For 25 years the North Cascades Institute has been providing insights into the ecosystems of North Cascades National Park through educational programming.

What follows below is a wonderful, roughly 11-minute, production that explains how the Institute germinated in the mid-1980s in the minds of Saul Weisberg and Tom Fleischner as a means to connect more people with the beauty and intrinsic value of the North Cascades.

Since those early days they've lured thousands of people -- young and old -- to the Institute to take a program, perhaps in birding, maybe art, that hinges them to the landscape. By doing so, they've converted those participants to lovers, and advocates, of the North Cascades.

Sit back and take a look back over the years.

Note: This is a high-definition video, so it will take a little longer to download. So start it loading and go get your yourself a cup of coffee, tea, or some other beverage and then sit back and enjoy! And, since it is high def, you can enlarge it to the full size of your monitor without losing any of the detail.

The High Ridge: Celebrating 25 Years in the North Cascades from North Cascades Institute on Vimeo.