Adult Nature Programs
Re-Opening January 2025
If you are interested in Riekes Nature’s adult program, Sense of Place, please fill out the interest form below to get updates on open enrollment for January of 2025.
Do you feel a calling to have a deep connection to the land, and to know the earth and its ecosystems as your ancestors once did? Would you like to develop the confidence and competence to walk into the forest alone with all the skills you would need to survive? Do you feel a loss of the kinds of human connections that nourish and support you on your human journey, and do you want to plant the seeds for creating those nourishing connections in your life? Join us for this transformational class where you will put your feet onto the path of diving deep into the world of nature connection and being in community with other awesome humans along the way!
Sense of Place: Riekes Nature for Adults
Course Description
This adult class takes a Cooper’s Hawk eye view on one focus per day, giving participants a highly concentrated experience of our nature curriculum. Each day centers around a skill or activity in one of our core areas of nature study, and also introduces the core routines of nature connection through practices like cultivating a sense of place through going to a sit spot and honing our senses to reclaim our wild awareness. Participants will also develop tools and confidence to continue down the path of nature connection.
The core areas of knowledge that will be explored are: Ancestral Skills, Fire Making, Naturalist Knowledge, Survival skills, Edible and Medicinal Plants, Wildlife Tracking, Sensory Awareness, Sense of Place, Navigation, and Community.
There are three sessions of this course and each session will focus on different skills and activities based on the seasons. To get the most out of this course, we recommend signing up for all sessions, but it will still be a rich learning experience if you are only able to attend one or two. If you would like to sign up for all sessions, we recommend registering for them at the same time so that you do not accidentally get put on a waitlist for the one of the sessions. Using the payment plans, you can hold your spot with the deposit, and then the regular payments for the class begin the week before the class starts.
Most program days we will meet at Huddart Park in Woodside, however, we will have two or three field trips during each session. These field trips allow us to explore ecosystems and skills that we would not be able to experience otherwise.
Details, Session Dates, and Registration
Where: Huddart Park
Day of the Week: Sundays
Time: 9am-12pm
Ages: 18+
Price: $675 per 10-week session, $70 for a drop-in class
Dates: Re-Opening January of 2025
Instructor: Kate Peters and a rotation of our other nature staff
Core Instructor
Kate Peters attended the Riekes Nature two-day-a-week teen program as a 14-18 year old when it first began back in 2001. Fascinated completely, Kate enthusiastically set about learning everything she could about making fire-by-friction, how to track wildlife, which plants are edible and medicinal, and in general connecting to the sense of awe and wonder that she found in the wilderness.
Alongside her learning at Riekes, Kate took many of the Jon Young Nature Connection workshops offered at that time including The Art of Mentoring and Bird Language workshops, and the Kamana Naturalist Training Series offered through the Wilderness Awareness School. Kate also learned from many incredible teachers through the Point Reyes MAPOM Native Skills Classes where she focused on crafting hunting bows, weaving baskets, tanning deer hides, and processing acorns into acorn flour and porridge. Throughout all of her learning, Kate began to realize that wildlife tracking served as a way to weave all of the nature-pathways that she was exploring together. Kate embarked upon a wildlife tracking journey which ultimately led her to participate in a 14-weekend wildlife tracking intensive with Mark Elbroch and Jon Young, and also to participate in CyberTracker International Wildlife Track and Sign Evaluations. Kate currently holds a Level III Track and Sign Certificate.
After attending Humboldt State University for Environmental Science, Kate took a professional detour into being an EMT and then a Paramedic for several years in Fresno, CA. This experience deepened Kate’s understanding of humanity and further clarified the importance of curiosity, kindness, and compassion.
Kate returned to the Riekes Center in 2019 as an instructor, and then came on as the director of the Riekes Nature Department in January of 2020.