Free Monthly Clubs
Tracking Club
This is a monthly, introductory event where we study and identify track and sign of local wildlife. We’ll spend the morning at a sandbar or muddy area looking at the 6 Arts of Tracking. Join us for this completely free monthly gathering!
All Ages are welcome, but the program is geared to adults and older teens. This program is FREE; 9am-noon, Saturday mornings; Duvall and Seattle locations!
Bird Language Club
Join us for a free monthly, 3-hour experience where we listen to and interpret the voices and behavior of birds. We will have a short introduction to bird language, do a “bird sit”, and then share and interpret the stories of what we observed.
All ages are welcome, but the program is geared to adults and older teens. This program is FREE; 8am-11am, Sunday mornings; We rotate between Duvall, Carnation, and Redmond locations
Adult Daylong & Weekend Programs
Awakening Fire
In this one-day workshop we will explore the ancient art of making fire-by-friction, primarily using the bow-drill technique. We will learn how to harvest, create, and use our fire kits. We’ll also prepare tinder bundles and build an effective fire structure that will work in all weather conditions with wet or damp materials.
Bushcraft Basics
The ultimate expression of freedom is the lack of reliance on items you can’t produce yourself. This is the essence of Bushcraft—what you need to know to craft and successfully use the tools for living in the Bush. Each skill that we teach will have a practical application. Theory will be put to the test, and you will learn fundamental skills in how to live closer to nature. Instead of just surviving, you will learn to live and thrive with the natural materials that surround you.
Coyote Mentoring
Get hands-on training in the basic principles behind Coyote’s Guide through this fun-filled weekend workshop. Designed for parents, educators, and mentors who want an introduction to how we teach and why Coyote Mentoring works for nature education.
Introduction to Medicinal Plants
Wild native plants are all around us – even in dense urban areas. During this weekend program, you’ll be introduced to the basics of plant medicines with hands-on identification, medicine making, and botanical instruction.
Social & Emotional Survival Skills
In this experiential workshop, we will learn to listen deeply to ourselves and others as we cultivate our intuition, build our resilience, and strengthen our ability to stay true to ourselves in the heat of conflict.
Wild Edible Plants
Join us for a weekend of wild edible plant exploration that will begin a lifelong relationship between you and wild plants. During this weekend workshop, we will introduce you to the basics of edible plants by learning to identify edible plants, ethical and safe harvesting techniques, creating a wild meal, and more!
Wild Women’s Weekend
Join us for a women’s deep nature connection weekend. This hands-on weekend will cover a variety of topics, including friction fire, wild edible and medicinal plants, birding, naturalist training, tracking, and more! This program has both a Fall and Spring edition.
Bird Language Skills Weekend
Join us along the banks of the Snoqualmie and Tolt rivers in the heart of the beautiful Snoqualmie Valley for a deep dive into the wondrous world of Bird Language. Bird Language is an ancient interspecies communication system known to all our ancestors and still accessible to us today.
Wilderness Survival Basics
This course will be a hands-on introduction to the skills and knowledge necessary to live through a short-term wilderness survival situation – under 72 hours. Topics will include basic gear that you need, survival priorities, and most importantly, how to maintain an upright mind. We will teach essential skills like building a fire, making a life-saving shelter, purifying water, navigation, hygiene, and wild edibles.
Survival Skills Overnight
This overnight weekend program takes participants deeper into survival skills than our day programs. Crucial survival skills will be taught, such as firemaking, water purification, wild food gathering, camp cooking, shelter making, outdoor sleeping, animal traps, knife use and safety, and bushcraft fun (cordage, spoon making, baskets, etc).
Wildlife Tracking Basics
Learn the art and science of wildlife tracking! In this weekend course, you will learn the foundational tools to identify track and sign of wild animals. Tracking provides a new lens for viewing the wild (and urban) places that you frequent!
Journaling Gone Wild
Close the laptop, shut down the smartphone, grab a notebook and your favorite pen and join us for a weekend of grounding in the natural world. We’ll integrate sensory awareness activities and guided wanders with reflective writing prompts to stimulate and reinvigorate body and mind.
Adult Weeklong Programs
Art of Mentoring
Our unique nature education model creates a powerful culture of learning that combines the best of indigenous wisdom and modern science. Connect kids and adults with nature!
Ages 18+, 4:30 PM Sunday – 12:00 Noon Saturday (overnight, food included)
Basecamp Survival Week
Spend a week learning how to survive in the wilderness! You’ll spend time with a small group of students and our most experienced staff in a basecamp survival scenario. Build your own survival shelter, harvest food from the landscape, make fire with modern and primitive methods, learn to process large game, and so much more!
Ages 18+, 3:00 PM Sunday – 3:00 Saturday (overnight, food included)
Wilderness Survival Trek
Explore the Central Washington high desert, experiencing the freedom of walking across a landscape and trusting the earth to provide for all of your needs! During this week-long course, you will learn and apply wilderness survival skills as the opportunity and need arises. Learning navigation techniques and fire-making, finding and constructing shelter, locating wild edibles and water by identifying of indicator species; this challenging wilderness survival course gives you the opportunity to experience the abundance nature provides to those with the awareness to notice.
Ages 18+, 3:00 PM Sunday – 3:00 PM Saturday (overnight; survival food included)
Adult Intensives
The Immersion at Wilderness Awareness School
Our flagship immersive experience provides in-depth training in wilderness survival, community mentoring, nature connection, permaculture, edible and medicinal plants, wildlife tracking, and naturalist studies.
Adults 18+; 33 weeks Sept-June, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday with extended trips
Nature Instructor Training
Apprentice with some of the most skilled and experienced nature connection instructors in the world. Benefit from their years of experience as you learn to facilitate using the Coyote Mentoring approach to nature connection. This program is designed for people who have been actively working on their own nature connection journey and are now ready to step into leadership and support others on their own path.
This program is broken into 2 separate tracks depending on the age group you are interested in working with; Youth or Adult. The Adult track requires The Immersion as a prerequisite.
Adults 18+; Sept-June
Wildlife Tracking Intensive
The Wildlife Tracking Intensive provides in-depth training in the art and science of wildlife tracking for both beginner and advanced students.
Adults 18+, 10 weekends Sept-June
Wild Plant Intensive
The Wild Plant Intensive immerses students in the beautiful and diverse world of plants. Learn ethnobotany, wildcrafting, ethical harvesting, permaculture, farming techniques, and more!
Adults 18+, 8 weekends Mar-Oct
Other Opportunities
Wilderness Awareness School is pleased to partner with other organizations in our community to bring opportunities to our students and benefits to our environment.
Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project
Looking to apply your wildlife tracking skills? Join a team of wildlife monitors working with the Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project to document the presence and movement of wildlife, from wolverines to wolves to elk.
The volunteer opportunity combines wintertime snow tracking with year-long remote camera work to help monitor wildlife throughout out the Snoqualmie Pass corridor, where the highway is being updated to include new wildlife crossing structures.
In coordination with our statewide Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project, we also monitor in remote habitats from the North Cascades to the Pasayten Wilderness to the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Volunteers are trained and mentored by a partnership of Conservation Northwest, Wilderness Awareness School, and the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition. Learn more about volunteering here.