COURTLYNN GOETTLER

(She/Her)

Interviewed by Ana Maria Arroyo

“Sometimes I will go out tracking and ask myself, “how many questions can I ask about this track?” It doesn’t always need to be said out loud, it can be written down or in my head. Can I ask ten questions about this track? How curious can I be about this one being that I share the world with?”

Courtlynn Goettler is an undergraduate student and lifelong tracker at Paul Smiths College in upstate New York. Originally hailing from southern coastal Maine, she has been in love with tracking since she was introduced to it at 10 years old. For Courtlynn, tracking is not only about the animals she tracks, but also about the daily practices and community it brings her. “I love how unique every experience tracking is…you’re never going to have the same experience twice. I could track a coyote a hundred times and I’ll never have the same story.”

When asked about her favorite places to track, Courtlynn immediately shared her love for her childhood stomping grounds in Maine, particularly a local spot known as “Mount A” where “All seasons are perfect for tracking.” Still, Courtlynn admits to having a soft spot for the area surrounding her school. The Adirondacks region surrounding Paul Smiths College has proven to be a welcome challenge for Courtlynn. “It poses a very different challenge while tracking. It is so cold and there is so much snow that winter tracking is another next level up. There’s no clear impression, so it’s like ‘what slight impression is this?’ You have to really puzzle it out and think about it more than I did where I grew up. It’s just a different level of tracking in a way. There’s just more to it.”

While interviewing Courtlynn, her love for her tracking community shines through all her stories. “Being able to track with someone is a beautiful practice. You are bounding ideas off each other and creating stories and sharing the moment with someone else. It’s beautiful.” No matter how much familiarity you have with tracking, Courtlynn urges all trackers to share the trail with their community. “You might think you know nothing, but you are always bringing something to the table. You’re always bringing your own perspective and your own experiences and even if you’ve never touched nature before, that’s your own experience!”

Courtlynn also reminds trackers to go back to the basics and enjoy the process. She believes there is no such thing as asking too many questions: “Sometimes I will go out tracking and ask myself how many questions can I ask about this track? It doesn’t always need to be said out loud, it can be written down or in my head. Can I ask ten questions about this track? How curious can I be about this one being that I share the world with?” She also encourages all trackers to keep a journal to record their process and findings while engaging their sense of wonder. 

As her journey through college progresses, Courtlynn is hopeful that her tracking skills can continue to apply to her career post graduation. She knows that even if her future work is not directly related to tracking, the practices of tracking will continue to shape her life. “We live in this age where assumed knowledge is a big thing. People will say ‘oh yeah, sure I know that’ and then go with the flow and forget to ask questions. I read a study a long time ago that stated that children ask more questions than adults do. Which makes sense, but there’s something to be said about how we lose the art of questioning as we grow up. And as adults we know more- that’s how growing up works, but there’s something to be said about being afraid to ask questions. I try to hold that and ask more questions.”. Courtlynn shares inspiration from one of her professors, Kelly Klinger, who often says “it’s a moment!” to her students in class. Courtlynn finds that phrase resonates with her beyond the classroom- “I hold that with me too. Yeah, let’s have this moment! Let’s be here and have this moment. I think that is such an important thing in tracking but in my daily life too. Like, let’s have this moment while I am driving or when I’m doing a buttload of work!”. 

Courtlynn’s full interview is well worth the read! Her overflowing curiosity, mindful spirit and commitment to her community are an inspiration to trackers old and new. Thanks for sharing your story Courtlynn!

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Professional and personal encouraged!

I am an undergraduate student at Paul Smiths College which is up in the Adirondacks of northern NY. I grew up in southern coastal Maine, and grew up tracking in that area. I fell in love with tracking at a really early age. I started tracking when I was ten years old while in an outdoor education program called White Pine Programs. Someone just took us tracking and I just fell in love with it at that moment. From then on it was like, I was really into it. And then I kind of lost it for a little while, but when I was in high school I reached out to my now mentor and dear friend Amy Martinez Beal. She just took me in and taught me everything I knew and my relationship with tracking just grew from there. Now I get to study fisheries and wildlife science at Paul Smiths and integrate my tracking experience into it which is the best path I could have taken. 

