Reforest Spokane Day October 27th 9:00 to 12:00

The Lands Council is sponsoring five local sites around Spokane to celebrate their second annual Reforest Spokane Day on October 27th.  The Sunflower Society is hoping to make a good showing of volunteers at the Slavin Conservation Area to help plant native trees and plants.  Please bring your own shovels and work gloves for the big kids and little kids.  The Lands Council aslo asks that we bring a few gallons of water if possible to help in the planting process.  The Slavin Conservation area is only a few miles South of Spokane off of the west side of Hwy 195.  This is a great area to hike with children because it is flat, accessible in all four seasons, and is full of wetlands with lots of great birds and wildlife to see.  If you are planning on coming please go and register HERE on the Lands Council's Webpage.  Don't forget to dress appropriately for the weather.  Late October can make the weather an important factor to consider.

Newest Infographic: The Wilderness Society

Take a look at the full infographic here.

Sept 23rd Big Rock Hike/ 9:30 AM

Thanks to Rich Landers for this awe inspiring photo of Big Rock

Fall is in the air, let's go try out the new parking lot and trail to Big Rock.  Meet at 9:30 at the terminus of Stevens Creek Road.  Bring some warm clothes and maybe a hat and gloves for the little ones.  It's not a very long hike, but there is some elevation gain so we will  be hiking at a child's pace.  Hope for clear and commanding views of the Palouse to the south.  This address might help you find the trailhead on google maps: 8999 South Stevens Creek Road, Spokane WA 99223

**Disclaimer- there won't be any rock climbing on this outing, just hiking**

Another cool infographic, this one is about the Discover Pass

More information can be found at their new website HERE.

June 10th Little Waders and Streamside Detectives hosted by FSPW

06/10/12 Sunday	E	Little Waders and Streamside Detectives	Mindy Ferrell
Little Waders: 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For kids ages 5 – 8. Kids will explore the shoreline along the Clark Fork River for bugs and other critters. Each participant will need to bring a day pack, water bottle, and extra shoes or sandals that can get wet. Parents are asked to join in the fun and help supervise their little ones. Streamside Detectives: 1:00 – 4:30 p.m. For kids ages 9 – 11. This camp will explore both still and moving water and search out what makes each environment so special. Detectives will take samples and explore the water’s edge of both a slough alongside the Clark Fork River, and the more speedy waters of Pilgrim Creek. Participants are asked to bring a day pack, a water bottle, notebook and pencil, and shoes that can get wet. Contact Mindy Ferrell at mferrell_9874@yahoo.com Contact: Mindy Ferrell    mferrell_9874@yahoo.com

This looks like a great opportunity for little ones and medium sized ones to explore at the waters edge.  Please contact Mindy Ferrel if you are interested.  More information about the FPSW can be found on their website.

Infographic on Nature & Kids

Thanks to the National Environmental Education Foundation for creating and sharing this.

Catching Pictures of Wolverines (and other large forest carnivores)

This winter Chris Bachman and a number of students from his children's school adopted two remote monitoring stations in the western cabinet mountains.  This was part of a Boise Zoo grant given to the Friends of the Scotchman Peaks Wilderness to track the presence of wolverines.  Chris and his volunteer helpers had to hike into the designated areas and set up the bait station that included a frozen beaver as bait and a remote monitor camera that took pictures night and day when ever there was motion in front of the camera lens.

Here is Chris with some of his crew at one of their bait stations.  Above their head is the rear section of a beaver wired to a tree as bait.

More cheerful helpers celebrating their success.  It's not every day that you get to help with field research of an endangered species.

All their hard work lead to the Friends of the Scotchman Peak Wilderness honoring Chris and his crew with their coveted volunteer of the season award.

Here is a sample of what is often found on the remote camera's memory card.

Saturday Hike to the East/West Ponds & Frog Chorus

We are meeting at 2:00 on saturday afternoon (5/5) to hike from Camp Caro up to the ponds.  Usually this time of year the ponds are alive with the songs of frogs.  Let's go investigate.  The trailhead can be found at 400 S. Sargent Road, Spokane 99212.

2012 Dishman Hills Service Project

On April 22 over 540 volunteers attended a great service project in the Dishman Hills.

Some children helped thin the ponderosa pine and reduce fire fuels.

At the same time children across the natural area had a chance to plant new additions to the forest.

There were lots of smiles.

Let's hope the TLC lasts until next April.

Children & Nature Network Recently Got a Facelift

Take a look at the new Children & Nature webpage.
http://www.childrenandnature.org/

Great day on the Water

The weather couldn't have been any better on today's outing. Not hot enough to make a swim look inviting to any of the children, but also not cold enough to ever cause teeth to chatter. all told we had 4 boats and 10 children afloat today. We almost lost one child sized paddle to the river but the sweep boat was skillfully piloted on a successful rescue mission and we returned with all the paddles we set out with.

