Mock Certification Workshop
Full-day field program offered in the style of a Track & Sign Certification
Program description
Schedule & Locations: Saturday, July 11 - Jeffersonville, VT area Wednesday, August 5 - Burlington, VT area This one-day workshop simulates the track & sign certification process, offering a memorable learning environment to advance your skills at recognizing and interpreting wildlife tracks and sign in a small group. All experience levels are welcome. We will spend the day visiting one or more of the area's wildlife tracking hotspots, and you'll have the opportunity to make an individual assessment of approx 25-30 tracking questions (e.g., Who left this track? What is this sign?). The format (and that little bit of pressure to come up with your own answer) will help shine a light on your process for interpreting wildlife sign and your areas for growth, within a supportive learning environment. In taking up each question, we'll discuss why/why not for all of the possible answers until all participants are in agreement. If you've never seen the track or sign before, you can come up with any guess and then learn the details through this discussion process. Meeting location will be communicated the evening before the program date and may be 20-30 mins drive from the listed town. This allows for scouting and selection of a site that maximizes the diversity of wildlife track and sign we encounter, based on weather patterns and animal activity. Registration cost $95. Limited to 10 participants. Program Expectations: Participants are responsible for their own transportation to the meeting location, and we may arrange a carpool from there to another site where parking space is limited. Participants are responsible for their own food and field gear. We typically don't walk a great distance during a certification workshop (think a mile or two at mst), but we will be 100% outdoors and often on uneven terrain to access animal track and sign.
Upcoming Sessions
Booking Policies
Program Expectations: Participants should be comfortable walk up to 2 miles off-trail, on uneven terrain. Participants are responsible for their own food and equipment while in the field, and for their own lodging if traveling from outside of the program area. Suggested gear includes a field notebook; lunch, snacks and a full water bottle; and clothing and footwear appropriate for spending full days in the field. Refund Policy: Program fees are refundable (minus a $20 administrative fee) if cancellation notice is given more than 30 days before the workshop date. Cancellation notice should be given by email to trackingconnection@gmail.com. If you withdraw your registration within 30 days of the program date, the program fee will only be refundable in the event that someone else signs up in your place. We will keep a participant waitlist but make no guarantees that we can fill your spot. Cancellation & Rescheduling: The provider reserves the right to cancel this program for any reason. Likely reasons would be instructor illness or injury, or adverse weather conditions impacting safety and/or wildlife activity and tracking conditions (though programs generally run rain or shine). In the event of a postponement due to instructor availability or weather conditions, we will work with participants to reschedule the field session to a new date within 3 months of the originally scheduled date. In the case of a full program cancellation by the provider, participants will receive a refund.