Latest News
Cycle the Rockies Captured Audially, Visually
Also along on Cycle the Rockies was a two-person team of documentary filmmakers. These filmmakers, Adam Greenfield and Margot Higgins, were intrigued by the students' experiences on this course and what the course was aiming to accomplish, both physically and educationally. This film is expected to be finished in 2009.
At right is Adam Greenfield interviewing student Devin Trainor from Humboldt State University with wind turbines in the background.
Or, if you're more of an auditory person, listen to the podcast from some students on the Carolina Triathlon site! Click here for the podcast.
Restoration Ecology Currently in the Field
Restoration Ecology in Greater Yellowstone is currently in the field. Completing their final backpack this week, the group has been learning about ecological principles and the principles behind restoration since June 18. Taught this year by returning instructors Pat Burke and Angie Moline, the course explores issues of human/land relations and approaches ecological dilemmas in a way that explores solutions. They also travel through some of the most beautiful country in North America--backpacking, conducting restoration ecology projects, and visiting with locals throughout south-central Montana.
WRFI Instructors:Back to the Classroom
Two longtime WRFI instructors are headed back to the classroom (at least temporarily) to further their educations and careers. Dave Morris and Neil Kessler will begin doctoral programs in Fall '08. Here's where they'll be and what they will be doing. ack into theout it:
Dave Morris
Courses taught for WRFI: Alaskan Rainforest, Coastal Culture and Ecology of Baja, Conservation & Community in the Yellowstone to Yukon Region, Continental Divide, Colorado Plateau: Desert Canyons & Cultures, Montana Afoot and Afloat, and Cycle the Rockies:Energy and Climate Change in Montana.
Dave will be studying at the University of Montana's Forestry and Conservation department, studying climate change and rural communities. He will be working with former WRFI board member Jill Belsky. Dave hopes to learn more about how communities are adapting to the current and predicted impacts of climate change, and "to do useful research in this area, especially regarding communication among climate scientists, ecologists, and policy experts on one hand, and people who have extensive local experience with agricultural and wild ecosystems on the other."
Neil Kessler 
Courses taught for WRFI: Alaskan Rainforest: Ecology and Policy of the Tongass, Montana Afoot and Afloat: Human/Land Relations, Colorado Plateau: Desert Canyons and Cultures.
Neil will be studying at the University of New Hampshire, getting a Ph.D. in Education. Neil will work with the Outdoor Education department chair, Mike Gass, to study experiential and/or outdoor education as it applies to undergraduate level education. Neil hopes to expand his work, and to gain opportunities to apply innovative ideas to the outdoor education field.
Alaska Course on National Public Radio 
Southeast Alaska is stunning; full of wildlife, local culture and awe-inspiring landscapes, it makes for a perfect WRFI course setting. This year's instructors for Alaskan Rainforest: Ecology and Policy of the Tongass were Neil Kessler, Dave Morris, and Malena Marvin. The course was run similarly to past years, but there were a few additions. To start, the course was covered by National Public Radio (NPR). Interviews of Neil, Dave, and student Nick Skari can be heard here.
The course also facilitated a community presentation for the town of Wrangell, their finishing point. Here they told of their travels and reported on what they were learning. Aside from being part of the students' final project, this presentation is a way to connect with the local people, to demonstrate how invested outsiders can be with these local issues, and perhaps to provide locals with perspectives they have not heard before. Inevitably, students and instructors learn from these meetings and from hearing what the people of Wrangell and Southeast Alaska have to share.
WRFI Instructor Receives Prestigious Award from Yale University
John learns from a local woman how to eat well in the Yucatan.
John Tuxill received his PhD. from Yale University last year, finishing it with his dissertation, “Agrarian Change and Crop Diversity in Mayan Milpas of Yucatan, Mexico: Implications for In Situ Conservation.” For his work, he was one of three recipients of the prestigious John Addison Porter Prize. We knew he was good at what he does, but it was clarified even more by the explanation his former advisor gave about his dissertation.
“John’s dissertation is simply the best cultural and historical, as well as ecological and economic, in-depth analysis of agrodiversity that I know of,” said Michael Dove, Tuxill’s former advisor and Margaret K. Musser Professor of Social Ecology. “John’s research, by locating the source of crop diversity in the wider social fabric, transcends current thinking and offers a powerful new model for thinking about biogenetic conservation.”
