January Enews

Special Event: Meet the Artists Reception for "The Historic Barns of the Methow Valley" Exhibit

Thursday, January 9^th, 5:30 – 7pm,
Venue: Methow Arts, northeast corner of Glover Street and 2nd Avenue in Twisp

We hope you'll join us for a very special evening on Thursday, January 9th. We're excited to partner with Methow Arts to present a photographic exhibition called “The Historic Barns of the Methow Valley.”

At this special Artists Reception Event, you will see amazing photographs of historic barns from around the Valley, meet the photographers and landowners who brought these images to life, and enjoy some tasty local foods. In addition, you will hear from the Shafer Historical Museum, Methow Arts, and the Methow Conservancy about the artistic legacy of agriculture in the Methow Valley. Prints of the photographs will be on sale with proceeds benefiting the local artists and future exhibits at Methow Arts. The exhibition runs through February 5th and features the work of participants from last summer’s photography workshop, led by National Geographic Explorer Ryan T. Bell. For more information about this event contact: info@methowartsalliance.org.

Conservation Course 2020 Open for Registration

Topic: Snow's Biome - A Deep Dive into Winter Ecology
Dates: Monday Evenings, February 24^th – March 16^th, 6 – 8pm
Venue: The Winthrop Barn
Registration: Register by emailing Daniel or calling 509-996-2870. Cost: $90 for full 4-session course or $30 per class.

This winter, we’ll be focusing on how life thrives in our coldest months, by shoveling into the different roles that both biotic and abiotic processes play in the Methow’s winter ecosystem. While we are still working on securing the very best speakers for this course we have solidified four topics that will enhance your understanding of our coldest months of the year.

This year’s topics will include:

• Humans and Winter: We may be accustomed to stomping off our ski boots outside a cozy home before snuggling in with a hot drink, but how have humans in the Methow found ways to survive and thrive during the coldest months throughout history? We have partnered with the Methow Valley Interpretive Center and the Shafer Museum to share stories of humans of the Methow Valley and their winter time activities.

• Snow Science: This presentation will answer the questions of what is snow, how does it form, and in what ways does it shape our landscapes. It turns out that it’s not just Gregor that undergoes a metamorphosis, but snow as well.
• Warm Blood: This session will look at how evolution has shaped the physiology of our winter time endotherms so that they are able to live through the extremes of a Methow winter and how resident species utilize the environment to meet their nutritional needs.
• Living Snow: Join Dr. Robin Kodner, Associate Professor of biology at Western Washington University as she explores the microbiome of snow and teaches us that snow is a living thing that can tell us a lot about the health of our ecosystem. She will also touch upon her community science research through the Living Snow Project.

Class size is limited, so register soon!

Meadowlark Trail Complete!

With a few weeks to spare before the snow fell, we finished construction on a 2.5 mile hiking/walking loop in the Meadowlark Natural Area. Big thanks to our design/build contractor, the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance and our crew of volunteers who helped construct the trail with minimal impact. We're now working on signage and trailhead access so that we can officially open the pedestrian loop to the public this spring.

"We're going to need the community's help," notes Stewardship Director Heide Andersen. "We want the Natural Area to be enjoyed by people but also to remain a habitable place for wildlife. The trail will be accessible by foot only -- no bikes, motorized use or horses. And, we'll expect people to keep their dogs on leashes to minimize stress to the deer, ground-nesting birds, songbirds, and other creatures who call this special hillside home."

We were able to purchase the Meadowlark Natural Area (formerly the Heckendorn Homestead) on the hillside just outside of Winthrop in the spring of 2018 thanks to a wonderful, forward-thinking donation from Tina and Eliot Scull. In addition to protecting the hillside, important as winter range and first spring green-up for our local mule deer herd, we also recognized this Natural Area as a place to create new, free public trail access close to town. Our vision is getting closer to reality -- stay tuned for more information on a Opening Day Celebration coming soon!