It is hard to sum up the passion for tracking in just a couple of sentences, but if you had to answer- What would you say you love the most about tracking?

I love how unique every experience tracking is. Every time you go out and track, it’s a different experience, you’re never going to have the same experience tracking twice. There;s always something new that is going to happen and there’s so much to learn from it. I could track a coyote a hundred times and I’ll never have the same story. It’s such a hook that keeps grabbing you… there’s so much newness about it. That’s why I fell in love with it. There are just so many stories that the animals we are tracking tell…and there’s just so much to learn from them. It’s beautiful just how much can happen in a five minute track. And it is so different from a lot of other naturalist skills. Being at college and learning about all these different fields, like yeah! You can go do tree ID and fuck yeah I’m down for connecting with trees! But there’s something that is so different about connecting with wildlife through tracking. It opens you up to so many aspects of the environment and the world. It is just so beautiful. 

What is your favorite habitat or location to track in?

I’m partial to where I grew up in the mixed coniferous deciduous forests of southern coastal Maine. We have this one mountain in my town that barely counts as a mountain called Mount A. It is a very unique habitat with all different plants and birds and everyone that is growing there. That place especially is a very special place in my heart because it is where I started tracking, so of course that’s going to draw me towards there. There’s something to be said about the substrates there that are just prime for tracking. Just the right amount of snow in the winter, the spring mud, the summer tracking on the beach. All seasons are perfect for tracking. It makes me so happy to be able to track in such a wonderful location for it- I know not everybody can have all four seasons of solid, great tracking. 

I am also partial to the Boreal forests of the Adirondacks now. It poses a very different challenge while tracking. It is so cold and there is so much snow that Winter tracking is another next level up. There’s no clear impression, so it’s like “what slight impression is this?”. You have to really puzzle it out and think about it more than I did where I grew up. It’s just a different level of tracking in a way. There’s just more to it. 

It sounds like you have had great mentors and a lot of space to explore tracking on your own. Is there any advice you would give to people who are at the beginning of their tracking journey?

I think back to when I was a kid and I first got into tracking, and I think about where I am now and what fueled me to get into tracking and the thing I keep coming back to is a sense of curiosity and wonder. It is always talked about a lot in tracking and naturalist communities, but we really have to emphasize being curious. It is such an underutilized skill in a way. It goes over a lot of  peoples heads to ask questions these days. Asking questions and being curious is just the key part of tracking that people need to open themselves up to. It is such a beautiful practice to ask questions and have that sense of wonder. Even things you might think you already know about! Sometimes I will go out tracking and ask myself how many questions can I ask about this track? It doesn’t always need to be said out loud, it can be written down or in my head. Can I ask ten questions about this track? How curious can I be about this one being that I share the world with? Just be curious! Also- carry a journal! You’re being curious and then you have to write it down! I’ve had so many experiences where I’m out there and it’s just me and go “Wow this is so cool!” I take photos and get really invested and then I go home and look it up but I don’t write any of it down. The next day it’s like woah woah, what did I learn? It just goes completely over your head! Writing things down is so important, taking measurements and doing sketches and really getting a feel for the tracks. That physical media is really helpful. Physical media and asking questions are the two key parts. Going back to the basics is really important, it keeps you grounded. 

I think you’re in good company with that advice…and everybody can always use a reminder! It only gets more important to keep in mind the further you get in your tracking journey. 

Yeah and it’s the simple things! There’s certainly a tracker mentality of “oh I know so much now, why would I need the basics?” But going back to the basics is such an important thing to do! It keeps you grounded and in the practice of remembrance and gratitude… and you can look back at where you started! I have journals now that I made as a little kid and I’m like “This is still good information!” It is so wonderful to see that physical media and read my line of questioning [from 10 years old]. 

In terms of your day to day life, how would you say that tracking shows up as a practice in your life?

