Free Clinic: Put A Foot In It!
An exploration of animal locomotion and track patterns
Leader: Jon Poppele
Jonathan Poppele is a North American wildlife tracker, writer and educator based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of over a dozen nature guidebooks including "Animal Tracks of the Midwest" and the "Bird Tracks QuickGuide." Jon is the founder of the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project and is currently completing his training as a CyberTracker Track & Sign Evaluator. He has a particular interest in animal locomotion and has spent the past several years studying the track patterns of North American mammals. Jon is also the head instructor of the Minnesota Ki Society where he teaches meditation, mindfulness, and the peaceful Japanese martial art of Ki-Aikido.
Free Clinic: Friday evening Sept 11 6pm The Lodge
Workshop: Friday September 11 9am - 1pm
See below for workshop description
Workshop Tuition:
Jon graciously offered to conduct this workshop for anyone who wishes to attend. He requests you make an appropriate donation to TCNA upon the conclusion of the workshop.
Location: Somewhere Near a Portion of The Eel River
Maximum Participants: 8
Reservations: there will be a signup posted in The Lodge
Meeting Spot: Meet Jon in the Lodge Dining Room Friday morning at 8:45am
Tracking The Wild:
Learning to Read
Tracks and Sign
This field-based workshop offers an immersive introduction to the art and science of wildlife tracking. Designed for beginners and intermediate participants, it will guide you through observing, identifying, and interpreting tracks and sign on the landscape.
Together, we will explore how to recognize and identify tracks through foot morphology and track characteristics, as well as track patterns and gait (how the animals are moving). We will also expand beyond footprints to include the wider language of the land — feeding sign, scat, scent marking, beds, trails, and other subtle indicators of animal presence.
A central focus is learning to read the story behind the tracks. Participants will be introduced to both systematic and speculative tracking — asking questions, forming hypotheses, and interpreting animal movement and behaviour through the clues left behind.
Guided through a blend of direct instruction, observation, and inquiry-based learning, participants will begin to develop their own tracking process in the field.
Alexis Burnett
Earth Tracks
Alexis Burnett is a naturalist, wildlife tracker, and nature-based educator located in Grey County, Ontario, on the traditional lands of the Three Fires Confederacy. He is the founder and lead instructor of Earth Tracks Outdoor School, where he has spent more than 25 years mentoring both children and adults in wildlife tracking, ecological awareness, and land-based skills.
His work integrates both systematic and speculative approaches to tracking, rooted in tracking and awareness as a way of reading the stories of the land. Through careful attention to track morphology, gait patterns, and sign, alongside intuitive awareness and pattern recognition, Alexis teaches students to move beyond identification and into a deeper understanding of animal behaviour, relationships, and the wider ecological context in which those stories unfold.
Tracking, in this sense, becomes both a discipline and a form of listening—an ongoing process of gathering evidence, asking questions, and allowing the story to emerge over time. Alexis supports students in developing the ability to move fluidly between detailed observation and broader awareness, where interpretation is grounded in both what is seen and what is sensed.
Through Earth Tracks, Alexis leads one-day and weekend workshops, apprenticeship programs, and extended wilderness trips. He has been leading a week-long tracking program in Algonquin for over 26 years and guides an annual Lynx tracking trip each January in central Ontario.
His teaching is grounded in land-based learning and deep nature connection, drawing on a wide range of complementary practices including edible and medicinal plants, herbalism, bird language, bushcraft and wilderness living skills. Alexis continues to work with many First Nations communities in Ontario and beyond.
Alexis holds a Professional Level Track and Sign Certification through CyberTracker North America and has studied with wildlife trackers across North America. He is also a founding organizer of the Heartwood Gathering.
Philosophy
“The Earth is the ultimate provider and for countless generations our ancestors knew how to survive and live in harmony with nature. By learning and practicing these skills we begin to experience nature in an ancient and meaningful way.”
– Alexis Burnett
