The WhatcomTalk Events Calendar shares things to do around Whatcom County including Bellingham, Ferndale, Lynden, Blaine and beyond. Find fun activities and adventures throughout the region on our comprehensive events calendar. Have an event that isn’t listed? Click the green “Post your Event” button and our editors will review and approve within two business days.
Join us for a walk in the woods to learn all about lowland PNW trees: how to identify them, their historical significance, ethnobotany, their medicinal uses, and which ones to avoid (poisonous species).
You will walk away with memorable mnemonics to help you recall names of trees based on their features, smell, flavor, and subtle quirks.
At the end of the walk, there will be an optional Q&A period where we can sit down and make tea with the needles of common conifers.
Please join Naturalists Jazmen Yoder (Northwest Natura) & Ryan Johnson (Firecraft NW) at the Chuckanut Center for this interactive and beginner friendly Fungi and Mushrooms crash course.
Learn the different structures of fungi and mushrooms, fungi propagation, life cycle, and how to categorize them.
Participants will review examples of edible mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, what conditions they grow in, and how to use keys to identify them, followed by a demonstration on creating a spore print.
The class will conclude with a brief discussion and demonstration on using fungi to create fire, as well as books and resources to further pursue the study of mycology and fungi!
You will be provided with a fixed-blade knife and seasoned wood to use for the day, and a ferro rod that you can take home with you.
The goal of this course is to familiarize you with:
Flammability of several types of tinder
How to process natural materials for optimal flammability
Ferro rod techniques
Feathersticks
Fire-building techniques
Knowledge of how to process natural materials in order to catch a spark to produce a lifesaving fire, or just a recreational one imparts a closer understanding of the world around you and thus a more intimate connection to the outdoors.
We strive to be as hands-off as possible so the people who learn with us gain an unforgettable experience. After taking this course, your confidence in your ability to make a fire will be just one of the takeaways.
If there is one bushcraft skill to have, it is how to make a fire!
Come learn with us!
Trees dripping in mosses and fern covered understories evoke some of the most iconic imagery of Pacific Northwest forests. Despite their dazzling familiarity, their diversity is often underestimated and unexplored. Upon a closer look one can observe dozens of species living intertwined.
Together we’ll explore the many shades of green adorning some local trailsides and cover a handful of the most common species of mosses and ferns in our area. As we comb through the myriad of mosses, you’ll be guided in the practice of tuning into the world of tiny organisms and the structures that help differentiate them.
At the end of the walk, there will be an optional Q&A period where we can review what we’ve learned and browse some helpful resources.
Bring your family along to experience the outdoors with tasty rewards as an alternative to traditional Thanksgiving!
We will forage leaves to make tea, prepare a cozy soup and bake bread ALL over an open flame.
If you’ve ever wanted to try cooking from scratch outdoors, this is your chance to learn with some guidance.
In this course you will assist in foraging, preparing and making soup, bread dough, and of course enjoying a hearty meal. The meal will be vegetarian. If you have dietary restrictions (vegan, GF, dairy-free, etc; please let us know and we will try our best to accommodate you!)
Individuals will receive an email with directions and information a few days prior to the event.
Space is limited!
In this indigenous-led workshop you will create your own 15? elk hide drum and beater from start to finish with guidance from Erin Martin.
Erin currently lives in the Seattle area and will be coming to Bellingham to teach this class with Northwest Natura! This is one you definitely don’t want to miss!
You will be guided through the process of making a drum from wood and hide. The process is not as difficult as you might imagine, rather, it is a soothing, empowering, and an incredibly gratifying experience. This course would be a wonderful gift to give yourself or someone you care about during the holiday season.
Tuition covers the cost of all materials. This course will take place in a cozy indoor facility with running water, available refreshments, and a bathroom.
Space is limited!
Join Naturalist, Jazmen Yoder on a gentle walk through the forest of Point Whitehorn State Park to learn about traditional and modern uses of PNW native plants.
We will go over how to ID several native plants and what their uses are (food, fiber, medicine, and shelter).
Details on location will be provided to registered participants.
In this outdoor course you will forage for materials to make an entirely wildcrafted wreath. Here’s what you can expect:
– Guidance throughout the process (foraging and wildcrafting)
– Independent foraging and exploration in a beautiful forest.
– Using pliable branches to weave a wreath ring.
– Wildcrafting with foraged evergreens, lichen, berries, moss, and other beautiful things from the forest.
– Learning names of trees, plants, lichens, and other wildlife.
– A lesson in ethical foraging as wildcrafters.
– Campfire warmth during the wreathmaking process.
Please join Naturalists Jazmen Yoder (Northwest Natura) & Ryan Johnson (Firecraft NW) at the Chuckanut Center for this interactive and beginner friendly Fungi and Mushrooms crash course.
Learn the different structures of fungi and mushrooms, fungi propagation, life cycle, and how to categorize them.
Participants will review examples of edible mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, what conditions they grow in, and how to use keys to identify them, followed by a demonstration on creating a spore print.
