I can’t get to my binoculars quickly enough. The dark shape soars above us in effortless circles. I can see the flash of white tail feathers in the sun. I fumble with the protective covers of my binoculars and finally squint through the eyepieces as my kayak twists sideways in the water. The bald eagle

A beautiful crest of the Rocky Mountains forms the background as I enter a handmade home on the Blackfeet Reservation in northern Montana. I enter and a warm woman greets me at the door to offer coffee and hot chocolate. This helps to break the semi-awkward ice. We go outside and look at a lush

I was standing in a feedlot in Choteau, Montana with malt sprout dust and chopped-up hay blowing around me, as thousands of Charolais, Angus, and hybrid cattle were getting ready for their feed. The general manager was giving us a tour of the operation and the place he called home. I never thought I’d be

Prior to traveling with WRFI, I had never seen mountains in person. As I am writing this blog, I am sitting somewhere in Jumbo, surrounded completely by land structures that were only an image to me five weeks ago. I am also surrounded by students, professors, hosts, and speakers who were only names on an

The concept of home is innately complicated yet somehow simple. The word itself conjures up nostalgia and feelings of overwhelming warmth. The saying “home is where the heart is” is accurate at the root, but doesn’t convey that home can be a collection of places and people scattered across experiences. Moira, a fellow WRFI classmate,

Beep! Beep! Beep! I wake up to the frenzied sound of alarms, and tiredly roll over in my damp sleeping bag. It is 4 a.m. and five of my Conservation Across Boundaries classmates and I are heading to the top of the mountain above our camp. We slowly tumble out of our tents, grab our

My name is Moira Bruce and I just finished my freshman year of college at the University of Montana. I was born and raised in Montana, so I am exploring more of my state and the area around it. I excitedly signed up for this course because it fit right into my major, resource conservation,

Last October, a friend of a friend came up to me and said “Hey, you like camping right?!”The answer, yes, was followed by her shoving paperwork in my hand and telling me that I absolutely had to check out this program she did that past summer, called the Wild Rockies Field Institute. I looked at

I recall learning about Wild Rockies Field Institute in my first class in college ever, I couldn’t resist testing myself and my limits; I needed something outside of a classroom. I spent many years attending Valley Forge Military Academy, where I spent nearly 10 months of the year exclusively with high school-aged boys. Later, I

In the distance are two small buttes that protrude from the gently curved ground covered in sagebrush and juniper. These are the Bears Ears. Driving up several days later, we stop in between them. Looking down from the buttes the landscape slopes into flat plains which seep out until the horizon is created against the