Adventures with the MORE Program by Kaitlyn Kriz

Flagship group reflecting after we hiked to the “L”

A Flagship group I had introduced to
Trail Names contemplating their
new names pictured: Trailmix, Blueberry,
Leopard Shark, Heels, Chickadee.
Not pictured: MudBud, The Sprinkler,
Wizard, Gorp, Ladybug Wrangler,
Mountain Lion, Robert.

My adventures this semester have consisted of much time spent interning with the Missoula Outdoor Recreation and Education (MORE) Program.  In my time working with the MORE Program I have done everything from program planning, assisting, and advertising, and even photographing events. I have worked with multitudes of people and programs ranging from our homeschooler after school program to working programs with a recovery center in town.

I have been learning a lot about a job that I hope to have one day and have had some great experiences. One thing I have definitely learned is that unpredictable things happen all the time and your ability to be flexible is a direct determinant of the success or failure of a program. For instance, planning a winter carnival and Nordic ski race when there actually isn’t any snow to be found, or calling your Flagship program “Winter Sports” when actually you won’t end up doing any winter sports because Winter is no longer with us; so when the kids ask when you will be going skiing you better be able to break their little hearts into a million pieces and then pick up all those pieces and glue them together with even more exciting things, or things that aren’t so exciting but seem exciting because you are acting really excited in hopes that the kids won’t call your bluff. I have learned more about flexibility this semester than I have ever experienced before. I have learned to ALWAYS have a back-up plan. 

I have learned how to better handle and work with groups of various ages, abilities and even experiences. For instance, when you unexpectedly get bitten by a kid pretending to be a zombie it is actually a good thing, it means they like you. I have also learned to NEVER stop trying to get kids to participate be themselves; and when there is a preteen who refuses to participate because they are at the age where everything is suddenly “lame” you just have to show them that it is okay to be a kid and be silly and like things by showing them that even college students like to play and are silly. Who knows, they might end up surprising you and melting your heart by telling you that they are going to be like you when they grow up.

One of those teachable moments: Flagship
group  learning about erosion and the importance of staying on the trail.

I think one of the most important things that I learned through these programs, though, was when we just simply went on a hike with the patients from the recovery center. Working with recovery center showed me further the importance of just being able to get outside and breathe the sweet air and absorb the sun rays while you can. They showed me that just getting out on a hike can be something that can ultimately save you. That day definitely inspired me to look further into wilderness therapy programs to get involved with back home.

Above: One of our Flagship after school 
programs on  our visit to the Fire Science Center 
learning about  the workings of fire tornados.

This internship directly relates to things that I have learned during my time in the Wilderness & Civilization Program. The most prominent thing being that I get so many opportunities a week to have teachable moments with children about topics discussed in Wilderness & Civilization program; everything from leave no trace ethics, to animal signs and tracking, to plant identification and botany, to just  the importance of knowing your surroundings. Even now, I can’t help but hear Professor Clow in the back of my mind and pounding tables with every new thing I do and experience. This internship has provided me with the opportunity to bring the past to the present for the future generations by giving me an outlet to renew my experiences to these future generations.   

Above: Flagship Group on a Hike. Sorry my pictures aren’t so exciting,
I don’t like using cell phones when I’m interacting with the little ones.

Lower Right: Another Flagship Group skipping rocks and just being kids at Tower Street Park.

  

Society for Wilderness Stewardship Internship by Lauren Korn

Society for Wilderness Stewardship

I don’t know how the idea became lodged in my head, but for a few years now, I’ve thought that graduating from college meant that I would finally be free to explore Montana (my native state): its people, its physical and political landscapes, its history, and its role in determining my sense of place and my working definition of “home.” I still grasp tightly the idea of traveling around the state in my cherry-red Subaru, Roxanne, with my vintage Raleigh, Ramona, strapped to her hatchback, but I am learning – and will continue to learn in the course of this Spring semester – that my exploration doesn’t have to be and will not be limited to my post-graduate education. No, it has begun in the form of an internship with the Society for Wilderness Stewardship (SWS). I have taken these learning objectives and applied them to a project hardly-begun for the SWS. The project, which will be published under the Society’s new writing series NextGen Horizons in Wilderness and Civilization, will be a collection of articles – character sketches, really – gleaned from interviews I will be a part of this Spring. First, though, a bit about the SWS.