The class will conclude with a brief discussion and demonstration on using fungi to create fire, as well as books and resources to further pursue the study of mycology and fungi!
In this wildcrafting workshop you will learn how to weave a basket using the coil technique and Ponderosa Pine needles.
Baskets are thought to be one of the first art forms of ancient peoples, with basket fragments found in California and the Southwest dating to 9400 years, and coiled baskets from the earliest sites in Egypt dating to 7,000 years. The coil technique requires patience and attention to detail before it becomes a relaxing, repetitive stitching pattern. It is a skill that is more easily learned with a little guidance.
Dabblers, beginners, intermediate, and advanced weavers will enjoy this creative, social gathering.
This course will take place indoors at the Chuckanut Center near Fairhaven in Whatcom County, WA. The Chuckanut Center is heated and has access to facilities including a bathroom, full kitchen, and drinking water.
Come out and enjoy an afternoon learning survival firelighting and how to bake bread over a campfire with Northwest Natura!
This course is designed to be highly engaging with hands-on activities. Here’s what you can expect from this class:
Opportunities with Guidance on the following:
-Coaching and practicing firelighting with a ferro rod.
-Independent foraging; locating materials for fire making.
-Craft your own fire without a lighter using foraged materials.
-Learn Jazmen’s outdoor bread recipe to share with your friends and family.
-Preparing and baking (and eating!) at camp.
Northwest Natura is a small Bellingham business owned by naturalist, Jazmen Yoder. She directs but maintains a hands-off approach with this class so you can successfully make a fire in damp conditions and bake outdoors on your own again without guidance.
At every NWN class there is a sense of community. Expect bonding, laughter, and total joy in the woods!
This course will take place on State Lands in Whatcom County off Highway 542 near Deming, WA. Details on location will be provided in an email 3-4 days prior to the event.
Bushcraft is a term used to describe the practice of skills which aid in living outdoors. Here are the skills we will cover in this crash course:
Survival Basics
-Rule of Threes
– Fire making without a lighter
– Water sources and sanitation
– Shelter – temporary shelter construction
– Food – winter wild foods
– Knot-tying and lashing basics.
– Tarp deployment
– Cooking tripod
– Tools of the trade and practice using them.
– Knife and ax skills
– Containers
– First aid kits
We will practice all of these skills together in this full-day course. Knives and ferro rods provided for the day.
A list of basic things to bring to this course will be provided in an email 3-4 days before the event.
Feel free to bring your own outdoor tools such as a knife, ax, fire starter, tarp, containers (pots, water bottles), paracord, first aid kit, etc. so you can practice with your kit and/or I can answer any questions about your gear and help you troubleshoot issues you may have with them.
Space is limited to 8.
Come out and enjoy an afternoon learning survival firelighting and baking bread over a campfire with Northwest Natura!
This course is designed to be highly engaging with hands-on activities. Here’s what you can expect from this class:
Opportunities with Guidance on the following:
-Coaching and practicing firelighting with a ferro rod.
-Independent foraging; locating materials for fire making.
-Craft your own fire without a lighter using foraged materials.
-Learn Jazmen’s outdoor bread recipe to share with your friends and family.
-Preparing and baking (and eating!) 2 loaves between 2 small groups at camp.
Jazmen will direct but maintain a hands-off approach with this class so you can successfully make a fire in damp conditions and bake outdoors on your own again without guidance.
At every NWN class there is a sense of community. Expect bonding, laughter, and total joy in the woods!
Gluten free bread options are available upon request! Send your request in an email after signing up!
Join botanist and naturalist, Jazmen Yoder on a walk at one of the most stunning trail systems in the Pacific Northwest. There will be an emphasis on learning lichens and ferns, but we will ID any plant or fungi species of interest. Bring your camera, come for the knowledge, and stay for the views! This is a unique field trip offering you’ll remember forever.
Space is limited.
This workshop invites attendees to engage in dismantling perceptions of the unattractive, the uncelebrated, and the unremarkable to discover profound beauty. We will read poems that examine the cockroach, the vampire, the buttoning of a shirt, and the contents of a refrigerator, focusing on the ways in which their poets find reasons to celebrate each creature, action, and simple human behavior and through various writing prompts venture into creating our poems of exaltation.
Kami Westhoff is an award-winning writer, poet, and instructor of creative writing at Western Washington University. She received an MFA in Fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an MA in Creative Writing from WWU. She is the author of the short story collection, The Criteria (Unsolicited Press), and three poetry chapbooks including Cloudbound, Sleepwalker, winner of Minerva Rising’s Dare to Be Contest, and Your Body a Bullet, co-written with Elizabeth Vignali. In her writing, she amplifies silenced voices and challenges systems that protect abusers.
Note: The $30 fee is considered a donation toward the Sue C. Boynton Poetry program, under the Whatcom Poetry Series, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and may be used as a tax deduction.
In this wildcrafting workshop you will learn how to weave a basket using the coil technique and Ponderosa Pine needles.
Baskets are thought to be one of the first art forms of ancient peoples, with basket fragments found in California and the Southwest dating to 9400 years, and coiled baskets from the earliest sites in Egypt dating to 7,000 years. The coil technique requires patience and attention to detail before it becomes a relaxing, repetitive stitching pattern. It is a skill that is more easily learned with a little guidance.
Dabblers, beginners, intermediate, and advanced weavers will enjoy this creative, social gathering.
In the “Writing Spring” workshop we will align our lyrical voices with the changing season, with the time in the Northern Hemisphere when the natural world revives, and when we likewise are revitalized after the dark winter months. Our teachers in this session will be seedlings sprouting from the ground, animals re-emerging from hibernation, and the new life quickening within us. Everyone welcome!
D.J. Lee is an acclaimed writer, teacher, and regents professor in the English Department at Washington State University. She holds an MFA and a Ph.D., and her prolific writing includes more than 50 published lyric essays and prose poems, the memoir Remote: Finding Home in the Bitterroots (Oregon State University Press), and eight scholarly books. A photographer and papermaker, Lee often combines image and text.
Note: The $30 entry fee is considered a donation toward the Sue C. Boynton Poetry program, under the Whatcom Poetry Series, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and may be used as a tax deduction.
Join Naturalist, Jazmen Yoder on a fun adventure through a beautiful coastal forest to learn about edible and medicinal plants and fungi, and traditional ethnobotanical uses of native plants. We will slowly make our way to the shoreline just in time for low tide when we’ll carefully explore tidepools before saying farewell at 4pm.
For more information about this trip, please follow the link to the publisher’s website.
Join us every Friday and Saturday morning from 9:30-11am to explore local parks with your little one! Wild Things is a placed-based community program that meets in a different local park each month to see what nature has to offer! We get curious about whatever nature wonders we discover as we move at a toddler’s pace, then wrap up with a “snack and story time”. We meet year round rain or shine. Registration is encouraged, but not required. Program is donation based/pay-what-you-can
Join us every Friday and Saturday morning from 9:30-11am to explore local parks with your little one! Wild Things is a placed-based community program that meets in a different local park each month to see what nature has to offer! We get curious about whatever natural wonders we discover as we move at a toddler’s pace, then wrap up with a “snack and story time”. We meet year round rain or shine. Registration is encouraged, but not required. Program is donation based/pay-what-you-can
Invasive European green crabs are voracious eaters that threaten our shellfish beds, clamming beaches, and nearshore habitat for salmon. Join Washington State University Extension and University of Washington Sea Grant in this effort to monitor our beaches for signs of green crab presence by searching for their molts. This 1 ½ hour workshop will teach you how to identify the crab molts, where and how to conduct a 20-minute Molt Search survey, how report your findings using a mobile app, and how to collection additional (optional) data on Dungeness crab molts.
Register for this free event at: https://forms.gle/dycmQNYQKynE7p6t6
To learn more, go to: https://wsg.washington.edu/crabteam/moltsearch/
Join us every Friday and Saturday morning from 9:30-11:00am to explore local parks with your little one! Wild Things is a placed-based community program that meets in a different local park each month to see what nature has to offer! We get curious about whatever natural wonders we discover as we move at a toddler’s pace, then wrap up with a “snack and story time”. Best for ages 0-6, older siblings always welcome. We meet year round rain or shine. Registration is encouraged, but not required. Program is donation based/pay-what-you-can
Join us every Friday and Saturday morning from 9:30-11:00am to explore local parks with your little one! Wild Things is a placed-based community program that meets in a different local park each month to see what nature has to offer! We get curious about whatever natural wonders we discover as we move at a toddler’s pace, then wrap up with a “snack and story time”. Best for ages 0-6, older siblings always welcome. We meet year round rain or shine. Registration is encouraged, but not required. Program is donation based/pay-what-you-can.
Join us every Friday and Saturday morning from 9:30-11:00am to explore local parks with your little one! Wild Things is a placed-based community program that meets in a different local park each month to see what nature has to offer, we will be meeting at Cornwall Park every Friday and Saturday in May. We get curious about whatever natural wonders we discover as we move at a toddler’s pace, then wrap up with a “snack and story time”. Best for ages 0-6, older siblings always welcome. We meet year round rain or shine. Registration is encouraged, but not required. Program is donation based/pay-what-you-can
Join us every Friday and Saturday morning from 9:30-11:00am to explore local parks with your little one! Wild Things is a placed-based community program that meets in a different local park each month to see what nature has to offer. We will be meeting in Cornwall Park every Friday and Saturday in May. We get curious about whatever natural wonders we discover as we move at a toddler’s pace, then wrap up with a “snack and story time”. Best for ages 0-6, older siblings always welcome. We meet year round rain or shine. Registration is encouraged, but not required. Program is donation based/pay-what-you-can
