Lee Mann's roots in the North Cascades region stretch back to before Washington was a state. A long line of Mann men have lived and worked in these mountains as homesteaders, miners and loggers, and Lee himself grew up on a stump farm, greasing his boots with bear fat, watching his father melt lead to cast their own 30-30 bullets and surviving the very lean years of the Great Depression when dinner was often provided by hunting deer, bear and grouse.

"Hard times create hard people," Lee has written, and "compassion for our fellow creatures goes first when times are bad. Therefore, we owe a big debt to Mother Earth now when times are good. I can't do anything about the suffering caused by those traps in the past, but I have no excuse for not doing everything possible now to preserve habitat... Today, I sublimate my hunting instincts by using a camera."

Indeed, when Lee discovered photography, he found his life's work, and today most Northwesterners have seen his stunning work on 100s of posters, notecards, limited-edition prints and long-time gallery presence in La Conner and Sedro-Woolley, as well as national magazines, periodicals and the Seattle Times.

In his first presentation at the Learning Center, Lee will share images and stories of a lifetime spent bringing people closer to nature through photography. He will share with us his long-range perspective on the North Cascades, including tales from the mountains long before the national park, early mountaineering exploits, his personal transformation towards a conservation ethic and the "small town rabble rousing" he did in concert with David Brower, Harvey Manning, Ira Spring, Pat Goldsworthy and others who fought to establish North Cascades National Park.

Join us as Lee shows his favorite images from a lifetime of photographing the Pacific Northwest and tells the stories behind the scenery.

When Will and Mari Kemper chose Bellingham as their new home, our corner landed one of the most accomplished entrepreneurial beer-brewing teams in the world. From the original Thomas Kemper Brewery on Bainbridge Island in 1984 to the opening of Old Town's Chuckanut Brewery in 2009, their story traces the rise of craft brewing in the Pacific Northwest. Join us for a night full of beer history and lore, insider stories from the frontlines of the Northwest's microbrewing revolution and a special multi-course meal created to showcase several of the Kemper's best brews.

This special evening begins with a "welcome beer" and toast by Will and Mari on the lakeside deck of our dining hall before moving inside for a celebration of slow food and locally-brewed ales. Dinner will feature several delicious courses prepared by the Institute's Chef Shelby Slater and paired with complimentary beers from the Chuckanut Brewery. Throughout this unique gastronomical experience, the Kempers will weave tales of their long personal history in the craft beer movement and introduce each beer in turn – what style it is, how it is prepared, its historical background and place in world cultures.

Will Kemper is a master brewer, chemical engineer, educator and graduate of the first Masterbrewers Program from the University of California at Davis. He has worked as brewmaster for Thomas Kemper, Aviator Ales, Norwester Brewing, Orange County Brewery, Mile High Brewing and many other breweries. The Kempersí started the first two Sierra Madre Brewpubs in Monterrey, Mexico in the late 1990s and opened up Turkeyís first brewpub in Istanbul in 2001. They have traveled extensively throughout England, Belgium and Germany, visiting breweries and gaining new information for their repertoire that they share today at the Chuckanut Brewery (which won the Best Small Brewpub of the Year award at the 2009 Great American Beer Festival). The Kempers support community sustainability by using as many local and organic products as possible, donating spent grains to local dairy farms and hosting local fundraisers and education events.

After realizing the gaping hole between his convictions about climate change and his own carbon footprint, Kurt Hoelting embarked on a yearlong experiment to rediscover the heart of his own home by the Salish Sea. Trading in his car and jet travel for a kayak, a bicycle and his own two feet, Kurt spent the year exploring an approximately 100-mile circle drawn around his home on the map that enveloped the contours of the Puget Sound basin. This voyage of discovery rekindled his love for the region of his birth, while renewing his commitment to the restoration of Puget Sound's threatened ecosystems and to a way of life that might yet deliver a healthy future to our children.

"If I can't change my own life in response to the greatest challenge now facing our human family, who can? And if I won't make the effort to try, why should anyone else? So I've decided to start at home, and begin with myself. The question is no longer whether I must respond. The question is whether I can turn my response into an adventure."

Join us as Kurt shares the challenges and triumphs of his creative experiment and introduces The Circumference of Home: One Man's Yearlong Quest for a Radically Local Life, the forthcoming book that chronicles his self-imposed challenge of living locally. It's an inspiring reminder that what we need is usually close at hand, and that a sustainable lifestyle doesnít need to be one of austerity and deprivation. As Kurt found out, living a greener, simpler life opens up new possibilities for richness and adventure around every bend!

Kurt Hoelting is a wilderness guide, meditation teacher and commercial fisherman. For the past two years, he has led the Institute's popular "Sit, Walk, Write" retreat at the Learning Center with Holly Hughes. A long time student of Zen meditation, Kurt has a special affinity for exploring the places where human nature and wild nature meet.

"For several generations, we humans have observed that the world is growing steadily smaller. Yet as we slow ourselves back down to the pace at which our legs can stroll or pedal a decent bicycle, the experienced Earth begins to grow larger once again, each locale swelling with unexpected nooks and crannies. Each bioregion finally discloses itself as utterly unique and practically inexhaustible in its complexity and wonder. Here, by virtue of the lucidity of his prose and the quality of his practice, Kurt Hoelting expands the world."
—David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous

"As Kurt Hoelting reclaims his life from the thrall of the automobile, he finds that he regains the great gifts of time, silence, exuberant good health, deep connection to his Northwest home, and ultimately the personal integrity that comes from living a life he believes in. The Circumference of Home is a wild bike/kayak/ferry ride among islands and towns. But it is also a journey of the moral imagination, asking the essential question – in a time of dangerous ecological disruption, how ought I to live?"
—Kathleen Dean Moore, author of Riverwalking and The Pine Island Paradox

"Kurt Hoelting – fisherman, carpenter, mountain climber, storyteller and Zen adept – is well-equipped for this adventure. He emerges from his low-carbon year feeling more fit spiritually as well as physically, and more hopeful about the human future. Readers will also come away feeling hopeful about our capacity for living more deeply in place and more conservingly on the planet."
— Scott Russell Sanders, author of A Conservationist Manifesto