Santa Maria Sun / Art

NatureTrack offers resources online, announces plans for next film festival

By Caleb Wiseblood

NatureTrack Foundation founder Sue Eisaguirre recently announced some changes to the foundation’s annual film festival. This year, the festival will be referred to as the NatureTrack Film Festival on Tour, a virtual showcase highlighting a variety of the festival’s award-winning films over the past three years, along with a handful of new films. This online platform will be similar to that of last year’s inaugural virtual festival.

Cards of nature PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATURETRACK FOUNDATION

“We plan to go back to the three-day-weekend format in 2022, but we’ll keep the virtual aspect to become an integral part of the festival from here forth—using the best of both worlds to create a new domain for us,” Eisaguirre said in a statement.

The 2022 festival is currently slated to run Friday, March 18, through Sunday, March, 20, 2022, on the NatureTrack Foundation’s website. A variety of educational resources for children can be found on the site as well. In lieu of canceled and postponed student field trips throughout last year due to the pandemic, the foundation is offering a collection of 17 different “virtual field trip” videos online. Destinations in the videos include Arroyo Burro Beach, the Santa Ynez Valley Botanic Garden, Midland Trails, and Nojoqui Falls. 

These virtual hikes are hosted by Program Director Jennifer Morrell and other volunteers and docents from the foundation. Since November of last year, NatureTrack has also been assisting the Lompoc Unified School District by helping deliver complimentary meals to students’ families unable to attend the designated pickup dates. Each package includes a nature journal and set of nature notes (pictured), educational activity cards for kids centered on topics of nature and the outdoors.

For more updates from the NatureTrack Foundation, visit naturetrack.org.