Check out the article about it. And listen to John on NPR (see below). Then check out John's Yucatan course that he co-teaches with WRFI instructor Kim Wilkinson. The course is an incredible way to earn two upper-division credits!
Taking Action to Create Action--Instructor rides with Ride for Climate
Nicky Phear, instructor for WRFI's Cycle Montana course, has joined the Ride for Climate, where she is cycling from Portland to San Francisco to raise awareness of global warming and the need for action. Oregon and California are two states leading the way with policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and advance clean, renewable energy developments. Nicky is helping give presentations to schools, churches, and communities along route. Ride for Climate is riding from coast to coast "to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other solutions to global warming that will give America and the world a better future." To follow their journey on the West Coast and prior, go to www.rideforclimate.com, or click here.
WRFI's Cycle Montana course was recently featured in the Adventure Cycling Organization's newsletter "Bike Bits" for their part in learning about climate change and energy issues. If you'd like to subscribe to "Bike Bits" to read about it, or just to keep up with cycling news around the U.S., click here.
Take a look at more information on WRFI's Cycle Montana: Energy Alternatives for a New Century.
A little help from your friends
WRFI offers several scholarships to help offset the cost of tuition. In addition to a few small, need-based General Scholarships, WRFI offers the $1000 Matt Thomas Scholarship for students applying to the Montana Afoot & Afloat semester course. WRFI also offers a $500-$1000 Cycle Montana Scholarship for students applying to the Cycle Montana course. Click here for the WRFI Scholarship Application.
Wikipedia gets it right on WRFI
Everyone who has ever taken a WRFI course knows that WRFI epitomizes the concept of "experiential education." Now, anyone who looks to Wikipedia for information on the topic will know too.
According to one anonymous Wikifarian, the Wild Rockies
Field Institute offers "hybrid" experiential/traditional programs that "provide the academic rigor of a classroom course with the breadth and personal connections of experiential education." We couldn't agree more. Check it out for yourself by clicking here.
A few words inspired by WRFI
Henry David Thoreau, perhaps the father of American nature writing, expounded at great length about the inspirational effects of nature on those who spend time in its arms. This affect has not gone unnoticed by WRFI's instructors and students, many of whom encounter the muse while they sea kayak the Alaskan coast, backpack the red rock of the Colorado Plateau. In fact, that's exactly what happened to WRFI instructor Wolf Drimal, whose experiences with his students in the Great Outdoors often inspire him to put pen to paper. Here, for your reading pleasure, are two of his poems, "Reminders" and "Tongass Dragons." (If you are a WRFI alumnus and would like to share work inspired by your WRFI experience, please e-mail it to us.)
WRFI instructor helps NPR get it right on Apocalypto
John Tuxill is no ordinary WRFI instructor. Sure, he's spent many years in rural Mexico, conducting fieldwork on Yucatec Maya farming systems and agrarian change, and, yes, he did recently finish his Ph.D at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. But all of our instructors have interesting life experiences and top-notch professional credentials.
What sets John apart is that he speaks a number of languages, including Spanish, French, Portuguese, English and, perhaps most notably, Yucatec Maya. All of which makes him the perfect lead instructor for our Yucatan Cultural Ecology course.
It also allowed him to help NPR get it right on a program about Mel Gibson's new film, Apocalypto. Centered around one man's life during the decline of the Mayan empire, Apocalypto is filmed entirely in what NPR called "the Yucatec dialect." (Thankfully for the rest of us, the film is subtitled in English.) John, who recently accepted a position at Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Washington, called in to set the record straight, reminding NPR and its listeners that Yucatec Mayan is a distinct language, not a dialect.
Click here to 
to what John had to say on the difference. (John's remarks begin at 2:17 of the audio clip.
Hike a Mile in Her Boots
Kathy Marieb not only leads WRFI courses, she’s a writer who has helped count grizzly bears in Washington State’s North Cascade Mountains. “Tracking Hope,” her essay on the subject, was recently published as part of an anthology called A Mile in Her Boots: Women Who Work in the Wild. Edited by Jennifer Bove, this remarkable collection details the experiences of women who work in a variety of outdoor professions including smoke jumping, river running, professional falconry, and horse packing. Click on the book cover for more information, or to read an excerpt.
