Tehan to describe Patagonian adventures

Audrey Tehan will describe her experiences living on the Futaleufa River in Chilean Patagonia in 2011 in a presentation on Sunday, February 2, at 1:30 p.m., in the Sisters Library Community Room.

Attempting to remember her two years of high school Spanish, Audrey, now 24, joined her younger sister and fellow Sisters High School graduate, Hattie, for three months of kayaking and working on a river considered a whitewater mecca in South America.

They lived with a local family in the town of 1,800 residents and helped them turn their new home into a sustainability center, to model and teach methods of sustainable living in the local community. With Chile's rapid economic development, Futaleufa was at risk of losing its greatest asset - its natural surroundings and outdoor recreation opportunities - if they did not plan for sustainable development. Tehan will provide slides and narration as she shares her adventures, misgivings, successes, challenges, and exhilaration while living "at the other end of the world."

Audrey credits her participation in the Interdisciplinary Environmental Education (IEE) program as a junior at Sisters High School, and as an intern for IEE as a senior, with providing the foundation for what she has chosen to do with her life. Upon graduation from high school she traveled with other IEE interns to Nepal, an experience that strengthened her chosen direction.

Growing up in Sisters, she engaged in all the outdoor recreation opportunities that abound here and came to realize the importance of sustainable conservation practices in order to maintain those opportunities.

In September 2013, Audrey graduated from Southern Oregon University in Ashland with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies, and a double concentration in Sustainable Policy and Conservation Ecology. Her main focus was on sustainable agricultural practices.

Tehan helped start Mahonia Gardens, a local organic farm located on the Tehan family's property, with Sisters residents Benji Nagel and Carys Wilkens, who were also at SOU. Her long-term vision and goal to create a farm-to-school/school-to-garden program within the Sisters School District is currently being realized as the director of the Sisters Seed to Table program and as the Sisters School District greenhouse manager. Hired in July 2013, Audrey is developing a program to grow and procure local nutritious foods to be served for school lunches.

The presentation should be finished in time for any Super Bowl fans to catch the game at 3:30 p.m.