Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship to Columbia River Area

This weekend March 9 & 10, Alderleaf's Wildlife Tracking Apprenticehip program headed out for a two day adventure to the dry canyon lands along the Columbia River.  This arid landscape is dominated by shrub-steppe composed of sagebrush, bunchgrass and rabbitbrush.  It is in great contrast to the lush, sopping wet forests on the western slopes of the Cascade mountains.

We focused on learning the tracks and sign of the wildlife of this dry land in preparation for a track & sign evaluation in June.  We were blessed with good weather, especially on Saturday and got to strip down to our t-shirts and soak up the sun.  The sandy and muddy areas we visited were loaded with tracks and sign.

Here are the perfect tracks of the black-billed magpie.  These beautiful black-and-white birds are a common sight on the dry side of the mountains in Washington state.

Just a few of the skulls and bones found underneath the roosting spot of a great horned owl along the base of huge basalt cliffs.

One of our favorite finds was a pygmy short-horned lizard.  Here student Jeremy poses with the little lizard.

Here is a close up of the lizard itself.  The students got to enjoy watching it demonstrate a variety of different modes of locomotion including walking, running and burying itself.  Here is a short video of the lizard burying itself rapidly in the sand.

Notice the way the lizard shimmies its body makes the sand fall back over it and makes it all but invisible to the searching eyes of potential predators.

Overall this trip was rich in tracks, and we left feeling satisfied and very fortunate for having seen so much diversity.

Watch for more updates soon!

Pine Needle Baskets and Forest Stewardship

This week, students in the Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program got to learn how to make pine needle baskets as well as learning vital skills of habitat restoration and forest stewardship.  Here are some photographic highlights for the class days.

Alderleaf student Artie shows us his progress on the early stages of a coiled pine needle basket.  The pine needles are wound together using rafia. 

Here another Alderleaf student, Jeremy, shows us a basket that is further along and is starting to show a bowl-like shape.  These baskets can be made to be very tight, and can make a small or large basket.  These can containers can carry a variety of items or wild harvested foods.

Here is an example of a Native style of pine needle basketry that was made of ponderosa pine needles and bear grass.  The perfect pattern shows us this was made by the hands of a master basket maker.

On the following class day, the same students learned a ton about habitat restoration and forest stewardship.  Then they went out on to the Alderleaf property to implement what they had learned.  They checked on the previous years' native plantings.  Then, they located spots to plant more native species.  Once they found a good location, they trimmed back the invasive Himalayan blackberry and set to work getting the site ready.

Here Alderleaf students Andrew and Artie work together to cut back blackberries, dig a hole and plant a shore pine (Pinus contorta contorta).  Once the tree is in the ground, and dirt is filled in around it, a ring of mulch is created to help trap water and retain moisture around its roots.

Here is the tree, after completion.  We will enjoy watching it grow, and each year will monitor its progress and remove any invasive species that might threaten to compete with it for light or nutrients.


This native pine tree is an excellent tree to have at the Alderleaf property, and will provide vitamin-rich needles for tea, shade during the summer, cones and nesting habitat for food and shelter for a variety of local wildlife.


Our other cohort of students will be returning from a trip to the shrub-steppe habitats of central Washington.  Watch for a update on their trip very soon!

Cougar at Alderleaf

The Alderleaf Wilderness College campus is a wild place.  It has towering conifers, a fast-flowing creek, and several ponds that all serve as home for many different kinds of wildlife.  Some of the animals that visit the property are large carnivores. Of those, the animal that inspires and excites people the most, is the cougar.

The very thought of one being out there in the forest helps all of us tune our eyes, ears and other senses more sharply to our surroundings.  The presence of such a charismatic and elusive cat gives this place a air of unbridled wildness.  All of us who frequent this land have a secret or not so secret desire to see one.

The closest most of us come is to happen upon fresh tracks.

On a morning during the last week of February, I was walking down one of our trails to go monitor the amphibian activity along the creek.  Having walked the same trail the day before, and having done the usual scan for tracks I had seen nothing but the tracks of some students.  But, this second trip down the trail was different.  Something popped out at me in a deeper mud puddle.

The tracks were perfect, and so fresh I started looking around asking myself,"Where is this animal now?  Is it nearby?  Is it watching me now?"  I got very excited at the sight of these lovely tracks.

It so happens that along this same trail, we had a trail camera set up to take photos of the creatures that use them.  Excitedly, I brought the camera into the office to see what we got, and...

Our camera captured the maker of the tracks at around 1 am the night before!  Looking at the morphology of the track, and the images of the animal we are assuming this is a young male.

To learn more about cougar (also called mountain lion) tracks and sign, check out our free article:

http://www.wildernesscollege.com/mountain-lion-tracks.html

We count ourselves lucky to get to share space with this amazing animal.

Keep an eye out for more updates about the goings on at Alderleaf!

Advanced Fire Skills, Blindfolded Activities and More

The final two weeks of February were pretty packed with lots of different skills at the Wilderness Certification Program, including lessons in nature-based education, permaculture and advanced fire skills.

