Early in the Field

Spring is about to awaken at Siskiyou Field Institute. While young students are learning about our watershed at Mt. Ashland SnowSchool, preparations are under way for spring Outdoor School.

In our forest, Pseudotrillium rivale will soon peek from under dead oak and madrone leaves and California goldfields (Lasthenia californica) will splash the serpentine rock with sunny flowers. Tree frogs will serenade the sunset from the Deer Creek treeline. First butterflies (usually California Tortoiseshells) may appear on sunny days in March. As ground squirrels pop up, Red-shouldered Hawks and the occasional eagle and the local foxes may hunt on our property.

Our adult educational season also comes to life in early spring. SFI’s first workshops will provide how-to on sustainable land practices: building hügelkultur beds and biochar production. In mid March we’ll visit the Klamath Basin for a spectacular day of raptor and waterfowl watching.

Forest Fragments, an ethnobotanical sketching workshop, is now scheduled for the first weekend of spring, March 21-22, with a new SFI instructor, Dorota Haber-Lehigh. Did you miss out on The Healing Forest last spring? Don’t worry, it’s repeating this spring in expanded format. The morning guided meditational walk and tea ceremony will be followed by an afternoon session on creating health-boosting tinctures from forest tree bark. The date is Saturday, April 4.

Early field courses and youth programs and camps are now open for registration on our new website. You can also reserve lodging or find out about facility rentals online. Start with the top tabs on the homepage and pull down the options. You’ll have the option to put classes, camps or lodging in your cart as you browse or you can first scroll down to the descriptions below.