Just having that sense of curiosity and carrying that from tracking into my daily life is such a big practice. It doesn’t even have to be a naturalist thing that I am curious about- it could be technology or architecture. It’s so important to keep your mind engaged like that. We live in this age where assumed knowledge is a big thing. People will say “oh yeah, sure I know that” and people go with the flow and forget to ask questions. I read a study a long time ago that stated that children ask more questions than adults do. Which makes sense, but there’s something to be said about how we lose the art of questioning as we grow up. And as adults we know more- that’s how growing up works, but there’s something to be said about being afraid to ask questions. I try to hold that and ask more questions. There’s something to be said about patience and just being able to slow down, think things through and not jump to conclusions! Take a minute with whoever you are tracking or whoever you’re with and take a minute to just be. That sense of being and holding space- which is a buzzword now-a-days, but we really are! We are holding space for ourselves in this big crazy world and just being with a track. You’re having a moment… and I love to have moments, you know? Kelly Klinger is one of my professors at Paul Smiths college and she is going to hear this and think it’s really funny, but she often says “It’s a moment!”. And I hold that with me too. Yeah, let’s have this moment! Let’s be here and have this moment. I think that is such an important thing in tracking but in my daily life too. Like, let’s have this moment while I am driving or when I’m doing a buttload of work! Taking time, being curious and understanding where I am at. 

Kind of in line with those moments, Is there a tracking moment or experience you have had that just keeps coming back to you? Something you carry that keeps jumping out for you. 

I really can’t choose one, but all the tracking moments I thought of that did stand out were all with people. Tracking with other people is a beautiful and wonderful experience that I don’t think a lot of people get to have a lot of. I’ve met a lot of trackers who are very independent trackers, and while that is a practice in itself- there’s something to be said about tracking communally with other people that is really really beautiful. Maybe that is just because that’s how I grew up tracking as I was tracking with my group as a kid at White Pine Programs, and then tracking side by side with Amy and tracking with groups of friends back at school. Being able to track with someone is a beautiful practice. You are bouncing ideas off each other and creating stories and sharing the moment with someone else. It’s beautiful. I think about how communal tracking goes against some other tracking practices. I love tracking on my own but there’s only so much you can learn on your own before it’s like, you need to consult a book or an elder. When I first took a tracking eval it was very condensed and quiet because you aren’t allowed to discuss things with anyone. And as someone who grew up tracking with a mentor and always chatting and discussing, that felt very lonely in a way. This is no hate on the eval practice- what tracker certification is doing is amazing, and I loved the eval. But there’s something to be said for being closed off while tracking. Sharing tracking is beautiful. All the moments that I’ve shared with people while tracking are beautiful. 

If I did have to pick a moment, it would be the very first time I went tracking when I was ten years old. I was with five other ten years old and my mentor at the time and we tracked a coyote for miles. It was probably not miles but that’s how I remember it and we came to a kill site. We sat around the kill site questioning and making up stories for an hour. It was just such a connecting moment to tracking. That’s what fueled my love of tracking. 

Would you say that tracking has been a part of your academic experience? How has tracking related to your time at Paul Smiths? 

Oh absolutely. Both in the field work practice of it all, I took a class this semester w, I had to do a project with a winter track survey, so it’s very in your face sometimes of “let’s do tracking”, but there are also less in your face moments in the classroom where the tracking practices and experiences come into play too. You’re learning about dynamics and structures and food webs and you think, I have experience with that! I went out tracking and I experienced those things first hand. There’s a level of connection you get from tracking and the world around you that applies to your experience in the classroom too. I think that’s helpful for not only memorization of topics but that level of connection you get to the topic. The topic in the classroom relates to the topic in the field, and bringing that all back to being mindful and understanding where you are in the world. Both using tracking as something that could get me a job one day- which is amazing to consider! It’s like- holy cow, I could do this for work? 

I love that comparison of the in your face moments and the less in your face moments, that’s beautiful. 

Courtlynn: It’s such a privilege for me to be in this field and do what I’m doing. I am so lucky. I don’t know if I would have had this experience at any other college. I’ve had moments where I come out of the library and there are river otter tracks right there in front of the library!! A river otter in front of the library?? It’s so in your face. There is so much wildlife and diversity and it’s all right there. There’s so much happening. Having a class and field work that utilizes my tracking is so special. I just want to thank everybody who helped me get there, all my scholarships and people who have supported me through my journey to have my dream come true. 

For my last “official question” – If you could take a trip to track any animals in any part of the world, where would you go first?

