It was my interest in tracking that lead me to permaculture. Like permaculture, tracking is rooted in deep observation of nature.

Click to watch a video of tracker Doniga Markegard talk about listening skills in tracking and nature awareness.

Here are some resources for developing your nature awareness and wildlife tracking skills:

• Marin County Tracking Club – meets on the last Sunday of each month at Point Reyes Station.
• Nature Awareness Courses at RDI – RDI partners with famed tracker and mentor Jon Young to offer a variety of courses.
• Shikari Tracking Guild offers tracker training and wildlife inventory services.
• Wilderness Awareness School – founded by Jon Young and Ingwe, this school is based in Duvall, Washington and offers training in nature awareness and wilderness survival.
• Kamana Naturalist Training Course – a home-study program founded by Jon Young.

I’ve just returned from a 5-day Ecology of Leadership (EOL) Intensive and began to get an idea of how valuable a daily sit-spot practice can be. Having a sit spot means simply finding a place to sit within nature for half an hour a day as you develop your awareness of and connection to the nature. Though I started my own journey towards permaculture through my interest in tracking and the sit-spot practice, I’d never developed this practice on my own before. Coming back to it now, through EOL, is a very powerful experience.