During one class day, students practiced their fire skills and worked with advanced techniques, including the hand drill method.

Here Alderleaf student Elan shows us how its done, while instructor Steve looks over his shoulder.  Notice the way Elan holds the board with his foot.  This method of holding the fire board down takes a bit of flexibility.

Here two students inoculate some fresh alder logs with mycelium-infused wooden dowels during a permaculture class.  Ethan (on the right margin) drills holes for the dowels, while Sammy pounds them in gently using a hammer.  Then the logs are pilled up in a structure that resembles a log cabin, and left in a cool, shady, moist place to allow the mushroom mycelium to spread.  In a few months or so, we should see some fruiting mushrooms!

On another class day during a nature-based teaching class, some students were challenged to do a blindfolded exercises to get more in tune with their other senses.  This included a blindfolded string  walk through the forest at Alderleaf.  They had to find their way over, under and around obstacles using only their other senses and with the string as their guide.

Students are lead to their blindfolded string walk course in the mossy forest at Alderleaf.

Here students walk carefully along the string course through the vibrant green, overgrown forest landscape.  As they move slowly, the sounds of the forest pop out more clearly and their sense of touch leads them through a diverse world of textures and obstacles.

As the springtime grows ever nearer, students are being challenged with more intense experiences and focused skills.  The more frequent sunny days are helping everyone to feel re-invigorated to learn and explore. Buds are popping and frogs are starting to chorus... there is a stirring in the air...

Watch for another update about the Wilderness Certification Program very soon from the final week of classes before spring break!

Bowmaking, Salves, Primitive Cooking and More

The past few weeks in the Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program has been a whorl-wind of different adventures and activities.  Here are some photographic highlights from the different class days.  The class days included: bow making and arrow making, medicinal tinctures and salves, primitive cooking and wildlife field science.

Here, students Yusef and Dan carve away at vine maple staves as the make their first primitive bows.

Alderleaf instructor, Connor, talks to Andrew about the practice of properly tillering a bow.

Finally, students Dan and Caitlin fire their completed bows and hand-made arrows at a wooden target.

Here instructors Heather (above) and Michelle (below) teach students about how to process raw materials in the usable and effective herbal medicines.  Both tinctures and salves were made that day.

Students melt down raw bees wax to be utilized for the cottonwood salves.

 Here, the salves are being put through various aspects of completion.  You tell the already cooled and solidified salves from the still warm, more fluid ones by the color.  Cooled ones are a brighter yellow.

Hard work done, herbal medicines made.  Here are the tinctures and salves ready to be used.  May they help us stay healthy and infection free!

On another class day, students like Scott here learned to make primitive fishing spears.  Scott is putting the finishing touches on his barbs.

During our day on Tracking in Wildlife Science, students headed out into the field to learn how to utilize the field skills of tracking and nature observation to conduct scientific surveys and collect data. Students found a number of species, including this large northwestern salamander (Ambystoma gracile).

Here, Andrew shows us how roomy it can be inside the abandoned bank-burrow of a beaver.  He seems to be right at home.

On a day on Primitive Cooking, students learned to use several methods including: smoking, cooking on coals, using a steam pit and also cooking in a clay oven.  Above, student Kristian disperses the coals to evenly heat up the steam pit in preparation for underground cooking.

Salmon hangs over a small fire and slowly smokes to perfection.  Below it onions and other edibles are roasting directly in the coals.

Hope you have enjoyed our highlights.

Watch for more from Alderleaf very soon!

Visit to the Burke Museum

The Alderleaf Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship program had an wonderful time visiting and viewing the collections at the Burke Museum in Seattle.  The students and instructors spent time studying the skulls of a variety of birds, mammals and even some snakes.  We also got to view the wings of various Pacific Northwestern bird species.  Here are some highlights from our trip:

Here students Jeremy and Andrew view an immense gray whale skull that is on display.  Most of the skulls we looked at were considerably smaller!

Here is a variety of hides from a variety of northwestern native rodents, including Douglas' squirrels, northern flying squirrel, several voles (including an albino specimen), some least chipmunks and a variety of small insectivores.

Here is a close up of a gopher snake skeleton that we got to view.  Notice the large eye sockets, wide bones reenforcing the nose and the many, many ribs.

The impressive skull of a northern Pacific rattlesnake.  Notice the large, hinged fangs at the front of the mouth.  They have a hollow chamber through which the venom is injected.  Compared to mammals, the skulls of snakes are very fragile and much more loosely arranged.

We all left the museum feeling very grateful for the opportunity to have been there and for all of the knowledge we had gained.

More updates coming soon!

Winter Survival Trip

Each winter, the Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program travels to the north-central mountains of Washington state to practice winter survival skills.  This trip includes building and sleeping in snow shelters, wintertime ethnobotany and wildlife tracking in the snow.

