Learn, Serve & Immerse on the Olympic Peninsula with the S'Klallam Tribe and Salmon Coalition
Global Family Travels is excited to bring you this enriching and collaborative experience in partnership with First Nature Tours, the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, and the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe! This three-day adventure gives participants the chance to learn about salmon habitat recovery and engage with the tribe. Participants will partake in culturally immersive experiences, including a salmon bake, blessings and native storytelling, a totem tour, and carving experiences at the House of Myths, as well as take in the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula while on a guided hike and volunteering with the salmon coalition.
Click on the LEARN, SERVE & IMMERSE elements in this experience to see all the details and once you pay your deposit, you will be able to choose the date you are interested in participating!

COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS
With the outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19), the health and safety of Global Family Travels and First Nature travelers, community partners, colleagues and guides are of paramount importance to us.
Please see our COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS documents, found under the Tasks section, which outlines our commitment to mitigate and manage the risks associated with COVID-19 when you travel with us. Please also refer to the tasks which has specific details for your activity and destination.
Thank you for helping to keep yourself and fellow travelers and guides safe!

GLOBAL FAMILY TRAVELS
Global Family Travels’ vision is to unite humanity and inspire travelers to take responsibility for the challenges and opportunities facing our increasingly interconnected planet. Our mission is to Learn, Serve and Immerse, using travel as a means to build cultural bridges and to foster global citizens. Using tourism to help solve community challenges, we organize sustainable travel opportunities in partnership with local and global non-profit organizations and support many United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Through partnerships with many Seattle-area non-profit organizations that address community challenges, our one-day educational outings in Seattle are designed to create meaningful connections and support Destination Stewardship, including the preservation of diverse and native cultures, conservation, education, and economic growth of Greater Seattle.
Learn more here: https://www.globalfamilytravels.com/our-company

About First Nature Tours
Based in Portland, Oregon, First Nature Tours is a custom private group tour operator that specializes in facilitating outdoor adventures and immersive experiences in the Pacific Northwest. Their professional naturalist guides aim to educate the intrepid traveler by exploring the beauty of the region through the lens of sustainable tourism and visit the naturally and culturally unique places that make the Pacific Northwest so special. Our foundation is built on increasing knowledge, appreciation, and understanding of the world around us through meaningful travel experiences.

About S’Klallam Tribe
Inhabiting this area for more than 10,000 years, the S’Klallams possessed a rich social and religious culture based on the abundant natural resources of the Northwest Coast. They moved from village to village in their traditional territory during the spring, summer and fall, for fishing and resource gathering, and settled into more permanent longhouses for the winter months. The inhabitants hunted game and subsisted on the wealth of shellfish, herring, and salmon. They were craftspeople skilled in woodcarving and basket making, and they fashioned ceremonial masks, serving dishes and utensils, and storage boxes from cedar, and woven mats, rope, and clothing from cedar bark.
“S’Klallam” derives from “nuxsklai’yem,” the original Salish language name for the S’Klallam people meaning “strong people.” The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe is one of three S’Klallam bands; the others are the Lower Elwha Klallam and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribes.

North Olympic Salmon Coalition
The mission of The North Olympic Salmon Coalition (NOSC) is to promote robust wild salmon stocks for families, fishers, and local economies by furthering habitat restoration and education on the North Olympic Peninsula. NOSC is one of 14 Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups (RFEGs) in Washington State working on wild salmon recovery through collaborative partnerships and community volunteerism.

About Olympic Hiking Co.

LEARN
The opening reception will celebrate the Jamestown S’Klallam traditions by reflecting an abundance of the sea, land, and sky – a theme that will be featured throughout the visit.

SERVE
Salmon are in trouble. This critical species faces many threats including extensive habitat loss. Many of our streams, rivers, estuaries, and coastal environments are in a state of decline due to decreased water quality, less vegetative cover, less spawning gravels, increased shoreline armoring, higher temperatures, higher silt, and higher fine sediments. Today, we are facing a dramatic decline in the number of salmon in our region.

