Course participants keep detailed journals and are responsible for sharing knowledge with the group. Photo by Rhianna Truex.
The registration lottery is now open for the Land Trust’s ever-popular Tidelands to Timberline natural history course, which will return beginning April 2026.
This eight-week, field-based course offers 18 committed participants the chance to become intimately familiar with the natural history and ecosystems of the northeast Olympic Peninsula, absorb the knowledge and passion of some of our region’s finest naturalists, and experience the incredible interconnections of diverse local ecosystems from the sea up to the mountains.
Land Trust Stewardship Director and course leader Erik Kingfisher, left, leading participants during the 2023 course.
In addition to Friday field days, where participants will learn together on the land for about eight hours, the course’s curriculum asks participants to spend an additional three to 10 hours per week learning about and observing certain features of our local natural history.
In an effort to make access to this highly popular course as equitable as possible, participants will be randomly selected from a list of those who enter the lottery. Please only enter the lottery if you are quite certain you’re prepared to commit to the course.
This course is limited to a total of 18 participants. Up to two people per lottery entry accepted. In other words, if you’d like to take the course with someone in particular, you may enter the lottery together. Those who enter the lottery this year who’ve entered the lottery in previous years but were not selected, will be automatically entered into the lottery as many times as they’ve entered the lottery since 2022 for the 2026 course. (So if this is your second time entering the lottery, you will get two entries. If it’s your third time, three entries. And so on.) We reserve two spots for individuals from historically marginalized or underrepresented groups.
Sign up here to enter the lottery for your chance to be invited to register as a participant for this year’s program. The lottery is open for signups now through January 16, 2026.
Friday, April 17: Orientation, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Friday April 24: Marine Environment, 9:30 am – 6:00 pm
A participant with a skunk-cabbage leaf. Photo by Rhianna Truex.
Friday, May 1: Shorelines, 9:30 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, May 8: Rainshadow Forests and Prairies, 8:30 am – 4:00pm
Friday, May 15: Aquatic and Riparian Environments, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Friday, May 22: Temperate Rainforests, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, May 29: Montane Forests, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, June 5: Subalpine and Alpine Environments, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm
Friday, June 12: Course Closing Potluck, 4:00 – 7:00 pm
