community clubs
Get together, expand your knowledge of the natural world, meet other folks, and have a good time!
Tracking Club and Nature Book Club meet monthly, are free, and are open to all.
Tracking Club and Nature Book Club meet monthly, are free, and are open to all.
Tracking Club
The webs of a filmy dome spider, Tracking Club September 2020
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September 26: Spiders and Invertebrates! This time of year, sign from spiders and other invertebrates is abundant! Explore the often overlooked and intriguing worlds of these smaller animals. October 31: Families and Kids! Outdoor comfortable costumes are welcome but optional for this family-friendly Halloween Tracking Club. Fun for kids of all ages, we'll also have a Trick-or-Treat Treasure Hunt! |
Join us as we explore along the Sandy River for signs of wildlife! The floodplain at Oxbow Park hosts a diversity of wildlife. Some of the tracks and signs we've encountered there have been left by mountain lion, coyote, bear, deer, toad(!), mink, beaver, otter, and more! You never know who you might find.
When: Last Sunday of every month, 9am-12pm
Where: Oxbow Park. Meet at the Floodplain, which is the first parking lot on the left after you enter the park.
Cost: Free - but $5 entrance fee to Oxbow Park per vehicle.
Where: Oxbow Park. Meet at the Floodplain, which is the first parking lot on the left after you enter the park.
Cost: Free - but $5 entrance fee to Oxbow Park per vehicle.
Tracking club is open to everyone. Whether you're an experienced tracker, completely new, or somewhere in between. Led by two Cascadia Wild Tracking Leaders, this is an informal gathering where you can practice your tracking skills and learn from each other. It is a space for people to get together, learn and share knowledge, encourage each other along our journey, and have fun.
Not only is tracking a skill you can enjoy no matter your experience level, this is also a great activity for many ages and levels of physical ability. Much of the time is spent at a casual pace as we look for tracks and sign, or spent huddled over something interesting! The terrain at Oxbow is relatively flat and is a mix of sand and grass floodplain, with a few (usually dry) channels to walk across. The shore of the river is sloped and has some river rocks in the wet sand or mud. There is a bathroom facility at the meeting area. Wear sturdy shoes if you need them and always dress for the weather.
Each month will have a different theme to inspire exploration of different aspects of tracking and to welcome different parts of our community.
*Wear a mask and practice physical distancing at this event. Please do not carpool with members outside your household/social unit. Do not attend if you are feeling even the slightest bit sick. Maximum group size is 8; if this group size is met we will split into smaller groups. Thank you!
Not only is tracking a skill you can enjoy no matter your experience level, this is also a great activity for many ages and levels of physical ability. Much of the time is spent at a casual pace as we look for tracks and sign, or spent huddled over something interesting! The terrain at Oxbow is relatively flat and is a mix of sand and grass floodplain, with a few (usually dry) channels to walk across. The shore of the river is sloped and has some river rocks in the wet sand or mud. There is a bathroom facility at the meeting area. Wear sturdy shoes if you need them and always dress for the weather.
Each month will have a different theme to inspire exploration of different aspects of tracking and to welcome different parts of our community.
*Wear a mask and practice physical distancing at this event. Please do not carpool with members outside your household/social unit. Do not attend if you are feeling even the slightest bit sick. Maximum group size is 8; if this group size is met we will split into smaller groups. Thank you!
Nature Book Club
This club is a great way to keep up on your nature learning, meet new people, read new books, and participate in discussion about the ways nature writing shapes our experiences and relationship to the natural world.
New folks are always welcome to join!
When: the fourth Tuesday of each month
Time: 5:30pm-7pm
Where: Online, contact us for the meeting link
Cost: Free
New folks are always welcome to join!
When: the fourth Tuesday of each month
Time: 5:30pm-7pm
Where: Online, contact us for the meeting link
Cost: Free
September's book is Stronghold by Tucker Malarkey
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September 28's book will be Stronghold: One Man's quest to Save the World's Wild Salmon by Tucker Malarkey.
In the tradition of Mountains Beyond Mountains and The Orchid Thief, Stronghold is Tucker Malarkey’s eye-opening account of one of the world’s greatest fly fishermen and his crusade to protect the world’s last bastion of wild salmon. From a young age, Guido Rahr was a misfit among his family and classmates, preferring to spend his time in the natural world. When the salmon runs of the Pacific Northwest began to decline, Guido was one of the few who understood why. As dams, industry, and climate change degraded the homes of these magnificent fish, Rahr saw that the salmon of the Pacific Rim were destined to go the way of their Atlantic brethren: near extinction. An improbable and inspiring story, Stronghold takes us on a wild adventure, from Oregon to Alaska to one of the world’s last remaining salmon strongholds in the Russian Far East, a landscape of ecological richness and diversity that is rapidly being developed for oil, gas, minerals, and timber. Along the way, Rahr contends with scientists, conservationists, Russian oligarchs, corrupt officials, and unexpected allies in an attempt to secure a stronghold for the endangered salmon, an extraordinary keystone species whose demise would reverberate across the planet. Tucker Malarkey, who joins Rahr in the Russian wilderness, has written a clarion call for a sustainable future, a remarkable work of natural history, and a riveting account of a species whose future is closely linked to our own. |
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Read ahead: October 26's book will be Wolves in the Land of Salmon by David Moskowitz.
Long considered an icon of the wild, wolves capture our imagination and spark controversy. Humans are the adult wolf’s only true natural predator; its return to the old-growth forests and wild coastlines of the Pacific Northwest renews age-old questions about the value of wildlands and wildlife. As the vivid stories unfold in this riveting and timely book, wolves emerge as smart, complex players uniquely adapted to the vast interdependent ecosystem of this stunning region. Observing them at close range, David Moskowitz explores how they live, hunt, and communicate, tracing their biology and ecology through firsthand encounters in the wildlands of the Northwest. In the process he challenges assumptions about their role and the impact of even well-meaning human interventions. David Moskowitz works in the fields of photography, wildlife biology and education. He is the photographer and author of three books: Caribou Rainforest, Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest and Wolves in the Land of Salmon. He has contributed his technical expertise to a wide variety of wildlife studies regionally and in the Canadian and U.S. Rocky mountains, focusing on using tracking and other non-invasive methods to study wildlife ecology and promote conservation. He helped establish the Cascade Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project, a citizen science effort to search for and monitor rare and sensitive wildlife in the Cascades and other Northwest wildlands. |
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Check the calendar for upcoming meeting dates and the books that will be discussed.
