Author Archives: jltnatural-admin

April Book Club Selection

This month's selection

This month’s selection

The JLT Natural History Society Book Club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, April 28 to discuss A Year in Paradise, by Floyd Schmoe.

In midwinter 1920, Floyd Schmoe and his bride struggled up Mount Rainier on snowshoes on a long-delayed honeymoon. As the new caretakers at Paradise Inn, they would be alone in a towering world of snow and ice and incomparable beauty, until the plows arrived to free them on the fourth of July. So began a long love affair with Mount Rainier. And here is Floyd Schmoe’s account of it; a delightful and informative portrait of a mountain through the seasons of the year.

Through his personal narrative, Schmoe writes of many things that combined to cast a spell on him: the shy mountain goat, the reproductive processes of trees and plants, techniques of climbing, the habits of glaciers and volcanoes, the curious fact of a mouse being found at very high altitude, the peculiarities of tourists — and much more. This is a book for anyone drawn to the mysteries of the high country.

The author was the first naturalist for Mount Rainier National Park and a two-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for location and details.

This event was attended by nine people.

Microscope Magic

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJoin Pat and Caroline from 1 – 4 pm on Wednesday, March 19 for an afternoon of fun on a microscopic scale. Start with a one- hour walk in Fort Townsend State Park to collect samples of mosses, leaves, needles, cones, fungus, lichens or fern fronds. Then go indoors to examine your finds under the microscope. You’ll be amazed at what you see! The complex arrangement of overlapping leaves on a liverwort, for example, or the peristome teeth on a moss sporophyte. Certain plants can only be identified by features too small to be seen with the naked eye.

For more information, contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org

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This activity was held at Pat’s house. Eleven people participated.

March Book Club Selection

Undaunted CourageThe JLT Natural History Society Book Club will meet at 3:30 pm on Monday, March 17, to discuss Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, written by Stephen Ambrose.

This 1996 biography of Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is based on journals and letters written by Lewis, Clark, Thomas Jefferson and many others. The book outlines the expedition in detail, including the route, interactions with Native Americans, scientific discoveries, wildlife and landscape. The expedition, and Lewis’s life as a whole, is placed within the broader context of Jefferson’s presidency, the opening of the American west, and early Indian Policy. The text is supplemented by maps and illustrations, including some drawn by Lewis himself.

Please contact Pat at jltnatural@saveland.org for location and details.

This meeting was held at Sirens in Port Townsend. Seven people participated.

Birdsong of early spring

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANaturalist and birder extraordinaire Ken Wilson will lead a walk on Monday, March 10th, from 9:00-11:00 am.

Meet at North Beach Park. We’ll experience the birds of early spring — listening to their songs,  observing their behaviors, and learning some of their ecologies.

RSVP to Dave at jltnatural@saveland.org

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Earth is a Solar-Powered Juke Box

Hempton fishing for sounds

Hempton fishing for sounds

On March 6, 2014, we joined for a unique acoustic tour around the world with internationally acclaimed acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton. We listened to sunrise circle the globe, heard snow melt and whales sing, and discovered that the Earth is music—clear enough to hum all day.

His passion for natural environments and their signature sounds have led Hempton to circle the globe three times to document and record them. He speaks widely on the importance of listening and the evolutionary consequences of human hearing sensitivity being attuned to the natural environment and capable of detecting sounds over great distances. In Hempton’s words, “Silence—that is, the sounds of nature—is an endangered species. Yet, far from being a luxury, silence is an essential requirement of a full life, the think tank of the soul.”

Hempton at Rainier National Park

Hempton at Rainier National Park

Hempton provides professional audio services to media producers, including Microsoft, Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Discovery Channel. His sound portraits also were featured in the national PBS television documentary, “Vanishing Dawn Chorus,” which earned him an Emmy.

Hempton has garnered awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rolex Awards for Enterprise and, most recently, the National Hearing Conservation Association, for his efforts to heighten public awareness of the hazards of noise. He is also co-author of One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Quest to Preserve Quiet and the creator of a project that documents the increasing incursion of human-caused noise into natural environments, based in Olympic National Park.

For a taste of Hempton’s work, visit his website, Quiet Planet.

Free and open to the public, with a suggested donation of $5 to help defray costs.

7:00 pm, Thursday, March 6, at Quimper Unitarian Universalist, 2333 San Juan Avenue, Port Townsend.