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- A Tribute to Crater Lake National Park – In-Person
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Item Number: S25NAT311A
Dates: 4/3/2025 - 4/24/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Days: Th
Sessions: 4
Maximum Enrollment: 78
Seats Available: 36
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room E
Instructor: Bonnie Cassel
Oregon’s only national park has a unique and stunning history. This course will focus on paying tribute to the many people, including Klamath Tribes, who have had an active role over the years in creating our modern-day Crater Lake National Park. Yet, underlying all is the great gift of the volcano Mount Mazama, whose massive eruption 7,700 years ago gave birth to arguably the most beautiful and intriguing lake in the world. Our studies and discussions will cover Crater Lake National Park’s history, the majestic lake, unparalleled wilderness beauty, wildlife of all kinds, rustic architecture, scientific research, park rangers, management, staff, volunteers and our visitors from near and far who are enchanted by Crater Lake National Park.
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- A Very Senior Seminar: Topics in Biology – In-Person
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Item Number: S25NAT312A
Dates: 4/8/2025 - 4/22/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 3
Maximum Enrollment: 24
Seats Available: 15
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room C
Instructor: Dave Garcia
In this course we will discuss pertinent topics in biology selected by the instructor and students. A week before each class session, students will suggest and vote on a topic, such as: communication between plants and other recent discoveries in plant behavior; the nexus of global warming, endangered species and invasive species; human genetics and aging; monarch butterflies; wolves; and whales. This course will be purely class discussions of selected topics facilitated by the instructor. There will be no lectures or media presentations unless the group decides we need more background information on a topic. The goal is to learn from one another as we share our thoughts and opinions. As much as possible, we will avoid discussing political and public policy aspects of our chosen topics.
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- Engaging With Nature: Walk, Photo, Paint – In-Person
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Item Number: S25NAT313A
Dates: 4/11/2025 - 5/9/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Days: F
Sessions: 5
Maximum Enrollment: 16
Building: Field Trip
Room: Field Trip
Instructor: Victoria Leo, Rick Baird
This course is full. Please click the "Add to Waitlist" button. Please note: You must be signed in and be a current member (or have a membership in your cart) to access the "Add to Waitlist" button. Exploring and engaging with nature delivers powerful boosts to physical and mental health, both when it is happening and when nature is reexperienced in memory and through photos and art. On different days and times, learners will explore multiple locations in the local area that they can also enjoy on their own schedules. Instructors will accommodate both brisk striding and ambling, but learners must be able to walk safely for at least a mile. Instructors will share suggestions for composing emotionally engaging nature scenes with cameras and smartphones at each location. The joys of nature can also be reexperienced through created artworks in watercolor, acrylic, mixed media, collage and other media, which the instructors will advise on during active walks and via email. The course includes a kickoff Zoom meeting to answer questions about the course and the tools that will be used for enthusiastically engaging with nature.
NOTE: Dogs are not allowed on the walks. Learners must be able to walk easily for at least a mile on occasionally unpaved paths. This course will require signing a liability waiver.
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- Experience Nature Through Studying Cats – Online
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Item Number: S25NAT314
Dates: 4/9/2025 - 4/23/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Days: W
Sessions: 3
Maximum Enrollment: 15
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: Victoria Leo, Rick Baird
This course is oversubscribed. The waitlist is full and the course is now closed.
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- From Fire to Flowers for Pollinators & People – In-Person
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Item Number: S25NAT307A
Dates: 5/22/2025 - 5/29/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Days: Th
Sessions: 2
Maximum Enrollment: 18
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room B
Instructor: Kristina Lefever
This course is full. Please click the "Add to Waitlist" button. Please note: You must be signed in and be a current member (or have a membership in your cart) to access the "Add to Waitlist" button. In both an in-person class and a field trip, students will learn about our native ecology and how and why to incorporate native plants into urban landscapes to better support our native pollinators, birds and other wildlife. Design considerations will be presented, along with some of the best native plants for gardens. Students will have the opportunity to tour real-life examples of native pollinator gardens planted through the From Fire to Flowers Pollinator Gardens program to restore residential areas devastated by the Almeda Fire in 2020 and to provide pollinator connectivity for the Rogue Buzzway. Students will be encouraged to incorporate some of this information into their own landscapes. No prior experience or knowledge is required.
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- Fungi: The Mysterious Kingdom – Online
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Item Number: S25NAT315
Dates: 5/9/2025 - 6/6/2025
Times: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Days: F
Sessions: 5
Maximum Enrollment: 299
Seats Available: 216
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: John Kloetzel
Our general encounters with fungi can be positive, as in foods (mushrooms or yeast in cooking/brewing) or negative, as in diseases (athlete’s foot, leaf molds and other plant pests). Yet the importance of this major kingdom of life is so much more. Recent popular explorations of fungi — Merlin Sheldrake’s “Entangled Life,” Suzanne Simard’s “Finding the Mother Tree” and Louie Schwartzberg’s documentary “Fantastic Fungi” — have stimulated a growing public interest in fungi. This course, primarily lecture with directed discussion, will serve as an introduction to these organisms. Topics will include: What is a fungus? How many kinds are there? Where are they found? What are their lifestyles? How do they reproduce? What roles do fungi play in the environment? How do fungi interact with living plants and animals — from symbioses to diseases? New terms need to be understood — hyphae, mycelia, mycorrhizae — as we venture into this mysterious kingdom living for the most part beneath our feet.
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- Living Landscapes: Gardening for Biodiversity – Online
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Item Number: S25NAT102
Dates: 4/1/2025 - 4/29/2025
Times: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 5
Maximum Enrollment: 42
Seats Available: 12
Building: Online
Room: (Zoom)
Instructor: Robin McKenzie
This is an image-rich and fast-paced course presented from an artistic and amateur scientific point of view designed to appeal to all levels of pollinator, bird, wildlife and general gardening enthusiasts. Based on the premise that great beauty can be achieved while simultaneously increasing biodiversity, students will be presented with basic steps needed to create multiseasonal pollinator and wildlife habitat that will enhance not only the beauty of their property, but also re-create the natural biodiversity of their communities. Students will learn the basics to qualify their garden for certification as a monarch butterfly waystation or local pollinator site. Students need not have a garden to participate in this course. New content has been added to highlight the Homegrown National Park movement, hopefully inspiring active participation in enhancing the biodiversity of our region. Book recommendations will be sent to registered students in a pre-course email.
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- What Makes the Galápagos Special? – In-Person
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Item Number: S25NAT316A
Dates: 5/6/2025 - 5/20/2025
Times: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Days: Tu
Sessions: 3
Maximum Enrollment: 53
Seats Available: 1
Building: Campbell Center
Room: Room D
Instructor: Tony Davis
The Galápagos Islands are celebrated for several things: unique and unusual fauna, creatures unafraid of humans, a catalyst for Darwin’s theory of natural selection and a remote, relatively pristine environment. What caused them to become so special? Are they unique in this regard? Perhaps there are, or were, other places in the world that are equally remarkable. We’ll examine the factors that have made the Galápagos what they are and compare them to other archipelagoes on a multidisciplinary journey through geology, geography, climate, biology and human history.
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