Ellensburg
Wildlife Tracking Club

Ellensburg Wildlife Tracking Club

Meets Bi-Monthly at Various Locations in and Around Ellensburg

Next Meeting & Location April 27th 9:30 -11:30

at Burkett Lake Recreation Area (second entrance past lake)

Shrub-steppe is a very diverse ecosystem and has species found nowhere else in Washington!

Shrub-steppe is a vital habitat for sage grouse, pygmy rabbits, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and dozens of other bird and animal species, the sagebrush sea is a sprawling shrub-steppe ecosystem stretching from the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains in Montana and Wyoming through the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah north to eastern Washington and Oregon. Core winter range for mule deer and home to endangered grouse, pronghorn. Shrub-Steppe description from Conservation Northwest.

The Ellensburg Wildlife Tracking Club is a way for participants to get introduced to animal tracking. Learn way to observe the natural world in a new way. Spend time outdoors with others. Getting connected with nature and also nerding out about natural mysteries, learn the hard skills (lightly) and start connecting living & non living things in the natural world all around us. Its also a great way to get ready for Wildlife Tracking Evaluations, which are certifications offered by Tracker Certification North America

Your instructor Kevin O’Malley Naturalist Educator & Wilderness Skills Instructor - As a child Porcupine spent countless hours exploring, observing, swimming, and fishing on the lands and waters of Lake Erie. Curious and thankful for the generations that came before us Porcupine received a degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Toledo.  Noticing a connection with his childhood and the next generation of kids, Porcupine became a Resident Naturalist teaching hands-on inquiry-based science for the Juneau School District.  Wanting to deepen his naturalist training he completed the gratifying & strengthening, nine-month residential Immersion Program at the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, WA. During that time he also completed the certification through Kamana Four, a self directed three-year nature study program. There he worked for three years as a Teaching Assitant for the educational Tracking Intensive Program.  From there he has served as a freelance naturalist in various settings on the West coast ultimately becoming the In-School Programs Specialist at Seward Park Audubon.  He now serves as Lead Naturalist and Executive Director of South Sound Nature School. Kevin is a Level 3 Certified Wildlife Tracker.

Your instructor Bri McFarland- Bri is a Pacific Northwest native. She grew up picking huckleberries barefoot, climbing trees and catching frogs in the foothills of the Cascades. She is spending her adulthood rewilding herself and working to create community around the importance of nature connection. Raising her own children in Seattle, Bri has made it a priority to provide opportunity for children in her community to experience and connect with the natural world in an urban setting. Bri is a Wilderness First Responder, an Anake/Immersion graduate through Wilderness Awareness School and a certified Wildlife Tracker.  She is a life long student of the earth and a community builder. In her free time, Bri volunteers with Conservation Northwest and the Community Wildlife Monitoring Project (CWMP), enjoys cold plunges, foraging for wild edibles and reading field guides. Any given evening, you can find Bri building fires and cooking over them with the other wildlings in her life.