Tracks & Sign of Reptiles & Amphibians!

Alderleaf instructors, Fil and Jason, have just begun work on an exciting field guide project about the tracks & sign of reptiles and amphibians!

The book project is aiming to break new ground by determining ways to differentiate the footprints and other evidence left behind by many species of herps. Fil and Jason are making trips (in between teaching classes) out to each region of the country to gather data over the next two years. The goal is to add new knowledge to the field of wildlife tracking to aid trackers and biologists.

Here's a few photos from Jason's recent research trip to Texas:

This is a green anole (Anolis carolinensis) we found:

Here's a photo of the track made by its front foot:

And here's a photo of the actual front foot (notice the uniquely-shaped expanded toe pads):

Here's the track made by the hind foot:

And the actual hind foot:

Here's a cricket frog (Acris crepitans) we came across:

These are the tracks left by the cricket frog (the front toe tips are not expanded, unlike most other genera of very small frogs):

This is a keeled earless lizard (Hobrookia propinqua) we spotted in the field:

The keeled earless lizard left this scat:

Here's a texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) we came across in the field. It was feeding.

Here's a close-up of the hairy cat's ear plant the tortoise was eating:

Stay tuned for more updates in the future!

Interested in learning wildlife tracking skills? Check out Alderleaf's Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship.

Advanced Fire Making at the Wilderness Certification Program

Instructor Steve Nicolini led Wilderness Certification Program students through the next step on their journey through learning primitive fire-making methods. Class was started by demonstrating the amazing wet-wood fire. This entails pouring a bucket of water on the firewood before it is lit!



Here Alderleaf intern Gordon shows students how to light a fire after five gallons of water have been poured on the wood! Notice all the water running down the stones that surround the fire pit.

This method is an excellent skill to have mastered if you plan to start a fire during one of the down pours that can occur during winter in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. The key is in the structure and materials used.

Students also got to refine their skills of bow-drill and got a chance to work on the hand drill fire making method. This method takes patience and perseverance at first, but was and is still used by indigenous people in many different parts of the world.

Check in on our blog again soon!

Willow Baskets

The Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program spent 2 days working on learning the art of making functional willow baskets. Before the winter trip, students also used willow to make primitive snowshoes.



Student, Ben, demonstrates how the process works. With a little patience and some elbow grease, students end up with a practical container made completely of natural materials.



Here another Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program student, Carlsen, shows us his completed willow basket. He even included a handle! Through doing this activity, some students like Carlsen realize they have real knack for making baskets.

Now with completed baskets, students can go out and collect mushrooms, berries and other wild edibles!

Snow and The Winter Trip

Alderleaf Wilderness College had an unexpected snowfall during the week of January 16th. Over the course of several days, a total of between 1.5 and 2 feet of snow accumulated, an unusually high amount for this elevation!

Wilderness Certification Program students worked on learning the construction and use of primitive traps and snares for wilderness survival.



Here, instructor Steve Nicolini is assisted by students Jeremy and Lucas in setting up a weighted snare for demonstration.



An example of a Figure-4 deadfall trap set by Alderleaf Wilderness College student Jamie.

The next week was the much anticipated Winter Field Trip to the North Cascades. The week was filled with adventure, and winter-time survival focused lessons including snow shelter construction, snow tracking, winter survival skills, winter foraging and more.



Here is a view of some of the snow shelters constructed by the Certification Program students. The shelters included quinzee and snow-trench type shelters.



Here student Patrick shows us how to have fun in the snow.

The trip was amazing, and we were grateful for all of the snow, sunshine and learning!

Photo Highlights from Fall 2011

We've had another excellent & busy fall here at Alderleaf. Here's a few photo highlights:

Survival bow making days at the Wilderness Certification Program

Making primitive arrows for the sapling bows

Working with cattail plants to make mats and survival sleeping pads

Sue Morse teaching about a mountain lion scrape

Alderleaf Farm in September (from atop the west house roof)

Making teas from wild medicinal plants

Nutty squirrels blindfolded awareness game

Bow drill fire making challenge - pop the water balloon with fire!

Bow drill fire making challenge

Bow drill fire making challenge

The 2012 Course Calendar is now live on our website.

Have a great holiday season!