The week started out with students participating in a snowshoe race.  In this race, students strapped snowshoes they made out of willow branches on to their feet and challenged themselves and each other to see who could make it to the finish line with snowshoes intact.

Here is a short video of the race, with all the thrills and spills included:

 
Students also worked on building a variety of snow shelters including snow trenches and quinzees.  Here is an example of a quinzee in progress:

This type of shelter takes a great deal of work, but is also very warm and well-insulated when completed.  Here are 3 students, Torin, Joanna and Rob showing off their completed quinzee.

Here is another student, Kristian, demonstrating a trench shelter.  There are a variety of different trench-type shelters, and this one utilized pine boughs as part of the roof structure.

On another day of class, a group of students hiked to the top of a ridge above the valley where the snow shelters were located.  Here apprentice instructor Shaun, and student Elan take a moment to pause and take in the beauty of the snowy landscape that surrounds them.

Snow provides a vast white canvas on which the tracks of many creatures are written.  Getting familiar with the tracks and other sign in the winter landscapes is a source of enjoyment as well as a potential life-saving source of knowledge.

Students learned to read the fascinating stories told by the tracks left by creatures such as long-tailed weasel, ruffed grouse, mule deer, red squirrel, and raven. Here students follow the trails of 2 coyotes that wove their way through the snowy ponderosa pine forest.

Here student Rob makes sure to utilize all of his 5 senses to engage with the scent mark of a coyote.  Every species of canine has a distinct scent, that one can learn to recognize with practice.

As we explored the forests, we occasionally came upon the old remains of kills sites from various predators.  Here Ted takes a close look at the spine and hips of a mule deer.

Another group of students went into the woods to learn about the use of different plants for wintertime survival.  Here is Georgie showing them how to harvest cambium from a living Ponderosa pine tree.

Here is a closer look at the cambium.  The cambium is the layer underneath the bark which transfers nutrients throughout the tree.  This is edible on many kinds of trees, including all pines.

The winter trip was a great success, and we are grateful for all of the fun, learning and sharing that happened for everyone in the class.

Expect more updates from the Alderleaf Crew soon!

(All photos courtesy of Alderleaf students, Kristian B. and Coley A.)

Naturalist Challenges

The Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program just completed its final week of school before several weeks off for winter break.  Our final week of classes included bird language studies and working with traps and snares.

The final day of class before break was a day of naturalist challenges.  Both cohorts got together and worked in groups in a friendly competition to see who could earn the most points in each of the various challenges.

One challenge was the naturalist scavenger hunt, which included mapping a detailed map of the Alderleaf Property, and recording as many species of flora and fauna as possible... all within 1 hour of time! 

Here, instructor apprentice Shaun helps students Ryan, Roy and Alan identify some of the more challenging plants.


The next challenge involved making a friction fire as quickly as possible, and making it hot enough and high enough to pop a suspended water balloon.  The catch is that they could only use fire wood found in the forest during the challenge.  It happened to be a very wet day, which made this especially difficult.

Here student Scott blows on a tinder bundle after placing a coal in it in hopes of getting a fire.

After a great deal of effort, and team work, here is what the moment of success looks like:

Here is Sean, a successful member from another group just after the balloon was popped.

Victory is evident by the big smile and the numerous droplets of water that came from the exploding water balloon.

The final day before break was a blast, and there was much fun and celebration.  We look forward our Alderleaf Wilderness Certification Program students returning from break.

Look for more updates from Alderleaf in the new year!

Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship

Alderleaf Wilderness College teaches many classes, one of which is the 10-weekend long Wildlife Tracking Apprenticeship.  This is an in-depth extended study into the field of wildlife tracking that includes both basic and advanced tracking concepts.

During the second weekend in December, students in the class spent Saturday focusing on ecological tracking: looking at wildlife evidence in the landscape such as trails, beds, chews, scrapes, scats and other sign. On Sunday, the students spent practicing the skills of trailing.

Saturday started with a close look at a skull found near the creek on the Alderleaf property.  We all looked closely, and worked together on determining what species the skull belonged to and what predator likely killed and fed upon it.

This is the skull of a Douglas Squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii), and the likely predator was a weasel, as demonstrated by the chew marks and indentations of the canines in the brain case.  Weasels often feed on the brains of small mammals, as the brain is a very fat-rich organ.

Students then headed to the field and very quickly located some fresh coyote scat in a meadow.  Upon closer inspection, we noticed that the scat contained a segment of a tapeworm in it!

In the same meadow, students found 4 different kinds of vole sign, including: trails, scat, feeding sign and a vole nest.  Then, as we were walking into the forest we ran into a tiny insectivorous mammal.

This little Trowbridge's shrew (Sorex trowbridgii) is one of the smallest mammals in the world, and is a very active insect hunter that hardly ever stops moving.  We have seen their tracks before, but it was great to see the animal itself in action.

We ended our day by exploring the edge of a beaver pond, and watching a kingfisher catch and eat a small trout.  It was a wonderful day in the field, and we all left excited to learn more.

Watch for more updates soon!