The North Cascades region is one of the last places in the US that is home to the elusive wolverine. "Glutton, demon of destruction, symbol of slaughter, mightiest of wilderness villains": the wolverine comes marked with a reputation based on myth and fancy. Yet this enigmatic animal is more complex than the legends that surround it and, with a shrinking wilderness and global warming, its future is uncertain.

Celebrated natural history writer Douglas Chadwick, author of insightful tomes on mountain goats, grizzly bears, wolves and whales, volunteered with the Glacier Wolverine Project in Glacier National Park. His latest book, The Wolverine Way, reveals the findings of the five-year study, which involved dealing with blizzards, grizzlies, sheer mountain walls and other daily challenges to survival. Chadwick explains key missing information about the wolverine's habitat, social structure and reproduction habits.

Wolverines, according to Chadwick, are the land equivalent of polar bears in regard to the impacts of global warming and with less than two dozen suspected to inhabit Washington State, time is of the essence to protect what remains.

Learn more about North Cascades wolverines on our blog.

On May 31, 2009, veteran long-distance sailor Mark Schrader and his crew left Seattle on the Ocean Watch for a 25,000-mile sailing circumnavigation of the American continents. With the mission of inspiring, educating, and engaging citizens of the Americas to protect our fragile oceans, the team studied and reported on issues including polar ice melt, coral reef health, ocean acidification, changing sea levels and coastal erosion. Their clockwise route included ports of call in Juneau, Nome, Newfoundland, New York City, Miami, San Juan, Rio de Janeiro, the Galapagos Islands, San Francisco and back home to Seattle.

Join us for an evening of riveting stories of adventures and discovery on the high seas, vivid photographs and first-hand accounts on the state of ocean health as Mark shares the high- and low-points of his visionary expedition. As one crew member wrote, "The journey would dramatize and symbolize the notion that the American continents were a single island surrounded by a common ocean; that what happened on the land would ultimately effect the watery world that surrounded it; and that it was in the best interests of all of us to protect and conserve this most precious, life-sustaining resource."

Learn more about the Ocean Watch's environmental journey at www.aroundtheamericas.org.

When it comes to eating within your own foodshed, wild foraging is as local as it gets. Join celebrated Pacific Northwest authors and wildharvesters Jennifer Hahn and Langdon Cook for a special evening at the Learning Center celebrating the wild gifts of autumn with a meal created from the delicious bounty around us: salmon, mushrooms, berries, sea vegetables, shellfish and more.

Jennifer is the author of the forthcoming book Pacific Feast: A Cook's Guide to West Coast Foraging and Cuisine, a fascinating new field guide combining wild foods identification, natural and cultural history, nutrition and sustainable foraging guidelines. Jennifer has guided several Institute kayaking trips and appeared as a Sourdough Speaker a few years back with her award-winning adventure book Spirited Waters: Soloing South Through the Inside Passage. She is an Adjunct Professor at Fairhaven College, where sheíll be teaching "Wild Food as Ecology and Culture" beginning this fall.

Langdon is the author of Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager and he writes a popular blog about wild foods. Langdon's book traces his journey from wrangler of pre-packaged calories to connoisseur of coveted wild edibles as he free-dives in icy Puget Sound to spear lingcod, bushwhacks through rugged mountain forests in search of edible mushrooms, strings up a fly rod to chase after sea-run trout and pulls on the gardening gloves to collect stinging nettles. Langdonís passion for wild foods has been profiled in Bon Appetit, WSJ magazine and Serious Eats.

Over several courses of delicious entrees, we will savor the flavors of the wild while Jennifer and Langdon share photographs, instruction and stories from the field. Foraging is not just a throwback to our hunter-gatherer past – it's a way to reconnect with the landscape today.