Annual Awardees Celebrated at Four Thoughts Event

We are sure grateful for the more than 200 people who joined us on December 6th at The Winthrop Barn for our annual holiday gathering. This year we tried something new with the format and the feedback has been great! We offered a free (and delicious) soup dinner and followed the meal with approximately 8 minute speeches by 4 of the Valley's thought leaders -- Mark Miller, Katharine Bill, Vic Stokes, and our very own Johnnie Duguay. Each speaker reflected on what "caring for the land" means to them. We were able to video the presentations and will soon post links to share!

That night is always one of our favorites of the year because we get the opportunity to publicly honor amazing community members who go above and beyond in their efforts to inspire people to care for the land. This year we were super excited to honor Tuck Stebbins with our Susie Stephens award for outstanding volunteer service, Nancy and Dick Gode with our Ken White Award for a lifetime of conservation work, and Cathy and Phil Davis with our You Inspire Us award for their truly amazing work on Homestream Park. You can read more about our awardees here.

Nature Observations with Trevin Leon

We're excited to once again share a photo and observations from Winthrop resident Trevin Leon. Trevin has a keen eye and an infinite interest in the natural world and we love seeing what he sends to our inbox each month. This month, Trevin found himself driving with his grandmother near Carlton and this beautiful coyote stopped to give them a stare.

Trevin shared the following insights with us about coyotes: "The characteristics of this coyote vary from grayish brown to a yellowish gray on the upper parts. The throat and belly are white. The long tail, which can be half the body length, is bottle-shaped with a black tip. Coyotes can occasionally be seen during the daytime hours, but they are usually nocturnal. Unlike wolves, coyotes are less likely to form packs, so they usually hunt individually, in pairs or small family groups."

January Reading List

We thought you might be interested in seeing what we’ve been reading lately. Editor’s note: These articles do not represent the beliefs or opinions of the Methow Conservancy or its staff. We offer them purely as a means of sparking discussion.

Methow Valley News – Growing Season: A Year in Methow Valley Agriculture - In case you missed it, this first-of-its-kind article written by the Methow Conservancy’s own very talented Agricultural Coordinator Alyssa Jumars is part of an ongoing series in the Methow Valley News about farming and ranching in the Methow Valley. In this edition a variety of local producers ruminate on how this past warm spring and cool summer impacted their operations. Nice work Alyssa!

Scientific American – Keep an Eye on These 2020 Conservation Issues - Since we not only left behind an old year, but an old decade as well, publications have taken their typical year-end lists and future theorizing to another level. This wide ranging list of future conservation trends for the new 2020 decade will get your imagination churning on what the next ten years will bring.

New York Times – Storm of Tumbleweeds Buries Cars, Terrifies Drivers and Astounds Police - While not as a scary as some of future conservation threats in the article above, this pile-up of tumbleweeds outside the town of Richland in Southeastern Washington on New Year’s Eve was scary enough to make national news. Tumbleweed, also known as Russian thistle, is an invasive species that is prevalent here in the Valley. So add highway safety as another good reason to pull your weeds!

High Country News – When Wildlife Safety Turns Into a Fierce Political Debate - As a fellow community in an ungulate migration corridor with an increasing amount of tourist visitation and a deer automobile collision problem, we should take note of the lessons learned by the trials and tribulations of Island Park, Idaho as they grapple with the prospect of new highway overpasses for wildlife.

Audubon Magazine – These Students are Partnering with Corvids to Replant a Forest After Fire - On Santa Cruz Island, three undergraduate students are working with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and Cornell Lab of Ornithology to look at the viability of using Island Scrub-Jays to restore oaks to fire-damaged landscapes. Island Scrub-Jays facilitate restoration naturally by conducting a behavior called scatter hoarding in which they stash acorns in a variety locations throughout their territory. Once the birds inevitably don’t eat all of their stashes the acorns repopulate the landscape with oak stands. Here in the Valley we have a number of scatter hoarding species like the red breasted nuthatch, gray jay, and Clark’s nutcracker that could potentially be used as forest restoration collaborators.