Wildlife Awareness (September)

When you travel in the backcountry, you are surrounded by wildlife, many of which you never see. This class will provide students with basic knowledge on how to be aware and safely recreate in remote and wilderness habitats. Students will learn to identify wildlife, their tracks, and other signs they leave. Wildlife covered will include: beavers, rabbits, raccoons, deer, elk, coyotes, wolves, bears, cougars, various birds, and more.

We will address and hopefully resolve common fears and misconceptions about predators. Also, students will receive training on how to respond appropriately to encounters with bears, cougars, elk, coyotes, and wolves. Students will gain practical skills in the use and importance of carrying bear spray and the use of field guides to track animals. Participants will also learn about wildlife attractant management and current best practices to reduce human impacts on wildlife populations.

 When you travel in the backcountry, you are surrounded by wildlife that you may never see including beavers, rabbits, raccoons, coyotes, bears, cougars, and birds of prey. Learn about the wildlife that live around you and how to identify tracks, scats, and other signs of these animals. Build confidence and improve safety by learning what to do if you encounter wildlife on the trail. This class promotes safe and peaceful co-existence with wildlife and will include a guided field trip through the trails at the North Cascade Institute to observe wildlife signs first-hand.  

About Your Instructor Lindsay Welfelt

 Lindsay Welfelt has spent most of her life recreating and working with wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. Currently Lindsay is a bear and cougar specialist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. She earned her Master’s and PhD conducting black bear research throughout Washington’s North Cascade Mountains and spends most of her free time running around in the woods with her dog (with bear spray, of course!).