Welcome to Week 4 of our 10-week challenge, designed to encourage new naturalist discoveries as we continue to practice social distancing and wait for the coming vaccinations! I invite you to put on an extra coat and head outside for a chilly exploration this week.

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Each week, select one of the 60 total activities designed to delight your senses, stimulate your curiosity, and remind you of the joy that springs up just by being outside in nature. When you’ve completed 10 activities, send an email to Susan (skylinebal@gmail.com) so she can add your name to the list of Coronavirus 2021 life-long learners on the Wenatchee Naturalist website. 

Below are six options for Week 4 – find one that sparks your curiosity.

Read

The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham, who is a native of Edgefield, South Carolina and an Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University. He is a birder, a naturalist, and a hunter-conservationist. Register to hear him speak locally on Feb. 18, at 1 pm over Zoom.

Listen

Type in a nature-themed search word on the Poetry Foundation website to discover poets new to you. Read several poems out loud to yourself, as poems are meant to be spoken and listened to.

Watch

Register for the 2/17/2021, 6:30pm, presentation, Healing the Big River – Salmon Dreams and the Columbia River Treaty. Twelve contributing authors combine essays & visual storytelling about the Columbia River.

Journal

Download artist Christine Elder’s free ebooks: Getting Started with Nature Sketching, Nature Journaling for all ages, and Quick Start Guide to Travel Journaling.

Visit

Go for a nature walk in at least three City of Leavenworth Parks. Use the link above to find a park and access details.

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Advocate

Engage with your Washington State Representatives on a natural resource or conservation topic you care about. This webpage link provides all contact information.

Website Resources

While you savor your morning coffee, explore some of the recent blog posts including one about neighborhood winter tracking of cats and dogs or read about wintering mule deer in the Foothills. Before you head out on a forest ramble, review the identification characteristics of Wenatchee Watershed conifers and study the cone photo collage.