Have you ever wanted to record the wonders you see in the natural world, but haven’t known the best way to do so? Have you tried Nature journaling, only to end up overwhelmed with a pile of notes, sketches, and ideas? Let NEWT’s Wildlands Ecology team guide you!

For spring 2026, Wildlands Ecology Director Shelby Perry and Wildlands Ecologist Jason Mazurowski share their tips for a robust journaling practice. The two-month-long program kicked off with the webinar, “Introduction to Nature Journaling with NEWT,” (recording below). Nature prompts will be shared via email each week. At the end of the series participants can attend an online Zoom meet-up to share some of their favorite journal entries.

Keep reading to watch the introductory webinar, see examples from Perry’s and Mazurowski’s own journals, and see what program participants wrote and drew in their journals each week.

What is Nature Journaling?

Simply put, there is no one way to Nature journal. Part of the fun and creative exercise of the practice is that it can take many forms, depending on who is journaling, what their particular interests are, and even how they feel that day. But at the practice’s core is curiosity: a wonder and openness to everything large and small one can encounter in the wild. Just like a gratitude practice teaches you to note and appreciate things for which you are grateful, Nature journaling—call it a “curiosity practice”—trains you to pay more attention to things about which you are curious.