Olympic National Park’s Perspectives Winter Speaker Series is hosted by the North Olympic Library System (NOLS) in a hybrid format via Zoom and in person at the Port Angeles Main Library, 2210 S. Peabody St. The free talks begin at 7pm on the second Tuesday of each month in January, February, and April. The talk will be held on the third Tuesday in March due to the speaker’s availability. No registration is needed. Join the livestream using the link at NOLS.org/ONP, or attend the presentations at the library.

The series is made possible through the work of Olympic National Park, the North Olympic Library System, Discover Your Northwest, and the Friends of Olympic National Park.

2024 Schedule

February 13

In Search of the Rarest Plants on the Olympic Peninsula

Follow along as Patrick Loafman, a biological technician with Olympic National Park, hikes to mountain tops, sloshes through bogs, and kayaks lakes in a quest to find the rarest of plants in the Olympics. The presentation will be full of close-up pictures of plants, including many you might have never seen before.

March 19

Olympic Hiking Trails and Tales

Come take a slideshow hiking tour around the Olympic Peninsula, Grays Harbor and Long Beach Peninsula with award-winning guidebook author Craig Romano. Drawing from his bestselling “Day Hiking Olympic Peninsula Second Edition,” Craig will introduce you to a diverse array of trails on the Olympic Peninsula. Craig hiked more than 2,000 miles researching this book from easy nature trails to wilderness romps. This completely revised volume contains 136 hikes, including many found in no other guidebooks. Many of the hikes from the previous edition have been greatly expanded providing for even more hiking opportunities. Romano is one of the most prolific trails writers in the Northwest having penned more than two dozen books covering the region. His “Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington’s Last Frontier,” was recognized in 2010 by Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed and State Librarian Jan Walsh as a Washington Reads book for its contribution to Washington’s cultural heritage. Romano has hiked more than 33,000 miles in Washington alone and is an avid ultra runner recently completing the challenging Cuyamaca 100K Adventure Run.

April 9

Bat Research on the Olympic Peninsula

Bats are a key part of our Pacific Northwest ecosystems, yet relatively little is known about how they are using forest, mountain and coastal habitats. Bats are also under threat due to the spread of a fungal pathogen called white-nose syndrome, and are challenging to study because they are small, nocturnal and cryptic. In this talk Dr. Rebecca McCaffrey, a research biologist with USGS Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, will discuss efforts to overcome these challenges in the Pacific Northwest, and present results from studies conducted in and around Olympic National Park.

For more information about this and other upcoming events at your library, visit www.nols.org, call 360.417.8500 or email Discover@nols.org.