Return to Home Page

Spring 2007 Lecture

Tracking: The Art of Seeing

Nick and Valerie Wisniewski
Directors, Walnut Hill Tracking and Nature Center

Monday, March 12, 7pm
Newton Free Library
330 Homer Street, Newton Centre

Have you ever see paw prints in the snow or mud and wondered just what creatures formed these interesting patterns? Learn to know if you have been visited by a raccoon, deer, fox, coyote, or even a fisher recently. The Newton Conservators and the Newton Free Library host a presentation by Nick Wisniewski and Valerie Camp Wisniewski, cofounders and directors of the Walnut Hill Tracking and Nature Center in Orange, MA. They bring a lifetime of nature exploration and many years of animal tracking experience to the public through their presentations and outdoor field programs. Their passion for the wild world will transform your view of the forest and the life within.

This slide show and lecture will bring the viewer into the forest to experience the beauty and bounty of nature through the fascinating world of animal tracking. We will explore the environments where animals live and introduce the viewer to tracking as a new way of seeing the wild world. The lost art of reading animal tracks and sign is one of the best routes for nature exploration, and can help us become aware of our relationship to the web of life around us. This program is suited for the general public, nature enthusiasts, or outdoor professionals interested in wild animals and their habitats.

Nick and Valerie Wisniewski are experts on animal tracks and sign. They were both long-term students and apprentices of Paul Rezendes, master tracker and author of the seminal book, Tracking and the Art of Seeing, whose tracking school they have taken over after his retirement. 

Nick's on-going tracking projects include animal surveys for wildlife sanctuaries, and a multi-year effort to document mountain lion track and sign in southern New England. A life-long naturalist, he became fascinated by tracking in 1984 after encountering fresh wolf scat and tracks while on an extended solo trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area in Minnesota. His passion is using animal tracking as a unifying method for nature study and for exploration of issues surrounding human nature and the roots of conflict.

Valerie Camp Wisniewski began her life-long study of nature accompanying her father in the forests of Arkansas. She has taught outdoor skills to youth and adults for twenty-five years and keeps a link with her native heritage as a board member and teacher at the Eastern American Indian Cultural Center. Valerie encourages the spirit of inquiry and exploration through her primitive, experiential, teaching method.