Olympic Peninsula with the Certification Program

The Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program crew spent an amazing 3 days on the Olympic Peninsula. The first day involved a visit to the Makah museum. Here students go to see first hand how the Makah used their skills to hunt, gather, build homes, maintain villages, and much more. The Makah have traditionally relied on the bounty of the Pacific coast to provide them with all of their needs. The Makah continue to live on the Olympic peninsula, and have a living culture and language.

The following day, we hiked out to the Olympic coast to visit Cape Alava. There students got to experience some of that bounty from the ocean for themselves. Here Alderleaf student Oscar Lugo Jr. samples some wild seaweeds.



The coast has many species of edible seaweeds, as well as a rich variety of other sea life. Students got to see bald eagles, harbor seals, California and Steller's sea lions, sea otters and more. Even the tracks of a cougar and bear were spotted walking along the beach!

The next day was spent getting acquainted with the old-growth forests of along the Hoh river, an area known as the Hoh Rainforest, within Olympic National Park. Many of the trees in this forest are grand, gnarly old giants like the Sitka spruce tree being embraced below.



Here, Alderleaf student Amy explores the roots of the another massive spruce tree. This forest can make you feel small and help you really appreciate how big trees can get under the right conditions.



The Olympic peninsula is always an amazing place to visit. We all headed home both satisfied and a bit regretful at having to leave such a magical place behind.

Trailing in the Eastern Cascades

The wildlife tracking apprenticeship headed out for a day of trailing in the pine forests of the eastern cascade mountains. As we wandered out into the beautiful fall landscape, we saw the tracks of a variety of animals including elk, mule deer and coyote.



Our main goal was to pick up the fresh trail of an elk. After wandering through the crisp air and sunshine, we found the relatively fresh trails of not 1, but 6 elk wandering together.

These we followed through challenging terrain and a variety of tracking substrates. We saw where they had bedded down together, where they grazed and browsed, and where a large bull started following this group of 6. In several spots we observed where he trashed some small shrubs and left some antler rubs. His fur was still stuck to the sap.



We ended the day having learned more about elk, ourselves and about the skills of trailing. All of us are already looking forward to another visit to the eastern cascades.

AWCP 2011-2012 Off and Running!

The 2011-2012 Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program (AWCP) is off to a great start! 40 new students began their year on September 6th. They've already completed basic training on wilderness survival shelter-building, bow drill fire-making, fall wild edible plants, wildlife track identification, outdoor leadership, and navigation!

AWCP Class of 2011-2012

First fire with bow drill friction fire method

Teaching track identification skills along the Skykomish River

Oasis at the Oregon Dunes wildlife tracking field trip

Next month, the AWCP students will begin their training in permaculture, continue survival and ethnobotany studies, and take a field trip to the old growth forests and coast of the Olympic Peninsula.

Learn more about the Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program

Another Great Summer of Courses!

We had a great summer of classes up at Alderleaf. A big thanks out to all the students, staff, volunteers, and interns! It was a another adventure-filled season of teaching, learning, and having fun on the farm and in the forest. Here's a few photos:

Students testing out their figure four and paiute traps at the Wilderness Survival Traps and Snares Class.



Creating additional food forest at the Permaculture Design Course by sheet mulching and building plant guilds around the young fruit trees.

Sharing a feast at the Permaculture Design Course made entirely of food grown and raised at Alderleaf Farm, including roasted herbed chicken, a potato dish, a cabbage dish, beautiful salad, kombucha, and a pumpkin pudding made with sheep milk and eggs from the farm!

Primitive fishing with fish spears at the Wilderness Survival Skills Intensive, 5-day survival course.

Now on to preparing for our upcoming programs including:
Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program which begins September 6th;
Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship which begins September 17th;
Wild Mushroom Identification Class on September 24th;
Survival Fire Making Skills Class on November 5th; and
Carnivore Tracking Workshop with Sue Morse on November 19-20th!

New Sign at Alderleaf Farm!

A huge, huge thank you to Georgie Lilgreen for creating this amazing sign for the entrance to Alderleaf! Its been receiving continuous compliments from all the staff, students, residents and visitors. Georgie is a tremendous artist and is skilled at many crafts. She recently graduated from the Wilderness Certification Program and we are very much looking forward to her involvement as an intern! Thanks Georgie!

Congratulations AWCP graduates!

Congratulations again to the 2010-2011 graduates of the Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program!

In case you missed it, here's the video slideshow of the their year that was shown at graduation:



You can view more photos, as well as videos, radio interviews, press, and more at our Media Coverage page: http://www.wildernesscollege.com/media-coverage.html

Five Trackers receive Track & Sign Specialist Certificates! (Including 3 Alderleaf Instructors!)

