Film Screening & Discussion
For the last year, Kent Woodruff, a retired US Forest Service biologist from Winthrop, has been engaging people across the west in discussions about what we can do to soften the impacts of climate change. As our already dry landscape and water resources become impacted by climate change, this topic will be increasingly relevant to our ecological and human communities.
On Saturday, June 17th, 2017, OHA teamed up with the Okanogan Land Trust (OLT) to offer an educational birding field trip in the Okanogan Highlands.
On Friday, March 24th 2017, OHA celebrated 25 years by hosting a fundraising concert, variety show, and dinner at the Community Cultural Center of Tonasket for the release of OHA’s Highland Voices CD. We enjoyed an evening of delicious locally-sourced food, original music, and appreciation for the people who have been a part of OHA over the years.
On Friday, February 3, 2017, David Moskowitz – expert wildlife tracker, photographer, and author – returned to Highland Wonders, bringing an evening of photos and stories exploring the world endangered mountain caribou and the last great inland temperate rainforest left on the planet.
On Friday, January 6th, 2017, award-winning photographer Paul Bannick returned to Highland Wonders with a presentation based on his new book, Owl: A Year in the Lives of North American Owls. In Owl, Paul uses his intimate yet dramatic images to follow North American owls through the course of one year and in their distinct habitats.
Dragonflies and damselflies are often called birdwatchers’ insects. Active and brilliantly colored, these four-winged predators fly everywhere over pristine wetlands. Their very different-looking larvae are dominant predators in the water below. They have the best vision and the most versatile flight of any insects, and their sex life is similarly superlative.
Life has been on an immense journey through time, and it turns out that much of the evidence for that journey is all around us in the natural world. On this short hike we will look for the evidence that the plants, animals and even the rocks have changed over time, creating ever more complex ecological relationships and ever richer ecosystems. This walk offered a condensed version of a 5-day program on this subject that Dana taught last summer in the Methow Valley.
Dana Visalli, botanist and editor of “The Methow Naturalist,” led a guided hike along a hidden canyon connecting the Burge Mountain road and the Highlands Nordic Sno-Park near Havillah.
A passionate naturalist and pioneer in native bee biology, Dr. Don Rolfs presented his own unique and beautiful photographs of native bees of Washington State. Seven years in the making, this fast-moving, profusely illustrated presentation on April 1st, 2016, was thoroughly enjoyed by both adults and children.
The Okanogan Highlands Alliance (OHA) is working with partners to benefit water quality and quantity, and to increase habitat for fish and wildlife, by reducing severe stream channel incision that disconnects Myers Creek (north of Chesaw) from its floodplain. These changes will facilitate the growth of native vegetation on the historical and new floodplains, providing resources to encourage beavers to recolonize the area and improve the hydrology of the project sites into the future…