IMMERSE

About Ben Wheeler, Your Tour Guide
A Seattle native, Ben Wheeler has worked as a secondary school educator and administrator. Ben gave the keynote and endnote at the 2008 Global Citizenship Summit in Bali, Indonesia, and was the World Affairs Council’s 2009 World Educator. He authored the high school textbook It's All Connected - a Comprehensive Guide to Global Issues and Sustainable Solutions.
From 2012 to early 2020, Ben taught Geography and Civilizations courses for middle schoolers at The Bush School in Seattle, and also taught a wide-range of elective and experiential courses, including the following: Art in Public Places, Sustainable Design for Urban Living, Seattleness, Urban Forest Stewardship, Food Awareness, Oral History with Elders, Backpacking the Olympic Coast, and Stehekin Multi-Adventure.
Ben loves running, biking, fly-fishing, jazz and classical guitar, cross-country skiing, and backpacking. In addition to guiding numerous wilderness adventures in California and Washington, Ben has led international tours in Italy and India, most recently two weeks of cultural immersion in Ladakh, India, on the Himalayan Plateau.

About Kieron Weidner, First Nature Tours (Lead Guide)
A born naturalist, Kieron’s fascination with the natural world has led him from a childhood exploring rural Wisconsin to college study abroad trips to Costa Rica and Europe and eventually a career in Restoration Ecology. Since he began working in tourism in 2007 Kieron has been helping visitors to Portland, Seattle, Central and South America fill their trips with memorable experiences and outright adventure. His tourism career includes work for some of the top luxury travel companies in the world, such as Cruise West, Adventures by Disney and EverGreen Escapes. His experience leading groups through all corners of the Pacific Northwest have made him one of the most recognized guides in the region. On a private tour of the Olympic Peninsula with Kieron you will get more than just an education, you’ll rediscover the sense of wonder that many lose with the onset of adulthood. For Kieron guiding is more than a career, it’s a passion, and nothing makes him happier than providing people with new ideas, new adventures, and new life experiences.

About Tommy Farris, Olympic Hiking Co. (Lead Guide)
After growing up on the Olympic Peninsula, Tommy Farris’ passion for the outdoors and entrepreneurship inspired him to launch the Olympic Hiking Company in 2016 based in his hometown of Port Angeles, WA. In what started as a college project at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, Tommy built Olympic Hiking Co. from the ground up, scaling his business into a commercially authorized guided hiking tour and shuttle company that operates throughout Olympic National Park. Each year, Olympic Hiking Co. facilitates group hiking tours, backpacker trailhead shuttles, custom private tours, and corporate events for over 1,000 clients and businesses. Tommy employs a team of experienced naturalist hiking guides and is an active Board Member with the Washington Tourism Alliance and Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce. During pockets of free time, Tommy enjoys hiking deep into the interior of the Olympic Mountains and capturing photos of the most rugged and remote areas of the park.

Logistics (Safety, transport, parking, etc.)
Transportation:
The capacity of tours is 10 participants. If the tour date you would like to book is full we will add you to the waitlist.
Safety:
First Nature Tours will follow industry-standard COVID-19 protocols according to the criteria established by the Adventure Travel Trade Association. First Nature guides are wilderness first responder certified and will take proper precautions to ensure the health and safety of the tour participants.
Participants will receive training and orientation by volunteer coordinators and will be presented with an overview of safety protocols and are required to sign a liability waiver as an official volunteer with the National Forest Service.
Pack List: A pack list will be provided to participants prior approximately 1 week prior to trip departure.

May 7-9
Project:
Community Partners:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

May 21-23
Project:
Community Partners:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

June 3-6
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

June 9-11
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

June 23-25
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

July 11-13
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

July 25-27
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

August 4-6
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

August 8-10
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

August 11-14
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity:

September 24-26
Project:
Community Partner:
Lodging: 7 Cedars
Activity:
Work Intensity: