(Airdate: February 5, 2025) Jackie Canterbury talks with Brittaney Drake about her work at The Pearl Remote Democratic High School in Seattle, Washington where she teaches about nature using a visual arts curriculum. Her teaching style follows the fundamentals of Dr. Art Pearl. Dr. Pearl developed the Democratic classroom in Eugene Oregon. He inspired the words Democracy and Education. “His message was about the primacy of democracy, the fragility of it, the assaults against it, how far we are from a nation that truly cherishes it and practices it — and the essential role of public education in any chance for a healthy democracy in the future.” The founder and director of the Seattle Democratic school is Dr. Robin Harwick who has served as a mentor to Brittaney. In this program we will talk about the importance of using the democratic process as a backdrop to teaching about art and nature. Globally and as a nation, we are now realizing the fragility of democracy. In today’s program Brittaney discusses how she uses a visual arts curriculum, particularly bird illustration, as a way to teach about nature and science. In Part 2 of this program she will focus on her bird illustration. Note: Nature Now provides credit to Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library for the recording of the Snow Bunting.

(Airdate: January 29, 2025) Buzzz….. Think of a bee. Do you see a honey bee gathering pollen and making honey
in its hive? Is it native to the Western Hemisphere? No! Think of another bee. Do you see a bumble bee? Perhaps a picture or a drawing? Think of another bee. Having problems? Do you know that there are over 600 native bee species in Washington? Join Nature Now this week as host Nan Evans talks with Dr. Karen Wright from the Washington Department of Agriculture to learn more about our native bees and the Washington Bee Atlas.

(Reprise Airdate: January 22, 2025) Join host Nan Evans as she heads into a local forest with another Nature Now host, Jackie Canterbury. Jackie will help Nan and listeners learn to better identify birds by ear and understand some of their special behavior.

(Airdate: January 15, 2025) Please join host Debaran Kelso and our guest wildlife biologist Betsy Howell of the US Forest Service, as we review recent wildlife research projects being conducted on the Olympic National Forest.

(Reprise Airdate: January 8, 2025) Nature Now hosts Debaran Kelso, Nan Evans, and Jackie Canterbury have a good time sharing their favorite recent natural history books. Join the fun and start your 2024 “to read” list.

(Reprise airdate: December 18, 2024) Please join Nature Now host Debaran Kelso as we explore the fascinating world of screech owls! Renowned ecologist Dr. Carl Safina is our guest, speaking about his most recent book Alfie & Me – What Owls Know, What Humans Believe, which describes his family’s raising of an orphaned Eastern Screech Owl and how this changed their lives.

(Airdate: December 11, 2024) Please join Nature Now this week as host Debaran Kelso speaks with author Betsy Howell about her recently published book of essays Wild Forest Home- Stories of Conservation in the Pacific Northwest. Betsy is a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service and has been on our program several times over the past years speaking about her work on the Olympic National Forest, but this interview focuses on her personal experiences as a writer working in the forests she’s come to love.

(Reprise Airdate: December 4, 2024) Please join Nature Now host Debaran Kelso on a fall mushroom hunt with fellow fungiphiles Maxwell Fisher, Baylin Speidel, and Shawn Gisriel! This is part 2 of a two-part series.

(Airdate: November 27, 2024) Jackie Canterbury talks with Dr. Steve Hampton with the local Rainshadow Bird Alliance, formerly Admiralty Audubon, about the oldest citizen science program of its kind, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count or CBC. The CBC began on Christmas Day 1900 as a way to count birds rather than shoot them as people began to become visibly concerned about declining bird populations. The Port Townsend CBC occurs on December 14, relying on volunteer birders and encompasses much of the Quimper Peninsula. The Rainshadow Alliance administers our local CBC count and submits data to National Audubon where Audubon and other organizations use the data to guide conservation efforts for birds, including the greatest challenge of all, climate change. “There is nothing else like the CBC in terms of geographic coverage and time,” says Geoff LaBaron of National Audubon. And none of it would happen without dedicated volunteers.

(Airdate: November 20, 2024) The bad news – losses of bird and wildlife populations, extinction of species, and destruction of habitats. The good news – find hope and empowerment in your own home through the Backyard Wildlife Certification Program. Join Nature Now host, Nan Evans, and Cristie Lassen, co-owner of Wild Bird Unlimited in Gardiner, as they explore both the good and the bad news.