News and Events

November 2023



The Dungeness River Nature Center 's mission is to inspire understanding, respect,

and stewardship of our natural and cultural resources.

1943 West Hendrickson Road, Sequim, WA

A thank you card sent to the River Center by a young boy from Port Townsend

RiverFest a wild success

"I Loved Your River" is the feeling

we hope for

Over 900 children, teachers and chaperones (as well as a few adults who wandered in) attended late September's RiverFest, especially geared to teach kids about the Dungeness River watershed and its surroundings.

With activity stations set up under tents on the plaza, inside in Rainshadow Hall, and along the Olympic Discovery Trail, with the 5 Acre Marimba Band playing under the cedars near the bridge there was plenty of room for a crowd.

A warm thank you to the following organizations who were at the River Center all day with imaginative hands-on activities for children.

Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society, Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, North Olympic Salmon Coalition, Clallam County PUD, Clallam County Marine Resources Committee, Sierra Club (North Olympic Group), Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, US Forest Service (Olympic National Forest), Clallam Conservation District, North Olympic Peninsula Railroads, WA State BEACH Program, WA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, Olympic National Park, Washington State Department of Health Shellfish Program, and the 5 Acre Marimba Band.

If you'd like to give to the River Center's programs that

teach us how to love our river

please click here

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

OPAS Backyard Birding

Birds–The Inside Story

 Presenters: Shirley Anderson & Ken Wiersema

Sat., Nov. 4

10 a.m.—12 p.m.

 Rainshadow Hall

Suggested donation: $5

In 2010, Shirley Anderson, a retired high school biology teacher, started the OPAS Backyard Birding Program.

One year later, Ken Wiersema joined Shirley by integrating his graphics skills into the “inside story” presentation. Over the ensuing years, together they have evolved this talk into a fact-filled, enjoyable program that conveys the unique physical features of birds. They have developed this program for folks new to birding and to our region—as well as for those who wish to hone their bird knowledge and skills.

In this session, Shirley and Ken will discuss information on wild bird identification, biology, feeding, and nesting—as well as how and where birds use the habitats of the Olympic Peninsula. They will reveal how birds eat, digest, see, breathe, sing, reproduce, and fly. Participants will learn from a collection of bird skeletons, feathers, and feet along with new graphic illustrations and locally recorded sounds.

Bring your questions and share your observations and experiences. Be a part of Backyard Birding history while increasing your understanding and enjoyment of our local feathered friends!

Admission to each seminar is free. However, we suggest a donation of $5 per person to support our ongoing education programs.

Learn more here

Above: Engine on the tracks at Lake Crescent. The crew cutting the Sitka spruce forests on the Olympic Peninsula for World War I aircraft manufacture. Images from the North Olympic History Center.

Learning our Landscape

The Spruce Division

With Steve Hauff

Railroad Historian

(and ex-gandy dancer)

Thurs., Nov. 9

3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Online, Free

During the First World War, the need for aircraft grade spruce was great, and the highest concentrations of Sitka Spruce were in the coastal forests of Oregon and Washington. The U.S. Army formed the Spruce Production Division of the Signal Corps to provide a steady supply of spruce lumber to the waiting aircraft factories.

Learn about the role of Washington’s Sitka Spruce in World War I and of the Spruce Division’s effect on the timber industry.

https://library.jamestowntribe.org/home/ProgramsEvents or

Join with Zoom:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81505777609

Meeting ID: 815 0577 7609

For more information:

360-681-4632 or library@jamestowntribe.org

Covenant of the Salmon People

Thurs., Nov. 9

SOLD OUT!

The River Center monthly Film Series is a collaboration between the River Center and the award-winning Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Library.

Icelandic Gull, photo by Bob Boekelheide

OPAS Field Trip

Mouth of the Elwha River Bird Walk

Leader: Kathy McCoy

Tues., Nov. 14

9 a.m.—12 p.m.

Number of participants limited to 15—Registration required.

Free

Meeting place: Meet at the mouth of the Elwha Beach trailhead parking area at 9 am.

