Congratulations to Nick Sharp on his achieving Level 4 (“Professional”) in Track and Sign! This officially awards him Level 4 Tracker as well, because on a Standard Trailing Evaluation a year ago, he also scored a Level 4, or 100%. What does all this mean?

In a nutshell, Nick is a phenomenal naturalist and tracker: take him into the woods and show him any obscure track or sign of anything from insects, small mammals, reptiles and amphibs, and birds to grizzly bears, and mostly likely he’ll know what it is, how to tell you what best identifies it, and best of all, be open about the gaps in his knowledge and demonstrate a wonderful humility and a passion to always be learning about this never-ending skill set.

He’s also very good at following extremely difficult-to-see animals trails over varied terrain, exhibiting all the essentials: keeping the head up to look for wildlife, “flowing” on trail, moving stealthily, awareness of alarms, using ecological knowledge to predict animal whereabouts, and using knowledge of animal behavior and a deep breadth of experience with all the sign in the woods to recognize when he’s catching up to critters and how to see them.

Well done, Nick. Thanks for charging on over all these years, and thanks for spreading the skill set to so many in Alabama and beyond!