16+
Minors must be accompanied by an adult
Linne Doran: Duvall, WA
$295
April 26th – 27th, 2025
Join us for a weekend workshop with visionary and master storyteller, Jon Young. Don’t miss this opportunity!
This 2-day workshop will dive into what it means to be a nature-connected human in the complex times we are living in. Jon shares his latest approach to building a strong foundation for being in relationship with the natural world.
What’s Covered?
Jon will weave together tracking, Bird Language, naturalist studies, and awareness into a weekend of learning, reflection, and hands-on experience. The practices taught will apply to all experience levels. This is a rare opportunity to learn from one of the most influential voices in the nature connection movement.
In this program, you will gain:
- A deeper sense of well-being—learn why time in nature is essential for a thriving, healthy life.
- Practical tools for connection—discover foundational routines that bring you into deeper awareness with the natural world.
- A new way of seeing—explore the newly updated 8 Directions Model, an ancient framework for tracking and understanding nature’s rhythms.
- An awakened intuition—uncover how the human operating system is designed to be in nature and how to re-engage it.
- Stronger community bonds—learn how to cultivate meaningful relationships with others through shared nature experiences.
- A sense of place—gain hands-on experience in observing and learning about the flora and fauna in your own backyard.
Each day will include keynote talks and storytelling from Jon to inspire and orient your learning, along with interactive exercises led by experienced staff on our 60-acre campus. You’ll leave with practical routines and a renewed perspective, ready to integrate nature connection into your daily life and share it with others.
Exercises will include:
- A guided bird sit along with a debrief with Jon
- A map of the 8 Directions Model and how to apply it to your daily life
- How to identify key “indicator species” that will unlock your understanding of the ecology of your backyard
Program Logistics
This weekend takes place on our 60-acre property outside of Duvall, WA. Class will run 9am-5pm both days. Please arrive by 8:45am and be prepared to start at 9am.
Food is not provided for this program. Participants are welcome to camp on our property on Saturday evening. Accommodations are rustic: there are simple campsites, potable water, and firewood provided.
Meet Your Instructors:
Jon Young
Jon Young is a nature researcher, mentor, naturalist, wildlife tracker, author, workshop leader, consultant, and storyteller. Jon was mentored in nature by Tom Brown, Jr. and a host of elders and experts. As a leader in the field of nature-based community building for over 40 years, Jon’s research into the impact and significance of nature has influenced tens of thousands of people worldwide.
Jon has authored and co-authored several seminal works on nature connection and connection mentoring, including What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World (2013), and Coyote’s Guide to Connecting to Nature (2007). Jon founded Wilderness Awareness School in New Jersey in 1983.
Richie Rivera-Booth
Richie grew up in the Cascade foothills of WA state, in the homelands of the Nisqually peoples near Mount Tahoma. Spending time outdoors camping with family and friends, running around on his family’s farm and making trails in the forest out back, he developed a deep love for the natural world. As early as high school he began working with youth and discovered a passion for mentoring. He now combines his love for nature with his gifts and talents as an experienced mentor and has been facilitating both individuals as well as groups in reconnecting with nature, community, and self for over 18 years. As a core instructor at The Immersion program for 11 years he finds this work to be the most meaningful way he can give back, by empowering others on their own path.
Richie is passionate about getting out, having deep immersive experiences in nature, as well as finding ways to bring these skills and practices back home and into daily life. His own journey of empowerment includes learning to be the best husband, father, son, brother, uncle, and man that he can, while supporting others to do the same. He believes the empowering journey of connection is an endless, bumpy, winding road and we need each other to make it. He’s committed himself to this path and to supporting others along the way.
Sarah Fontaine
Sarah is an Energywork Practitioner, Wildlife Tracker, and Interspecies Communicator. For over 25 years, Sarah has been practicing various healing modalities including Chakra-work, Craniosacral Therapy, Traditional Chinese Medicine Meridians and Five Elements, Emotional Clearing, Interpersonal Neurobiology, Somatic Trauma Therapy, and Polyvagal Theory.
She has studied wildlife tracking through Shikari Tracker Mentoring with Jon Young and Josh Lane, Tom Brown Jr’s Tracker School, and Cybertracker Conservation. She is a graduate of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program, and studied Interspecies Communication with Anna Breytenbach and Wynter Worsthorne. She currently offers Earth-based energywork sessions and Wildlife Tracking courses, and lives near the Pacific Ocean in the Sandhill mountains north of Santa Cruz, CA with her partner Jon.