The mouth of the Elwha River is an intriguing place to visit. The way the landscape has changed following the dam removal upstream is a lesson in the power of the natural world. Bob Boekelheide has challenged us to try to identify 10 gull species there. This is a challenge indeed. Please dress for the weather.

Special Requirements: The trail is very flat and solid for a half mile or so, then devolves to sand. Not rough, but also not easy walking. There is a porta potty at the first Y in the trail.

Contact information: Kathy McCoy (208) 921-1340.

For more information, directions and to register click here

Dr. Rhonda Millikin, submitted photo

The Joy of Continuing Curiosity—

Three Decades of Research in Ecology

Presented by Rhonda L. Millikin, Ph.D., MSc., RPBio, ITA Horticulture

Wed., Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.

Rainshadow Hall

Free

Dr. Rhonda Millkin is a semi-retired ecologist after 37 years with the Canadian Federal Government–Forestry Canada, then Environment and Climate Change, Canada–followed by a return to school for Landscape Horticulture and Soil Science.

She’s currently combining the three disciplines to develop an Ecosystem Sustainability approach to vineyard management.

The last time she came to the Olympic Peninsula and presented an OPAS program—over 30 years ago—she was developing what would become her Ph.D thesis and comprise the basis of two patents fusing radar and acoustics to passively locate and identify night migrating birds in three-dimensional space.

She subsequently formed EchoTrack Inc. to apply her innovative technology to identify and conserve stopover sites for migrating birds and to recommend safer siting of wind turbines in proximity to migration flyways; across North America and in South Africa.

Dr. Millikin will share some key insights from her work on night bird migration and add current findings from her graduate students’ work on shorebird stopover flight behavior.

She will also sneak in a few ideas from her vineyard research that we could apply to our landscaping on the Olympic Peninsula to help mitigate the impacts of climate change.

It will be great to welcome a longtime friend and distinguished scientist back to our midst for an informative and entertaining evening. Please mark it on your calendars and join us. 

To learn more click here  

Holiday Bridge Light Countdown & Sing-along

Thurs., Nov. 16

5 p.m.

Join us for a countdown and sing-along after dark when the lights blaze on at the River Center and the historic railroad bridge on the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Thanks to the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe, thousands of lights will brighten the Olympic Discovery Trail at Railroad Bridge Park, the bridge spans and historic trestle, the Dungeness River Nature Center, and the towering cedar tree out front.

The lights are on all day during these dark days of winter until 9 p.m. from Thurs., Nov. 16 through the first few weeks of January.

The River Center's Gift Shop will be open extra hours during the bridge lighting.

Hurricane Coffee at the River in our atrium will be open too. See below for details.

Holiday Nature Mart

Sat. & Sun., Nov. 18-19

in Rainshadow Hall & on the Plaza

Details Below

During bridge lighting, and Nature Mart:

Special hours and drinks

at Hurricane Coffee on the River

Thurs., Nov. 16

Open 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Reopening for Bridge Lighting 4:30-7:30 p.m.

Come on in after 4:30 p.m. for a

Toasted Marshmallow Hot Chocolate or Peppermint Mocha!

Open all day during Nature Mart Hours

Sat. and Sun., Dec. 18 and19

Nov.-Dec. Specials:

Pumpkin Spice or Eggnog Latte

Hurricane Coffee at the River Nov. Hours

Open Tues. through Sat., 9 a.m.–3 p.m., Closed Mon. & Sun.

River Center Gift Shop Stocked for Holiday Shoppers

Just in time for the holidays, the gift shop will have a variety of additional items: Ceramic Travel Mugs with authentic indigenous artwork (these come with a keepsake indigenous art box, perfect for gifting), Also look for holiday-themed mugs with the River Center logo, Native Northwest bath toys, and a variety of wildlife plush toys for the little ones.

These are offered for a limited time, so please shop early!

Give them books they'll love from our online bookstore.

Click here to see the complete catalogue

The River Center is open daily from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Sundays noon - 5 p.m.

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Questions? Call the River Center at 360-681-4076



www.DungenessRiverCenter.org