First I would go to Africa, of course! I grew up hearing stories of Ngwe and Tom Brown Jr. and John Young and all these extraordinary trackers and you know? Africa would be so cool! It’s out of reach for me in my head but you know it would be really cool. Leopards and giraffes…anything out there would be a beautiful experience. 

Do you have any other bucket list animals that you really want to see in person?

I got to see them already, but tracking lynx was incredible. I didn’t get to see them in person though, so spending a week or something tracking to actually see the lynx would be amazing. Not gonna lie, that might be better than Africa. It was such an amazing opportunity that I got to go track lynx. It’s really freaking cool, their tracks are like the size of my hand! When I first saw them, I was like OH MY GOD and I looked at Amy and was like “do you know what that is?!” We got really excited and it was so special. If I didn’t share that experience with someone else I would have probably broken inside. Yeah, I am so privileged that I get to track with other people and have a mentor to teach me tracking. We learned so much from each other. It is just so beautiful to track with other people, there’s so much to learn. You might think you know nothing, but you are always bringing something to the table. You’re always bringing your own perspective and your own experiences and even if you’ve never touched nature before, that’s your own experience! 

Thank you so much for doing this Courtlynn, I am really hyped up to get out tracking with other people now.

Kareem A. Dieng

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Listen to the full interview here:

Watch the full interview here:

Read the Interview Synopsis:

Tracker Spotlight: Kareem A. Dieng

Intro Questions

What do you love about tracking?

I feel like tracking is an explicit practice and way of being. It’s something that has helped me to qualify a part of my life that is part of the fabric of who I am. It has given language, implicit skills, and practices in a way that feels inherent in how I show up in the world. It feels like water tastes. It feels essential to my being—to my connection to the more-than-human world, to my ancestry, to the lineage I come from. It puts me into deep relationship with everything around me and encourages and forces me to think about the stories that are going on around me—the people that are not human who are living their lives, loving, communicating, overcoming. It’s a way for me to engage deeply and to learn, not just superficially but to relate. And in that way, through those stories and relationships, I can dive into the western conventional qualifications that exist in the field guides and research articles.

It bridges traditional ways of knowing that have resided in me for millennia to the outlets that exist in science and conservation today. Before tracking, I didn’t have the pathway—it created a conduit for me to connect in a way that nothing else has, or I think ever will.

Tracking is experiencing a renaissance and a renewal. It is thrusting Indigenous ecological knowledge into the spotlight and forcing people to acknowledge and accept the profound value that this way of knowing and being provides (not as a resource but as something embodied). It’s an invaluable opponent to the reorganization of power structures and the resistance—the shifting of paradigms and tipping scales, as nature does.

Tracking is an accessible entry point; it doesn’t require expensive equipment. It requires community, relationship, mentorship, and intense observation—and you can do it anywhere! And always!

What do you bring with you into the field?

I’m always in the mode that I could be in the field at any moment:

• Water filtration system
• First aid resources (SAM splint, tourniquet)
• Water
• Extra clothes
• A field guide or two
• Sense of wonder
• Sense of curiosity
• Backpack
• Communication devices
• Walking staff
• Sharp tools (axe, thick-bladed knife)
• Cordage

What I leave behind is the requirement to know, and expectations. I invite surprises and learning at every turn.

Favorite field guide or reference (tracking-adjacent or related)

• Naturally Curious by Mary Holland—it’s holistic, connected, and intriguing. At every turn I’m learning something inspiring, and it’s fun!
• Mammal Tracks and Sign by Mark Elbroch
• Tracking and the Art of Seeing by Paul Rezendes

Advice for new trackers?

Walk the trail together—don’t go it alone. There is wisdom in community. Find mentors and alleviate yourself of ego and the need to know. Just be. Let it be. Always be curious (the ABCs).

Name a favorite type of habitat where you like to track and a bit about why.

I’m in unceded Wabanaki homelands, Pematic, Mt. Desert Island, Maine—mixed forest. Where I live: woodland areas, forest ecosystems.

Why? It really requires that I tune in and notice the subtleties, because it would be so easy to see nothing. For much of my life, I wasn’t seeing. Tracking has shifted my perspective immensely. You have to tune in when there are no track traps and not many muddy or sandy areas.

