by Denny Olson It has been an unforgettable year. The uncertainty of COVID and all of its variants has us all wishing for personal contact, more mobility and that calming feeling of being safe from invisible and unpredictable forces. It doesn’t help that, just when we are seeing a glimmer of light on the horizon,…
Read MoreCategory: Lifelong Learning
Owen Sowerwine Educational Research
by Denny Olson In the summer of 2017, Flathead High School International Baccalaureate Students Conrad Hedinger, Molly Adams and Sarah Randolph did increment borer fieldwork aging black cottonwood trees at 16 plot points in a grid pattern at Owen Sowerwine Natural Area (OSNA). The casual observation suspicion that cottonwoods were not regenerating very well was…
Read MoreConservation Educator’s Niche – December 2021
by Denny Olson Part Two: The places on the planet — restoring balance (see part one here) Last month I outlined the big, planetary picture. About big, planetary balance. But there’s something else you might want to know — because you don’t just live “on a planet”. You live in a place on that planet….
Read MoreConservation Educator’s Niche – November 2021
by Denny Olson The Planetary Story: Part One. Very, very long ago and not so far away, a giant blob of rock and iron cooled, water pooled over much of its surface, and somehow, green things that reproduce themselves populated the water and the land, oxygenating the thin skin of atmosphere. Plants didn’t need anything…
Read MoreBirds of Prey Week Workshops – Fall 2021
by Kathy Ross To kick off activities for Flathead Audubon Birds of Prey week, workshops were held at Montana Wild Wings Raptor Recovery Center on September. 11 and 14. The enthusiastic participants enjoyed a wealth of information about the most abundant migrating raptors of Jewel Basin Hawkwatch site. A beautiful Sharp-shinned and a Coopers hawk,…
Read MoreFlathead Audubon Out and About Fall 2021
by Darcy Thomas and Pam Willison Darcy Thomas represented Flathead Audubon at the Forestry Fair in Riverfront Park in Libby on September 24. The fair was sponsored by the Kootenai Forest Stakeholders Coalition. Darcy set up an educational table and provided information about forestry birds. Many people stopped to talk about birds and forest conservation,…
Read MoreSneezeweed
by Pam Willison It’s the time of year when common sneezeweed is blooming in Owen Sowerwine, and a person might assume it gets its name because it causes itchy eyes and sneezing in allergy sufferers. However, this native aster acquired the name sneezeweed because it was dried and used as a “snuff”, resulting in sneezes…
Read MoreOctober 2021 Flathead Audubon Education Update
by Cindy Roberts Tell an educator you know about Flathead Audubon Educational Trunks! Flathead Audubon Society has educational trunks available for check-out again, with materials for teachers, home-schoolers, and others interested in birds, their habitats, and conservation. All trunks are free of charge. The trunks and materials can be used to build, enhance, and bring…
Read MoreMuch to See in October
by Denny Olson Locally, with the frightening uptick in Delta variant COVID cases, it would be easy to sink into the “not again!” cloistering depression of our past year. If you are tempted to resignedly wallow a bit, here are some alternatives I gleaned from our old FAS phenology calendars. The key, as usual, is…
Read MoreConservation Educator’s Niche – September 2021
by Denny Olson I decided to take a departure from the usual this month. Recently, we have seen our Valley “relapse” into another round of a pandemic variant, and the resulting cancellations and disappointments, and the depressing prospects of us returning to “normal” soon, have taken an emotional toll. But lest…
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