written by: Bianca Perla and Kathryn True
The osoberry is blooming, the ruby-crowned kinglets are singing, and the frogs are gathering in the ponds. At Vashon Nature Center, we draw strength from the building energy of spring, and we are marking this season of renewal by launching a year of events and activities celebrating nature and our place in it—a year of Natural Wonder!
Later this year (COVID willing), we will open an interactive, collaborative exhibit in partnership with the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Association called Natural Wonder: an island shaped by water. This exhibit will be located at the Vashon Heritage Museum. It will share the wonders of island natural history and explore the many ways in which all life on this island is tied to and shaped by water. Visitors will experience life through the wings, hooves, leaves, paws, roots, fins, tentacles, and feet of local species as they uncover connections in natural systems across space and time and reflect on their own place as a member in this wondrous web of life.
Leading up to the museum exhibit opening, we are working with many island partners to put together a year packed with nature discovery. To practice safety around COVID-19, we have adapted many Natural Wonder events to happen online or outside.
The fun begins in March with a series about island carnivores!
TALKS on the Rock: Wild Wonder series at Vashon Center for the Arts. Join us via Zoom!
Wildlife DNA Discoveries, Wed., March 10, 7 pm
UW wildlife ecologist Laura Prugh will share stories from the field and the lab to explain how messages hidden inside DNA in combination with other technologies reveal new information about wildlife and how different species interact. Her current work explores how wolves affect smaller carnivores like coyotes, foxes, and lynx in Alaska’s Denali National Park. She will also talk about a DNA study VNC and UW are working on using scat from Vashon coyotes.
Coyote Stories from the Field, Wed., March 31, 7 pm
Rosemary Schiano is an independent wildlife field biologist, tracker and educator. She served from 2011-2019 with the US Forest Service in the high Rockies of Colorado. Rosemary has over 40 years of experience in the field studying wildlife across North America with an emphasis on terrestrial and avian predators. She offers consultation services, talks and classes about predators, non-lethal methods for protecting pets and livestock, preventative and aversion techniques and co-existence. Rosemary has tracked hundreds of mountain lions, bears, wolves and coyotes over the course of her life.
Counting Cougars at Opposite Ends of the World, Sun., April 4, 4 pm
Mark Elbroch will present on the Olympic Cougar Project. Mark is a father, writer, mountain biologist and Director of Panthera’s Puma (Cougar) Program, for which he designs and implements cougar conservation research in North and South America. Mark has contributed to mountain lion research in Idaho, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Mexico and Chile. His work with mountain lions has been covered by National Geographic, the BBC, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Scientific American, and The Washington Post, among others. Mark is twice a National Geographic Explorer, a 2011 Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation Fellow (for environmental leadership), and the 2017 recipient of the Craighead Conservation Award for “creating positive and lasting conservation outcomes.”
VCA shares a portion of donations from the Talks on the Rock Wild Wonder series with Vashon Nature Center to support the opening of the Natural Wonder natural history exhibit at Vashon Heritage Museum.
Starting in May: Salmon Art by 5th grade students and Salmon Walk
In island schools, VNC’s Scientists in Schools program are currently teaching fifth graders science lessons in salmon health, Salish Sea food webs, and the salmon lifecycle. VCA’s Artists in Schools program is hosting Artist Britt Freda who will lead the students in an art project later this spring where they will paint wooden salmon cutouts. These art pieces will be displayed at the headwaters of our largest salmon-bearing creeks: Judd Creek at Heron Meadow and Shinglemill Creek at Vashon Heritage Museum. From the museum, the salmon will “swim,” west, leading visitors on a salmon walk to the site of the future IGA rain garden, which will help clean parking lot runoff before it enters the creek. The Salmon Walk will open this summer.
May-August: Living Waters Series and Outdoor Exhibit “Whale People: Protectors of the Sea”
This exploration of salmon, orca, history and culture is in partnership with Vashon Center for the Arts, Vashon Heritage Museum and The Natural History Museum. It will kick off with a series of flash talks on salmon health and conservation on May 20 at Vashon Center for the Arts (on zoom); lead to an outdoor multimedia exhibit at the Vashon Heritage Museum in July (see below) and conclude in August with a panel called Living Waters: Salmon People, Whale People, featuring Indigenous fishers and leaders who will explore cultural connections to the salmon and orcas and how people can be stewards of thriving healthy ecosystems. (Additional dates and times TBD).
In July, The Natural History Museum–a Vashon-based traveling, pop-up museum, will install an outdoor exhibit featuring an award-winning IMAX-style film projection “Whale People: Protectors of the Sea”, and a 3,000 pound orca totem carved by the House of Tears Carvers of the Lummi Nation. The totem was made to raise awareness about the plight of the killer whale (or orca)–one of the Lummi’s most revered relations. For the Lummi and many other Coast Salish tribes, families are sacred and killer whales are kin. Qw’e lh’ol mechen, the Lummi word for killer whale, translates to “our people that live under the sea.”
May 13: Natural Wonder-an island shaped by water Vashon Heritage Museum zoom talk.
In this zoom talk, Bianca Perla, director of Vashon Nature Center, will give a preview of the exhibit by exploring many ways in which life on Vashon-Maury Islands is shaped by water.
July- September: Wild Plant Garden, Geology, Shoreline
Vashon-Maury Audubon has generously planted and stewarded a native plant garden at Vashon Heritage Museum for the Wild Wonder exhibit. This summer, the garden and outdoor Natural Wonder geology and shoreline portions of the exhibit will open to the public. We are planning related workshops and activities from geology walks to beach clean ups. Stay tuned!
Indoor portions of the exhibit may open as early as September in will include: a Puget Sound Portal and exhibits on forests, marine waters, streams, ponds, bogs, meadows, madrones, and humans!
These are a few highlights of a year of Natural Wonder activities! In deep gratitude to our community, supporters, and partners. We can’t wait to explore, celebrate, and learn with you!
Featured photo: A hummingbird visits an island garden in spring. Photo credit: Rusty Knowler