The critter count on this river usually includes moose, deer, beavers, and often turkeys. Today we made a critter list that full of little amazing things like crawfish, snakes, turtles, and a great sighting and identification of a common merganser.(a fish-feeding duck) I really wish the weather could be like this for just a few more weeks. As we head into the "shoulder" season of fall it will be more enticing to pull on the gore-tex in search of fall foliage. Maybe we'll combine this idea with my longstanding hope to investigate the dam building beavers at Liberty Lake County Park.

Sunday Float down the Little Spokane River (10/2)

Come out and join a handful of different families who plan to paddle down the Little Spokane River Sunday Morning. Canoe's are recommended but some industrious parents might be able to make sit on top kayaks work. We will meet at the Take Out just off Hwy 291 at as close to 10:00 am as is humanly possible for parents. Be sure to pack and proudly display your Discover Pass for each car, one at the take out and one at the put in. We might decide to only float from the Indian Painted Rocks down to the take out, which is about 1.5 hours. Or we may take on the challenge of entertaining the children for the 3 hour paddle from St. George's down. Either way bring lots of food, beverages, toys that float, sunblock, and other worthy distractions.

Spokefest 2011

Photo found HERE

Sign up before September 1st and save some money. That means you only have a few days to register the family. This year the ride is on Sunday September 11. Don't forget to pack plenty of water and your bike helmet. It's required! This year the Sunflower Society will be trying to ride together. We plan to meet at the south side of the water fountain in Riverfront Park. Register Here

Great Hike @ Riverside

The weather was great and the turnout for saturday's hike was even better. We avoided all but a few of those 24 hour mountain bike racers, and no children or dogs fell into the Spokane River.
The bridge let us all get uncomfortably close to the raging waters of the Spokane River while also keeping us safe. Most everyone seemed to walk a bit quicker than normal while crossing the bridge, just bidding the time until their feet touched down on firm ground again.
We came across this mini fort left be what I believe were other children. We let most every kid have their turn sitting inside the fort before tearing it down.
While one child hunted for dinosaur bones, and two others were fascinated by flowers some of the boys seemed to be able to turn almost any stick into a machine gun or sword. Nothing is too firmed up yet, but there should be a few more hikes in the coming weeks. Stay tuned here and on Facebook for more news. Until next time...

Fishing Report

This year we signed up to be in the 8:00 am group at Clear Lake because my wife was graduating from graduate school later in the day. This allowed us to get the first crack at trying to catch one of those larger 5lb-10lb rainbow trouts. Old Lady Luck was not on our side so instead of three behemoths to clean and cook we caught three guppy sized rainbows.
Then began the time honored tradition of the father getting to clean the fish. I am pretty sure I have never cleaned a fish this small before, but my five year old son insisted we go through with it. I also learned that cleaning tiny fish will make your hands smell just as bad as if you had cleaned a record breaker.
The process was good for teaching about fish anatomy. As the picture above shows they were pretty eager to learn what goes on inside our aquatic friends. Even though my lecture about the science of how fish breath under water should have won an award, I am still pretty sure that my boys were not buying it. I should go pony up the $24 for my resident annual fishing license and take the boys out a few more times now that we have a fishing pole for each of them and only live three blocks from the Spokane River.

Let's Go Hiking (5/28)

This Saturday we are going on a group hike at 9:00 am. We will be meeting up at the parking lot just below the campground in Riverside State Park. We plan on taking a moderate to easy walk across the suspension bridge and head downstream a ways. The 24 hour bike race will be starting at noon on the north end of the park, so we want to be sure and stay out of the way of those athletes while still getting a good nature walk. The Spokane River is up at near flood stage with the spring melt so we will want to be extra careful to respect the cold and fast moving water. In just a few short months we will need a Discover Pass to go hiking in Riverside State Park. Who knows, maybe we will find a caterpillar on or two on our hike.

Pictures of the finished product

Dishmah Hills Ponds

Rich Landers recently wrote about the very loud frogs at the east and west ponds in Dishman Hills. So I went for a Sunday hike with my children and this is what we found. Enjoy.

Dishman Hills Service Day

Photos by Rika Ream, Ace Photographer

The Kids' Fish-In is a go! Register Now.

I just mailed in my son's registration yesterday. April 18 is the DEADLINE. Rich Landers did such a wonderful job describing the event and where to get the registration forms I am going to post a link here to his amazing outdoor blog. The cost has gone up from $5.00 to $10.00, but it is totally worth it to make fun fishing memories with your children. The child size Zebco fishing rod & reel are a great keepsake for every child who attends this event. I should mention that the t-shirt is pretty cool as well. I have high hopes my son will hook one of the few gigantic fish that are stocked in the fishing area this year and get to feel the thrill of landing a fish one-fifth of his weight.