The SWS is an infant of an organization guided by principles based on professional wilderness stewardship practices. The group is “committed to working together with those interested in securing the highest level of professional practice [and works to] maintain an environment that fosters respect, participation, innovation, and the highest ethical standards of conduct.” Their philosophies are grounded in a belief in and a want for sound scientific practices, collaboration between disciplines, nurturing public trust in private and public organizations, and professional excellence among like-minded scientists, managers, educators, government and private conservation workers, volunteers, students, [and] the public.”

My own NextGen collection – under the working title, “They Came to Wilderness” – will be a collection of character sketches written with the purpose of illuminating the career paths and objectives of stewardship professionals. I have lined up interviews with individuals in the Forest Service, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe(s), and former Wilderness & Civilization participants, as well as Montana cattle ranchers, co-operative farmers, and others – all to learn how their careers have changed, how their interpretation of the wilderness (or Wilderness) concept has evolved, and how Montana has played into their professional and personal identities. In order to adequately and purposefully execute these interviews, I sought the help of Dr. Alan Watson, a social scientist working at the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute here in Missoula, Montana. Watson recently presented a lecture to the Missoula public for the Wilderness Institute’s 2015 Wilderness Lecture Series called, “It’s Bigger than Wilderness: Transformative Realizations from Doing Wilderness Science.” The following is an excerpt from my response to that presentation:

Watson, I learned, studies the phenology of varying regions around the United States by translating quantitative and qualitative data collected in the field into what I will call here, environmental conflict resolution. His methodologies, especially in gathering qualitative data, can been seen as a literal bridge between wilderness and civilization; the interviews and surveys he conducts – both vital aspects of his duties as a social scientist for the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute – allow him and his colleagues to evaluate the social and physical effects of land use.

Dr. Alan Watson. Photo courtesy of the 

Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute

Watson’s job, like most, is a job overwhelmed by binaries: nature/society; knowledge/wisdom; untrammeled/uncorrupted landscapes; tracks/trails; storied/empty landscapes; land users/managers, etc. These dichotomous abstracts – they are, indeed, abstracts: social constructs of a perceived reality – all culminate, for Watson, in tradeoffs, in ultimate compromise. I left Watson’s presentation feeling the ambiguousness of these binaries. [. . .] He has come to value the uncertainty that has been a part of so many of the stories he’s collected; he has learned to embrace the discovery process of his research. Discovery and research seem synonymous with one another, but when you’re a researcher and an academic of Watson’s standing, discovery – in an exciting, aha! kind of way – becomes, I imagine, increasingly evasive. He is also acutely aware that everyone he encounters in the wilderness has a story to tell, and thus, has a perspective unlike any he has previously encountered.

After hearing Watson speak about stories he’s collected from the field, I felt it necessary to speak with him further regarding his aforementioned research methodologies.

Watson is an approachable character, despite his title and the seeming endless amount of information that he can deliver. He has a father’s mustache and a head of salt-and-pepper curls that are unexplainably inviting. Our two hours in his office on-campus flew fast, and the advice he was able to give me about the interview and survey processes have already proved invaluable. Beyond speaking to me about qualitative and quantitative research and analysis, Watson expressed a profound appreciation for the research process – an appreciation that stems from the art (and it is, indeed, an art) of asking the right questions. What is the most important question? I haven’t yet found it, but thanks to Watson, I know now where to look for it.

