TONASKET – On Friday, March 3, Andy Stepniewski brings an all-new topic to the Highland Wonders series, with “Ecosystems of the Okanogan.”

He will make his presentation at the Tonasket Community Cultural Center, 411 S. Western Ave. starting at at 6:30 pm. (Dinner benefiting the Community Cultural Center (CCC) at 5:15 pm, followed by the presentation with tea, coffee and desserts). The presentation is free; dinner is $8 for CCC members and $9 for non-members; desserts by donation (benefit for the CCC).

The beautiful Okanogan lies to the east of the Cascades, in the rain shadow of this range. The region showcases an impressive mosaic of ecosystems because of its varied terrain with great differences in elevation, from alpine summits to valley bottoms. Huge variation in temperatures and precipitation occur along this elevational gradient. Ecological diversity is the region’s hallmark, from the windswept, snowy, alpine mountaintops of the western edge of the Okanogan, eastward into extensions of boreal Canada’s “Spruce Kingdom,” downward into progressively warmer and drier forest zones, and into the semi-arid shrub-steppe zone. Combined, this array of ecosystems adds up to stupendous natural biodiversity in a relatively small area. This diversity is rarely exceeded by other areas at this latitude in North America. Join Andy on this armchair tour celebrating the natural highlights of the Okanogan.

Scott Sandsberry writes in the Yakima Herald:

If you ask Andy Stepniewski about himself, you’ll get either a short answer or a change of subject. As one of Yakima County’s foremost naturalists, he is fascinated by the world, its flora and fauna… He can regale you for hours about vegetation zones’ role in the biosphere. He can detail minute distinctions between nearly identical bird species, from their calls and colors to their diet and migratory patterns.

In the world of Washington birding and the state’s Audubon community, Stepniewski is an icon. He wrote the book, quite literally, on the birds of Yakima County. His efforts were essential to the state’s go-to birding book, “A Birder’s Guide to Washington.”

And he’d prefer you didn’t know or care about that, to keep the focus on the natural wonders he finds so fascinating.

That state birding guide? You’d never know he had any part in it by looking at the cover. Stepniewski refused to be named as an author, wanting the credit to go solely to the Washington Ornithological Society.

Stepniewski authored sections about the Okanogan Highlands in the Washington State Birding guide mentioned above, and also wrote the guide, Birds of Yakima County, Washington.

Inspired by the Cannings brothers, Canadian naturalists and scientists living in the BC Okanagan, Andy has been visiting the Okanogan since 1972 and has hiked trails throughout the region, from the Cascade crest east to the Kettle Range. In addition to a passion for plants, he has documented the breeding of three boreal forest owls: the great gray, boreal and northern hawk. He has also been interested in diversity of breeding birds and has conducted various surveys including censuses both east and west of the Okanogan River.