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Art & Nature at the Refuge - Nature Inspired Stories

Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Two local children’s book author/artists will be reading their books and there will be free nature inspired arts and crafts activities for everyone. Rain or shine, bring the whole family!

At 1:30, Lift Up the Sky! / ¡Levanten el Cielo! will be read in English by the author Barbara Dolan-Wilkinson and in Spanish by Kevin Soto. It is a nature-filled tale about working together to accomplish great things. Four animals from around the world come together to solve the problem of a sky-too-low in need of fixing. For many years, Barbara worked at the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park where she found joy in leading children on nature hikes. Inspired by a Snohomish story she once heard at a storytelling festival, Barbara crafted her tale in the tradition of all great oral narratives. In 2021, she put the story to watercolors and this book is the result. The book also includes extra information about various types of redwood trees, resources to learn even more about their importance and a free, double-sided activities sheet filled with fun facts, coloring activities, and a redwood forest treasure hunt available to download and print from home.

Beginning at 2:30, Maureen McGarry will read Louie Learns A Lesson, a story that follows two geese, Allie and her brother Louie, as they fly around the region, rest in shallow ponds, and eat tender shoots of grass. Louie dreams about a white fox that scares him, but he doesn’t know why. Allie teaches Louie about how the Aleutian Geese almost became extinct because of foxes that were introduced to their island years ago. The story of the geese is a call to action for all the young readers to “learn from our mistakes and become guardians of the natural world. The book is full of beautiful and locally familiar watercolor paintings by Maureen. Her work has always centered on interpreting the elegant beauty of nature. She says “For me, painting with watercolors as my medium is what is closest to nature.”

Both books were published by the authors themselves and information on how to get copies of your own will be available.

Our hope is to inspire participants to do some of their own writing as we continue the theme of Nature Inspired Stories and Poems during Art & Nature at the Refuge on the third Sundays in February and March.

DATES/TIMES

WHERE

• Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge

PRICE

• Free