I am a creative writer (not this semester, it turns out; writer’s block is real, folks), and I so appreciate this opportunity to combine the practice of writing and the practice of storytelling with my deepening interest and investment in land stewardship. This internship will be, I can already tell, an instrumental beginning to my own discoveries in and of Montana, and will be, I hope, the catalyst for something great.

To learn more about the Society for Wilderness Stewardship, jump on over to:

 http://wildernessstewardship.org/

To learn more about the Wilderness Lecture Series, go to:

http://www.cfc.umt.edu/wi/education/lecture-series/default.php

And to learn more about the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, visit:

http://leopold.wilderness.net/

Wilderness Institute Internship by Kaydee Borchers

For my Internship at the Wilderness Institute I will be working on some specific projects that are both long and short term throughout the semester as well as other smaller duties that will help things run smoothly in the Wilderness Institute. The larger projects include Wilderness and Civilization outreach, planning for the Freshmen Wilderness Experience, as well as the 40 year anniversary for Wilderness and Civilization Program.

Above is a scan of a Kodak slide taken by Bob Ream
during the first Wilderness and Civ trek in 1975.

My first project for the internship has to do with digging into the history of the Program. So far I have scanned photos from the first Wilderness and Civ. trek in 1975. Bob Ream has a collection of Kodak slides from that year and I got the privilege of browsing through them while converting them to digital files.

I am learning more about how the Wilderness Institute works as I spend time around the office. I am learning more about the Wilderness and Civ. program and what goes into making it happen. I am finding additional meaning to the program and appreciating the fact that it has not only survived but made significant difference for 40 years! I am learning all about the history of the program through interviewing alumni who are glad to help and have added to the stories in my mind about the program.

A photo take by Bob Ream while the students were
taking a load off on the Fall Trek, 1975.

The Interviews include a variety of questions that pull some interesting stores out of the program’s history as well as explain how Wilderness and Civ. helped these people become who they are. I will choose 5 or 6 of these alumni to feature on the Wilderness Institute webpage with a blurb and a photo. I will eventually represent the diversity that comes from the program by choosing the 5 or 6 that have all taken different paths in life. I will be interviewing people who are artists, scientists, activists, federal agency employees or maybe all of the above. I am thinking about doing a father daughter feature of my dad and myself on the alumni page because he was a Civ. student in ’83.

A potential profile for the Wilderness and Civ alumni
page  is my dad and me.  This photo was taken on a fun
day of fishing in the Narrows of Flathead Lake with
my dad, also Wilderness and Civ alumni, Bill Borchers.

Along with digging into some of the program’s history I have also been geared toward promotion of it for the future. Thanks to over a dozen class visits which put me on the side of the podium that I am rather unfamiliar with, I have gained communication skills. I also am becoming more familiar with techniques for outreach, from radio ads to stealthy poster distribution.

During classes last semester I gained a lot of passion and the internship has helped me follow through with inspiring people to do the same, even if they are not interested in the program I believe that through my enthusiasm I can inspire people to live it up and work hard. This internship has expanded on what I have learned in the wilderness and civilization program, specifically the history of such a program and what it’s all about.

I have been working on outreach primarily with Marie who has been working in the office as well. Marie and I are able to work very well together because we encourage each other to push ourselves and have high expectations for each other’s success. Because of this we can push against each other to get $hi* done! It doesn’t matter if it’s licking 500 envelopes to stuff the endowment proposals into or planning the 2015 Wild/Civ. spring campfire.

As this semester continues I will be learning about what goes into the planning of 2 projects. One is the planning of a program such as the Freshmen Wilderness Experience. The other will be planning the 40th Anniversary event. I am excited to contribute to these and put forth my ideas. My learning objectives for the remainder of the semester include those based around acquiring the knowledge of how a nonprofit operates as well as how the institute cooperates with the University of Montana and other agencies. I am also interested in learning as much as possible about outdoor education so I can be better prepared for my career after school in this setting.

Above is a photo of the most recent Wilderness and Civilization 

class taking a journal break in the sunshine. 

This photo is too great not to add to this blog.