Tracking and Nature Connection Series

Fall 2011 Series

Awaken your senses and explore the stories of the landscape through the Tracking and Nature Connection Series, led by experienced trackers John Brossard and Scott Davidson. Tracking powerfully expands your awareness and sharpens your ability to see nature--benefits that create connection and enrich your everyday life. And tracking can be lots of fun!



“Tracking is about real relationships with real animals in the real world.”
- Mark Elbroch, Mammal Tracks & Sign
What You Learn


In the Tracking and Nature Connection Series, you will explore the ancient art and science of animal tracking while honing your sensory awareness skills. Tracking skills and knowledge of wildlife form an essential practical base for all trackers. Practicing core routines of awareness will enable you to engage more fully with the landscape and to become more connected and awake to the life around us. When combined, these skills and practices develop our imagination and intuition, connecting us strongly to place and enriching all aspects of our lives.
Each class covers different skills and ventures into different ecologies where you will discover unique species and challenges.
This series will introduce the essentials of tracking:
- Clear prints and foot morphology
- Gaits, body movements and energy states of wildlife
- Sign tracking and trailing in various substrates
- Animal behavior and survival strategies
- Ecological linking
- Bird language as the eyes and ears of the tracker

Between classes, you will develop your skills at home with guided practices and connections with fellow trackers. The instructors will place the skill base of tracking within the bigger context of human cultures. You will learn how tracking can build bonds with individuals and entire communities.
"To fully connect to nature in the most powerful way, all sensory systems must be engaged and developed, and pattern recognition must be infused with both imagination and rational processes."
Jon Young, Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature
Benefits


Human connection to nature is as old as our presence on Earth. Tracking is a skill and a way of being in nature that can take us into a richer relationship with the land, with all its abundance, wildlife and interconnections.


Tracking and Nature Connection can help you:
- Learn basic tracking skills with direct field experience
- Reclaim a skill that is part of human heritage
- Build awareness routines that strengthen your tracking skills over time
- Explore the complex ecologies of Marin County
- Nourish a deep, healing connection with the natural world
Tracking enlivens your body and spirit as you become more aware of all the life surrounding us.
"Individuals who develop authentic depth in their nature awareness, especially through the bird language journey, will also notice they cause waves in the world around them... This leads to deeper levels of awareness and tracking, both on the inner and outer landscapes--it becomes a process of healing."
Jon Young, Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature
Dates and Locations


This series will take place on four Saturdays this fall. Each class is from 9 AM-3:30 PM and is held at different field sites throughout Marin County. Locations will be announced before each class.
If you want to explore the course before committing to the 4-part series, you are welcome to sign-up for the first session. Should you decide to continue on with the series your fee will be deducted from the series fee.
September 24
October 15
November 5
November 19

Registration
Click here to register!
The fee for the 4-part Series is $300.
The fee for the introductory session (first class only) is $85.

What past participants say

“I felt like I gained much insight into how to read space (mapping) and the value of listening & sitting to hear the various creatures & their dramas unfolding within the land. This broadened my awareness of what it means to inhabit the earth.”
‘I would definitely recommend this course to anyone.”
~ L.W. Berkeley, Ca
“This course has the potential to drastically alter your perception of wildlife & nature in general.”
~ M.L. Vermont
“I so appreciated the social aspect of learning with live teachers and peers.”
“John and Scott have a relaxed, open and deeply knowledgeable teaching style. If you take this class, it will transform and enrich your experience of being outdoors.”
~ A.B. Chico, Ca
“If you love nature and want to gain tools to experience it more deeply, take the class. If you have little connection with nature and want to start a relationship, take the class. Taught by two deeply passionate and non-judgmental nature practitioners with a highly interactive teaching style.”
~ J.K. San Anselmo, Ca
“It was a rich experience with exceptional teachers.”
~ E.C. San Anselmo, Ca

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