Alderleaf Wilderness College hosted a CyberTracker Specialist Track & Sign Evaluation with evaluators Casey McFarland and Mark Elbroch. The CyberTracker Evaluations are the international standard for assessing and certifying wildlife trackers, and uphold a high standard of competency.

It was an amazing weekend full of challenging track & sign questions - from tiny shrew, mouse, & partial frog prints; to robin, sparrow, & dove tracks; rat, weasel, & gray squirrel footprints; male/female, gait, and interpretive questions; many kinds of scat, feeding, and tree marking sign; and much more.



Alderleaf staff and students had a very strong showing. Instructors, Filip Tkaczyk, Dave Scott, and Jason Knight, all scored 100%, receiving the specialist level qualification, along with Marcus Reynerson of Wilderness Awareness School and Chris Byrd. It is quite an honor, as they are now part of only fifteen trackers in North America who've reached the specialist level out of over 700 who've taken the test. Staff member, Steve Nicolini, and student, Phil "Jackrabbit" Johnston, also performed extremely well, receiving level 3 certificates!



It was an intense and exciting weekend, and all came away with a strong sense of accomplishment, learning, and camaraderie! Its so great to be in a region with such a talented crew of trackers, who are so dedicated to sharing what they know and growing the field.

A big thank you goes out to Casey and Mark for taking time away from their mountain lion research project and traveling out from Colorado to facilitate the evaluation!

Interested in attending a tracking class? Check out our Wildlife Tracking Weekend Course and Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship.

Hosting a Hunter Education Class!

Alderleaf Wilderness College hosted an official Hunter Education Class run by Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife instructors / master hunters - Sharon Rose, Wes Childers, and Ron & Sherry Poppe. It was an excellent class with amazing staff and a great field course. In the photo above, Wes Childers teaches about wildlife identification.


Here students are learning about safe firearm handling, hunting ethics, and sportsmanship. The course also covers wildlife conservation, bow-hunting, rifle & shotgun mechanics, hunting laws and regulations, basic wilderness survival, first aid, and more.


The students had a great time and all passed with flying colors, receiving their Hunter Education Certificates - a requirement for acquiring hunting licenses and tags. We hope to host another class next spring!

A huge thanks goes out to the instructors - Sharon, Wes, Ron, and Sherry - who volunteer their time to teach - thank you thank you!

Tracking Wildlife East of the Cascade Mountains

Students and staff from the Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship traveled east of the Cascade Mountains to track animals in preparation for upcoming tracker evaluations. We visited the foothills on the eastside of the Cascade mountains on our first day.



As we explored the sagebrush steppe, we observed a herd of elk and big horned sheep. We also saw the sign of these animals, including some huge elk antlers that had been shed this springtime. Brandon demonstrates a magnificent pair of antlers in the photo above. Incredible how heavy and large they are!



We also discovered many bones, including skulls, legs and this lower mandible being displayed by tracking apprenticeship student Phil. Such bones and other signs tells the story of the struggles of the animals that lived in this open terrain. The challenges of winter can claim the lives of many animals. But their death is life to many other animals including coyotes, cougars, bears, and a variety of birds and other small animals. Nothing is wasted in the natural world.

The second day, we found our way to the isolated Juniper Dunes. This location has the northern most significant stand of juniper trees. This dune system was deposited by the giant Missoula Floods of the last ice age.



The dunes are home to a variety of creatures, many of which are cryptically colored to blend into their sandy habitat. One such creatures is the pygmy horned lizard (Phrynosoma douglasii).



These little horned lizards are sometimes mistakenly called "horned toads." Though, they are reptiles, not amphibians. Their chunky profiles, and large, rounded heads with wide mouths do look somewhat like a toad.



Some of the insects in the dunes are even more cryptically colored. The grasshopper in this image is practically invisible against the sand, and we only noticed it when it moved!



Another interesting find where several egg cases of a praying mantis (called ootheca). We also found these in the cough pellets of a raven! Seeing this distinct insect sign helped all of us be more prepared for the upcoming Track & Sign Evaluations.

What an amazing way to wrap up our spring studies! The 2 day trip was so packed full of amazing encounters and observations that it felt more like a 4 day trip.

More Alderleaf updates coming soon...!