One of the workshop participants was an interpretive ranger with the park. She explained the history of dyeing fibers with lichens. Here she is pulling the skeins of wool that we dyed in a mixture of lichens and boiling water.

These two workshop participants are preparing to put their soaked lichen in a homemade meiofauna collection plate made of 3 disposable plastic plates, a circular piece of plastic "needlepoint canvas", and a piece of facial tissue (or a Kimwipe). After straining out the large pieces we looked at the water (from the bottom plate) under a stereomicroscope and a compound microscope. Some of the organisms we found were: tardigrades (water bears), nematodes (roundworms), rotifers, mites and protozoa.