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Deeper Insight Questions

What advice would you give to people who are just beginning their tracking journey?

You’re not actually just beginning your tracking journey. You’re just learning that there is a quantified and qualified science and practice that exists, which you can tap into to help fully express the human way of being. We are trackers in our core.

I think about stories Louis Liebenberg and others talk about—when you’re in the grocery store and you need an apple. Typically, apples are in the produce section. Most of those exist on the right side opposite of the checkout. Fresh foods will be on the perimeter. Shelf-stable foods in the center. Those things are tracking.

Always be curious. Acknowledge and accept our ego-driven ways of being. Give yourself permission to flow through that. Let it be. Be where you are and be okay with that. Expect not to know. Find learning in everything you do.

What does tracking and connection to the more-than-human world have to teach us about resilience?

This exchange and interaction has taught me that it has to do with placing us in the ecology/ecosystem community that is nature. Tracking helps us navigate a path toward realignment with the nature of the self and to place us back into community alongside. In that way, it’s impossible not to develop greater empathy for the rest of us who are without human conveniences and creature comforts and who have ancient ways of being that have sustained them for millennia.

It forces us to acknowledge the brilliance and genius that is the deer in the freezing rain taking advantage of the resonant heat from the soil under the conifer; the scale on the osprey’s feet that allow it to grip the slippery fish; all of the physiological, psychological, and social behaviors that more-than-human kin have developed over the years. That all comes into focus and informs us that we also have resilience. We are here. We are thousands of years into our evolution. We are a success, a trial. Whether I want to acknowledge it or believe it, it is. The fact of that truth is hard to ignore. Tracking lays the trail and blazes the path toward that self-actualization.

How do you think we could get tracking to more people? How do we fold more people in?

The work that I do is my form of activism and resistance—community organization and development, uplifting folks around me. I say that because I think it comes down to this: if we are in a position to create opportunities for others, to extend our hands back and forward, left and right, up and down, to connect people and organize and create programs that serve underserved populations—folks that are just not involved yet—then we should. And I should.

Being intentional about directing and allocating resources, energy, and mentorship to folks who are not here yet. Having the intention that we are bridge builders, not gatekeepers.

What is your relationship to field guides?

I think field guides are invaluable resources. I feel like they are elders. They are magic. Books in general blow my mind. I’m able to receive wisdom through the portal of different temporal planes. Mentors can come to me at any time just by opening a book.

I’m cautious not to allow them to become a crutch or to let them drown out my internal wisdom. My relationship is complex. Early on, they felt required. They helped me to advance my skills in tracking and nature observation exponentially. But they also were a burden in my early experiences because I don’t have a conventional educational background in biology, ecology, etc. The language and jargon that exist in field guides was a barrier instead of a bridge. That was intimidating. Fortunately, it was not such a deterrent that I gave in. They encouraged me to do some introspective study.

Familiarity and understanding happen through relationship, story, and experience. Field guides made me get out and track and get the dirt time in. Through workshops and certifications at CyberTracker—whose methods are so rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and being—folks are on the land, sharing, answering questions without hand-holding and guiding, learning together. Those experiences gave me the foundational awareness to go back into the field guides and start to make sense of the language and intricacies of the jargon and better understand why and how field guides are laid out. And then to use the field guides more effectively. It has been a web of connection to field guides. A multi-dimensional relationship.

How have you made tracking a practice in your life? What are other ways you wish it could be more of a practice?

A term that has surfaced for me is “omni-tracking.” I think of the prefix “omni” — there is tracking in everything, and I feel that. I’ve made it more of a practice in my life by always being in a state of tracking and thinking about how multifaceted it is. Thinking of it from a holistic perspective: tracking the wind, the weather, phenology, seasons, my family, my coworkers, micro-expressions, microaggressions, the political climate, the progression of our empire—as well as the obvious components of tracking: identifications, observation, finding.

More concretely, I have refused to conform. I have taken a difficult path that has not been without obstacles to get to a place where naturalist study and observation are in the fabric of my career, my academic aspirations, my friendships. It has been integral, not on the periphery. There are always opportunities to track, and it’s something now that I can’t turn off. I hear the bird song, feel the wind on my neck, judge the sun. Always there. Always aware. Always tracking.