Another fun summer with Gorge Explorers!
This July, 3rd graders from The Dalles participated in our Gorge Explorers program, based out of the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. Check out this video for some highlights and hear from our awesome teachers! Gorge Explorers Summer 2019
Check out our distance Community Day with the SECRETS program!
We’ve had to make a lot of changes this year and rethink how we can stay connected to the hundreds of students we work with. While we have been able to do some of our programming in-person with distance and face coverings we’ve had to switch some into an online, distance learning format. We’ve been [...]
On the insistence of owls
1. One day last summer, my partner and I hiked a loop that began at Crawford Oaks in Columbia Hills State Park, located on the Washington side of the river, just east of The Dalles. It was a spontaneous decision—to go on the hike in the first place, to do a full loop, to begin [...]
SECRETS After Dark: Costume Ball
It’s that time of year again: the Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute cordially invites you to join us for a night of celebration at our annual SECRETS After Dark Costume Ball. This year, our event will take place on Friday, October 28th at River City Saloon (207 Cascade Avenue, Hood River). Starting at 8pm, join us [...]
Moments of Wonder
In the closet of my childhood bedroom there are rows and rows of shoeboxes, each one carefully labelled in black permanent marker: Bagamoyo 2002, Zanzibar 2004, Pt. Roberts 2006. Inside each box is a treasure trove of beach glass, small bits of driftwood, and oddly shaped pebbles that have been collected from every beach I [...]
Event: Unity Picnic @ Hood River Library
CGEI is excited to announce our presence at Hood River County Library’s annual Picnic in the Park! This year’s theme is “unity,” and we’ll be participating in the conversation by hosting “Biodiversity Jenga” and a collaborative community mural. The event starts at 5:30 pm at the library, and will take place indoors as well as [...]
WIND MTN. (a hiker’s review)
A note from Bear: The following text is what I hope will be the first of many contributions from community members and volunteers. Today’s post, a meditative review of a favorite local hiking spot, is written by Moh Burford: poet, librarian, and occasional volunteer in the SECRETS classroom and on field trips, during which he [...]
Gorge Explorers 2016: a photo essay
As the penultimate week of my first time through Gorge Explorers comes to an end, there is much to reflect on. GEx is such a multivalent camp experience, with layers of mentoring that are many and diverse: high school students mentor 3rd graders; teachers from local elementary schools mentor everyone in the room; CGEI staff [...]
on Getting Close
I have this memory: I was very young, sitting in the backseat of my mom’s car, her driving. Looking out through the windows like I’d just noticed their transparency, I saw for the first time, I mean really saw, the mountains surrounding us, making up the Rogue Valley in which we lived. Curious and [...]
How to Adapt
a brief user’s guide on getting through life, as gleaned from plant adaptations invented by students in our SECRETS program. 1) Everything that comes out of your mouth can be a seed—or a thorn. [...]
