News & Press

As busy as the holiday season can be, I always look forward to the quiet and hush of winter in nature. It’s a great time to get outside with your family and focus on something you might miss the rest of the year.

Our evergreen, coniferous trees give us a bit of green all year round. And with a little practice, kids can learn to tell the difference and find out what these trees have to teach us.

So what is an evergreen, and what’s a conifer?

Chelan County Natural Resource Department has resurrected and revamped CDLT's Good Neighbor Handbook. Take a look at this fabulous resource!

A couple of months ago, in the column about exploring lakes and ponds, we talked about a lake’s watershed. Now, if you read that and your first thought was “is that a building that stores water?” — you’re not alone.

A watershed is all the land that drains water to a central location, such as a river, lake, or ocean. It’s important to know about our local watersheds, because what happens in one part of a watershed can affect all of us downstream.

So, this month, we’re learning about watersheds and discovering ways to explore them with kids.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has given what locals know as “Saddle Rock” an official name: Saddle Rock

Native American legend tells of Black Bear and Grizzly Bear constantly bickering until one day Coyote turned them both to stone, forming what early pioneers and settlers referred to as “Squaw Saddle”.

WENATCHEE — With 25 tons of arsenic-contaminated rock and soil, an articulating dump truck slowly moves down the lower end of Saddle Rock an average of 25 times a day. The truck can swivel in front of its load, able to make the sharp corners of the dirt road down the mountain.

Every fall, I end up with a huge pile of oak leaves in my yard. Last October, my mom visited and we ended up piling up leaves in creative ways, creating ephemeral art that blew away with the next gust of wind.

It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon with family. The next day, we gathered them all up and added them to my compost pile. It will become rich soil for my garden next year.

Sometimes technology can take over kids’ lives to the point where they don’t get enough healthy nature connection.

Through nature photography, we can harness that obsession with gadgets and pair it with a natural fascination with the more-than-human world.

And while having a quality camera can definitely give a leg up, any old camera phone or point and shoot camera can create interesting photos. Just use whatever you have on hand.

LAKE WENATCHEE — The Chelan-Douglas Land Trust announced Tuesday it's secured a new 40-acre parcel on the White River watershed, helping complete a network of floodplain and riverfront land held for conservation.

The $160,000 purchase will help maintain habitat and improve public access on the Lower White River where it empties into Lake Wenatchee. It's one of the few properties in the lower five miles of the river that was not owned or managed by the Land Trust, U.S. Forest Service or Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

As the weather warms, we start to see more thunderstorms roll in from the mountains. Personally, I have loved the flash of lightning, the sound of thunderstorms, and the idea of so much energy bouncing around in the sky since I was a kid. 
Here are some ways to explore thunderstorms with your family. 

During the summer of 2019 CDLT is allowing several partner organizations to use our properties to access the river and improve habitat for salmon and steelhead.  From July 8 to 12 all of the CDLT Entiat Stillwaters properties will be closed to the public because helicopters will be flying logs over the area and the nearby river.

WENATCHEE — In a few weeks, hikers of the Jacobsen Preserve will have a story to read.

The Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, with help from the North Central Regional Library, is installing pages from a children’s book to encourage kids to read and go outside.

“It’s something else for kids to do that will foster an appreciation of both those things,” said Kathy Peven, the land trust’s communications coordinator.