Fort Worden State Park

Island of Rivers: The natural history and future health of an island ecosystem

Tim McNulty

Saturday, October 6 4 pm

Fort Worden State Park Wheeler Theatre

Poet, nature writer and conservationist Tim McNulty will discuss the history and development of the Olympic ecosystem.  Tim’s talk will highlight the interrelationships between landscape, climate and biological communities, endemic species and past climatic upheavals.  He'll also look into the challenges facing this island ecosystem in an uncertain future.

Tim has long been active in Northwest literary and environmental communities.  His poems are published in journals and anthologies in the U.S.and abroad; his essays and articles on forests, wildlife and conservation have appeared in numerous anthologies, magazines and newspapers, and his natural history writings have been translated into German, Japanese and Chinese.Tim lives with his family in the foothills of Washington's Olympic Mountains. 
Admission: Members $5/Non-members $8

Celebrate the Season with Cooking Classes at the Green Eyeshade

As part of a fall membership drive and fundraiser, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center will be hosting its fifth series of four cooking classes at The Green Eyeshade. “Celebrate the Season” is the theme for the classes with the first one beginning Tuesday, October 9, from 7-9 p.m. Additional classes will also be on Tuesdays: October 16, 23, and 30th, also from 7-9 p.m. Save the dates! Learn culinary tips from Port Townsend’s hottest chefs while benefiting the PTMSC. Every year these classes are a sell-out and for those who have attended, they attest to the classes being a fall highlight! If you love to cook, and you want to support the PTMSC, you won’t want to miss a single class. More details about the chefs, restaurants they’re from and recipes they’ll be offering will be in our October e-mail newsletter, in newspaper articles, posted on our Web site and on flyers distributed at our exhibits and around town. If you attended any of the previous PTMSC cooking classes, you’ll know you don’t want to miss a single class. Sign up early, as space is limited to only 20 per class. Cost is $30 per person, $25 for PTMSC members or $95 for all four classes for PTMSC members. All proceeds go toward funding PTMSC programs. Please call 385-5582 or e-mail info@ptmsc.org for reservations.

Wine Tasting Cruise A Benefit for PTMSC

Come taste the wines from Christina James Winery—
Port Townsend’s newest winery

Appetizers will be served as pairings to the wines

Sunday, October 14, 2007
3-5pm
Departing from Hudson Point Marina
Sponsored by PS Express

Tickets are $50, $45 for PTMSC members
Contact the PTMSC office for reservations as space is limited
360.385.5582 ext. 104
cruises@ptmsc.org

Our Wheezing Heart: Puget Sound

William Dietrich
1pm, Sunday, November 4

The Rose Theatre

Presented by the Port Townsend Marine Science Center

Can we nurse the spiritual, geographic, economic and ecological heart of our region back to health before open-heart surgery, or have we failed one of the richest waterways in the world? William (Bill) Dietrich, author and Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist, will talk about the past and future of Puget Sound, and what we must do as Sound stewards to sustain our fertile fjord and estuary.

William (Bill) Dietrich is an author, Seattle Times journalist, and professor of environmental journalism at Western Washington University. The Tacoma native is the author of nine books, which have been sold in fifteen languages, and shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He was a member of the Northwest Straits Commission, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, and toured Antarctica under a National Science Foundation fellowship.

In 2007, his novel Napoleon's Pyramids will be published in February. He wrote the introduction to the Art Wolfe photography book Puget Sound, which will be published in April. He lives in Anacortes and sails in local waters.

Admission: Port Townsend Marine Science Center Members $5/Non-members $8

Watching the world melt away: what arctic seabirds tell us about global warming

George Divoky

Thursday, November 29 4 pm

Fort

Worden

State Park

Bldg 204

The snow and ice habitats of the Arctic are especially vulnerable to climate change and since the last half of the 20^th century northern Alaska has experienced some of the greatest warming of anywhere in the world.  The response of seabirds to this rapid environmental change will be discussed using a unique data set spanning more than three decades and providing compelling evidence of the biological consequences of the region’s rapid physical changes.

George Divoky has studied seabirds in

Alaska

since 1970 when, as a researcher at the Smithsonian Institution, he participated in the Coast Guard’s survey of the Arctic Ocean adjacent to

Prudhoe Bay

, prior to the development of that oilfield.  Since then he has been involved in Alaskan seabird studies relating to a diverse group of conservation issues including the Exxon Valdez oil spill and regional climate change.  He has maintained a continuing study of a seabird colony at Cooper Island, Alaska, since 1975.   The study is one of the longest longitudinal bird studies in North America or the

Arctic

and its findings on the consequences of snow and pack ice reductions provide some of the best examples of the biological response to climate change. The website of Divoky’s nonprofit organization, Friends of Cooper Island (http://cooperisland.org) provides background and regular updates on his research and outreach programs. 

