in addition to tracking
surveys, to detect what animals are out there. We have placed
four of the cameras so far and were able to get them in some
fairly remote locations where wolverine are likely to be,
thanks to help from the Mt Hood Snowmobile Club. The first
round of pictures from two of the cameras contained great
pictures of a Stellar's jay and a bobcat, and we are now waiting
for the snow to melt to get in and check the others. We are
excited to see what we will find! If things go as planned,
we will be monitoring the cameras all summer. This means that
the tracking project can now continue year-round.
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Naturalist Skills Community Night still
going strong, thanks to volunteer Marion Warfield, who has
been hosting it since its inception four years ago. Twice
a month, on the first and third Mondays, speakers present
some aspect of naturalist skills, wilderness survival skills,
or related topics. Topics included making baskets from invasive
ivy, making fire without matches, herbal medicine, lichen
identification, and much, much more. These classes are offered
free to the public as a community service. Skills and knowledge
such as these can be surprisingly useful even in today's world.
Furthermore, they also help teach us about our connection
with nature. Understanding this connection is crucial, because,
no matter how industrialized we become, all of our food, water,
and other important necessities still come from nature.
Last summer, we started offering several new classes
to the public, including wilderness survival weekends, summer
animal tracking, wildflower hikes, and nature meditation.
All of these classes received positive feedback, though low
attendance. Word of mouth is our best advertising, so if you
know someone interested, please help us spread the word, as
we will be offering similar classes again this year. Check
out our website for details.
The economy made things interesting for us this year, as
it did for many people. Much of our funding has disappeared,
including that from our main sponsor, the Factor Health Foundation,
which was willing, but unable, to help us this year. We are
currently looking for new sponsors and sources of funding.
If you like what we do, please help support us by taking a
class, or continuing your membership, or telling your friends
about us, or volunteering, or donating money, or any other
way you feel inclined.
Many personnel changes also took place last year. Heather
Stevens, who has been very instrumental in running Cascadia
Wild for many years, left the board to pursue her teaching
career and spend more time with her family. Thanks for all
your hard work, Heather, we will miss you! Dave Shapiro, who
has been the president of the board for several years, also
stepped aside to allow time for his own creative career. We
wish you well, Dave! The exciting news for the year is that
we have added nine new members to our board! All their new
energy really carried us through a challenging year and we
are excited about the possibilities yet to come.
A crucial element to our organization, however, continues
to be you, our members. Thank you for supporting what we do!
Because of you, we have a strong community, with the survival
skills necessary to thrive even in a down-turned economy.
As always we welcome feedback, class requests, and any other
comments you wish the share. And we will continue to work
to make sure the knowledge we teach remains available to all
those interested in learning.
Our strength lies in our community. Thank you for being a
part.
Sincerely,
Teri Lysak
Board Chairperson
Photo by Yael
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