Brrr! This week’s bitter cold makes staying inside inviting, especially once the sun dips behind the ridge. Winter is a good time for armchair adventuring from the comfort of your own home. The recent Wenatchee Naturalist eNews included this list of sure-to-please films.

Western U.S. Wildlife and Habitats videos:

YouTube video series Wildlife Wednesdays– over 50 short (3-8 minutes) and lively films– bats, to weasels, to nature journaling to serotinous cones.  Applies throughout the Pacific Northwest; produced by Montana Dept. of Wildlife and Parks. 

This Land is Part of Us: Washington’s Shrub-steppe Ecosystem (11 minutes). Produced by Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife. After viewing, take a short tour of the shrub-steppe in either English or Spanish.

Sagebrush County: Backbone of the West by Vimeo for Audubon Rockies (3 minutes). Enjoy additional videos on their website, including:

Cheatgrass is Sagebrush Country Fueling Wildfires (2 minutes)

Sage-Grouse Explained by Vox for Audubon Rockies (6.5 minutes)

Why Bears?  Features all worldwide bear species in a short video by ecologist and conservationist, Chris Morgan.  

Migration Minute: Episode 1 This first of a series of short (2-4 minute) video series is packed with the latest science on big game migrations in the American West. Check out more episodes on the Wyoming Migration Initiative that features dozens of short videos about mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and bison.

Colville Confederated Tribes Videos

We can learn through films about the long history of the Indigenous people who lived in the Wenatchee Watershed from time immemorial. The Colville Confederated Tribes History and Archeology Department offers these for us all:  

Film: False Promises:  The Lost Land of the Wenatchi. (57 minutes).

Legends and Landscapes:  Coyote Stories Along the Columbia. (23 minutes).

Everything Change:  Recollections of Ida Nason. (28 minutes)