Highlights from Late Feb. and Early March

The Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program has been very busy over the past few weeks. Students embarked on a variety of educational adventures. Here are some of the highlights from their class days:



Here Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program student Danny Roaman prepares to fire his primitive hunting tools: a bow and arrow made in class with Frank Sherwood. The theme of this class day was primitive hunting skills, which included the use of rabbitsticks, atlatls and primitive long bows. Danny was practicing firing the bow from a partially concealed position at a moving target.



Here, fellow student Alex Steventon demonstrates the use of an atlatl. This primitive hunting tool was used for hunting everything from deer to mastodons! It is composed of 2 main parts: a throwing dart or arrow and the dart thrower.

One another class day students took a trip to the amazing wildlife park known as Northwest Trek. This location houses only wildlife native to the greater Northwest region. This location provides a unique opportunity for students to closely observe some of the more elusive animals native to the Pacific Northwest, such as bears, cougars and wolves. Through the process of observation, students learned more about how these animals behaved and, therefore, what kind of tracks they left under what circumstances. This opportunity allows the students to grow as both naturalists and wildlife trackers.



Here, a bobcat perches on a fallen tree soaking up the late winter sun. Such relaxed behaviors are very difficult to observe in the wild.