Admission: Members $4/Non-members $4   Member youth $2/Non-member youth $3

Leo Kottke's Yes and No

Yes

Velcro, doubt, Ruth Roman, soybeans, crabgrass, Haynes manuals, Crayola silver, morphine, thermocline, blimps, laissez-faire, mahogany, wicker, Java trench, radar, fifties Gibsons, small blocks, teachers, Brompton's mixture, Velveeta, windmills, thumbs, verbs, punctuation, metaphor, divergence, synchronicity, coincidence, rain, PFAW, cumuli, titanium, the Empire State Building, Alvin, largo, chemosynthesis, beans, crop rotation, echoes, fish, deuce coupes, the Panama Canal, paint, moonshine, cotton, limnology, jiu-jitsu, craps, open windows, silence, glass eyes, Grant's tomb, GPS, frontal lobes, filtrums, opisthenars, palms, sleep, coelcanths, the Raid of the Terribore, corn.

No

Leaf blowers, de-regulation, sushi, spitting, snowmobiles, firecrackers, "community," black ice, brussels sprouts, public address systems, segregated use zoning, the Drudge report, CNN, sealed buildings, sperm banks, tags, room deodorant, Uzis, PCP, PCBs, high school, Monsanto, charter schools, lead, pulp, kumquats, binder, filler, Glade, teaching assistants, stun guns, Christmas records, mosquitoes, super delegates, billboards, talk radio, dog grooming, HMOs, boot scootin', diesel combustion, processed crossovers, cheeseburgers, cattle, sitcoms, hog lagoons, greeting cards, Mr. McPheeley, content labeling, soft money, personal contributions, corporate contributions, billboard lobby, speaking in tongues, Three Stooges, crack, hair blowers, 16-bits, entrepreneurs, super tankers, the NFL, Fox, diet plans, infomercials, advertorials, neologisms, adverbs, like, Valium, crank, spittoons, flower gardens, black holes, blue moons, Nostrodamus, belts, aspartame, Good Morning America, Demerol, styrofoam, Xanax, lapel ribbons, Hamburger Helper, possums, Trent Lott.

Friday, October 5, at 7:30 pm, American guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke gives a special performance at Fort Worden's McCurdy Pavilion. Tickets are available by calling Centrum at 360.385.3102, x117 as well as online at our secure site. 

Leo Kottke at McCurdy Pavilion October 5

[Leo Kottke onstage playing "Rings"]

Leo Kottke, who has been referred to as "quite possibly the greatest guitarist on earth," will give a special performance at McCurdy Pavilion on October 5, at 7:30 pm. Listen to Kottke's classic hard-driving tune "Vaseline Machine Gun" here.

"Once you fall prey to Kottke's rollicking groove, it's hard to deny its allure, year after year," writes critic Josef Woodward. "He doesn't sweat the small stuff. It's all about an energy force, captured in well-honed musical terms."

Kottke's unique sytle of music draws on blues, jazz, and folk music influences. Growing up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Kottke played trombone and violin before moving to the guitar. A mishap with a firecracker permanently damaged his hearing in one ear, a condition that would be exacerbated during firing practice during his service in the Navy.

After receiving his discharge, Kottke attended St. Cloud State University in central Minnesota where he was known for skipping class and instead going to the auditorium and playing his guitar for hours on end!

He calls his guitar playing "fussin'" with the guitar. And sometimes during performances, his mind floats off the stage, he says. "It just plain leaves," he says. "Gone until the night's over. There's no room for me. Sometimes when I come back I don't have a clue where I've been, I mean, while I was playing. Where I go when I'm gone is another story. I'm not there, either."

Kottke has collaborated on his records with his mentor John Fahey, as well as with Chet Atkins, Lyle Lovett, Margo Timmins, and Rickie Lee Jones. He is also a frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion. For Tickets to the October 5 show, call Centrum toll-free at 800.733.3608 or 360.385.3102, x117 or visit our secure online Acteva site.

A Taste of the Cistern Concert

If you missed last night's Cistern Dedication Concert, here is a jumpy cell-phone video with surprisingly good audio. The concert was, in fact, professionally recorded, so we'll try to have a good quality sound sample available at some point. This August 8, 2007 recording of Stuart Dempster, Kevin Karnes, David Marriott, and Brian Pertl was made at the dedication of the Dan Harpole Cistern at Fort Worden State Park.

Map to the Dan Harpole Cistern

Join us on Wednesday, August 8, at 7 pm on the upper hill at Fort Worden State Park as multi- instrumentalist Stuart Dempster performs improvisatory compositions for didgeridoo, conch shell, and trombone as part of the dedication of the naming of the Dan Harpole Cistern.

The concert will also celebrate the Cistern’s centennial (it was built in 1907). Listen to a recording of Dempster playing in the Cistern.

This Cistern is underground, but we'll be piping the music up in surround sound to speakers on the meadow above.

We'll have volunteers on hand to guide you to the Cistern, but you can also download a map to help you get to this special concert.