 May 18th E-NEWSLETTER
Programs 
Birding by River Raft Friday, May 20th 2:00PM-4:00PM OR Sunday, May 22nd 7:30AM-9:30AM Float 4 miles down Icicle Creek and Wenatchee River with professional river guides from Osprey Rafting and birder/naturalist guides in search of birds. Must be 8 years old and up to participate. 
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Friday, May 20th 6:30PM-8:00PM Hybrid Join us for a Bird Fest evening program with Dan Streiffert. Streiffert has been birding and photographing in Harney County, OR for 15+ years. Learn his tips and tricks for seeing particular birds and wildlife at different times of year!
Neighborhood Bird Walk Saturday, May 21st 8:00AM-10:00AM Join former Community Programs Manager, Rachel Bishop for a walking bird tour around Leavenworth. One of the best local places to see many birds is around the neighborhoods that make up Leavenworth! 
Bird Fest Family Day Saturday, May 21st 10:00AM-2:00PM Join us on the lawn for a favorite Bird Fest tradition! Take part in art and nature activities, embark on a free guided nature walk, learn about local birds, and enjoy LIVE music from local musicians, Eric Link and Gavin McLaughlin! All are welcome at this FREE event!
A Thousand Blended Notes: A Life of Birds and Poems Saturday, May 21st 7:00PM-8:30PM Hybrid Join us for the free 2022 Bird Fest Keynote Address with poet and birder, Derek Sheffield. Sheffield will give a presentation on the unique and ancient connection that exists between poets and birds. You will hear poems from Sheffield and other contemporary poets. 
Red Barn Event: Storyteller and Basket Weaver Julie Edwards Wednesday, May 25th 7:00PM-8:00PM Hybrid Join WRI and the Greater Leavenworth Museum for the last Red Barn Event of the season! Get to know the artist behind the Story Basket Exhibit at the museum and hear some stories about her journey of learning to weave.
FREE Community Starts Swap Thursday, May 26th 5:30PM-7:00PM Join WRI and the Cascade Garden Club for a free Community Starts Swap at the E. Lorene Young Community Garden! If you have starts to bring, bring them. If you don’t have any starts to swap, you can still take some home with you! 
Introduction to Ornithology Class Saturday, May 28th AND Sunday, May 29th Are you interested in birds? Want to learn the science behind them? Join WRI and Suzanne Tomassi, visiting researcher at University of Sheffield, for two half-day classes! You’ll learn about bird biology, behavioral ecology, and practice field methods for studying birds.
  3rd Grade Field Days WRI has just completed a 4-week Field Day program with four 3rd grade classrooms at Alpine Lakes Elementary. Each classroom visited WRI for a half day each week for 4 weeks!
On week 3, students learned more about birds by participating in two activities. First, they got to look at real bird skins to learn about their body parts and functions. In the “What’s That Bird?” activity, they observed hidden wooden birds by using binoculars. They had to describe the bird to their partner as they colored a picture of that bird.
On week 4, students learned about the behavioral traits of birds. They played “Migration Mayhem” where they learned about some local migratory birds and then saw some of the challenges birds have to go through as they migrate. They also learned how to communicate like a bird by learning bird songs and calls! Finally, they went on a hike to see how many birds they could see. Some students were able to see 60 different birds!
  6th Grade Field Days In partnership with Cascadia Conservation District, there was a two-day Field Day program for 6th grade students from Cashmere Middle School. Students got to explore two different ecosystems in our valley: the WRI campus and the Columbia Breaks Fire Interpretive Center.
On their day with CCD, they learned about fire ecology and fire management practices. On their day with WRI, they hiked the trails around WRI while looking for some key items about the ecosystem here. They used some science tools to compare three different mini ecosystems. They also tested the health of the Wenatchee River and learned more about the water cycle and how it applies to Washington’s rainshadow.
Thank you to one of our loyal volunteers, Tim Abel, for helping at each of the Youth Programs mentioned above. Want to volunteer for Youth Programs? Click here to view upcoming opportunities.
Place  Welcome Sara to the WRI Team We are excited to welcome Sara Evans to the WRI team as Bookkeeper! Sara has a lot of experience with nonprofit bookkeeping. She has worked with Upper Valley MEND for several years (and continues to do so!). Sara has a BS in Accounting from CWU and lives in Leavenworth with her husband, two teenage boys, two dogs, 7 chickens and a cat. She enjoys gardening, nature, frugality, saving the planet, history, documentaries and true crime.
 Welcome Nic to the WRI Board We are excited to welcome Nic Pottier to WRI’s Board of Directors! Nic is passionate about community-supported education, and feels honored to serve WRI and our community. He has called Washington home for more than 20 years, and is grateful to live in the Cascades where he has skied, biked, hiked, and climbed for years. Nic grew up in France and has lived in Ecuador and Rwanda, where he co-founded the software company, Nyaruka, and helped to develop the kLab, a co-working space and innovation hub for Rwanda’s young tech sector. His time in Rwanda and Ecuador taught him human ingenuity knows no bounds. Nic and his wife live in Leavenworth and can often be found hiking and foraging for mushrooms in the surrounding hills with their dog Chef.
  New Multi-Lingual Native Plant Signs If you’ve walked around our property lately, you may have noticed some new signs! In 2021, WRI received a grant from the Washington Native Plant Society to support creating multi-lingual signs for native plants on the WRI campus. Currently, we have 13 signs for different native plants on display. You can visit our Native Plant Garden now and learn the English, Scientific, nxaʔamxčín (a dialect of interior Salish language spoken by p’squosa people), and Spanish names of the plants in the garden. Thank you to local language experts for helping with this project! To learn more about WRI’s seven gardens, visit here.
Thank you to our donors from the last 2 weeks! Susan Hamilton and Timothy Bates Susan Polizzi Druska Salisbury-Milan Candace and Chuck Egner – Sustaining Diane Patterson and David Stoller – Sustaining Jane Mounsey Kamuron Gurol – Sustaining Tracy and Ben Brulotte – Sustaining Lyn McCoy and Richard Szeliski Dave and Pat Notter – Sustaining Michael and Nancy Merrill Gro Buer and Bruce Williams – Sustaining Laura and Greg Reichlin – Sustaining Upper Basin Birders Phil Leatherman and Jeanne Miller in memory of Harriet Bullitt Puget Sound Mycological Society Kimberly and Larry Fulkerson
Our Contact Information  |
Just good local news –
Not sure how many of you know and love WRI like I do! Carolyn started the climate movement in Wenatchee and clearly still doing awesome work.
