What's New

Quarterly News from Aerie Backcountry Medicine

Volunteer for Wilderness This Summer
Wilderness managers have invited the Wilderness Institute and community volunteers to complete weed and recreation monitoring and restoration work in the Gospel Hump Wilderness this summer. The Wilderness Institute will work with volunteers to map, pull, and reseed weed infestations in the Gospel Hump Wilderness and release weed biocontrols where appropriate. Field leaders and volunteers will also inventory campsites and track recreation impacts. This is the fourth year of an ongoing restoration project by the Wilderness Institute, supported by the National Forest Foundation and the Forest Service. In the past three season we’ve completed work in the Selway-Bitterroot, Anaconda-Pintler, Cabinet Mountains, Rattlesnake, Welcome Creek, and Gates of the Mountains Wilderness Areas. For more info and to volunteer>>

New Equipment for Wilderness.net
The Wilderness Institute recently secured funding from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation and Northwestern Energy for new computer equipment. Through these generous donations, the Wilderness.net program now has a new webserver to support ongoing development of online wilderness resources.

June 2007 Nicky Phear teaches UM Course, Cycle Montana: Energy Alternatives for a New Century
Offered through UM and the Wild Rockies Field Institute, students visit a range of energy production sites, learn from a diversity of state, industry and environmental experts, and meet with local Montanans concerned with the impacts of climate change and energy sustainability on their communities. More>>

October 2006 Wilderness.Net Adds Wilderness Blogs
Wilderness.Net now allows users to create their own wilderness blog to communicate with others about wilderness-specific issues or topics. This new feature benefits a variety of users; managers can use blogs to gauge public attitudes toward particular wilderness areas or management actions; recreational visitors can use blogs to communicate with others who have visited a particular wilderness and get trip planning suggestions; students can engage in discussions with other students or active figures in today's wilderness movement. The blogs offer excellent opportunities to foster communication among online wilderness enthusiasts, so log on and register! More>>

September 2006 Laurie Ashley presents in South Africa at the conference: Land, Memory, Reconstruction and Justice: Perspectives on Land Restitution in South Africa.

July 2006 Nicky Phear cycles with Betsy Hands 700 miles around central Montana to learn more about the future of renewable energy. On route they toured the state’s largest wind farm, met with farmers growing oilseed crops, talked with businesses using solar and geothermal heating, and visited a hydroelectric facility. Read more>>

May 2006 Wilderness Information Specialist, Lisa Eidson, Receives Outstanding Service to the External Community Award
Lisa Eidson received this award in May 2006 for her work on the Wilderness.Net website, an Internet-based tool connecting the natural resource workforce, scientists, educators, and the public to their wilderness heritage through ready access to wilderness information. Congratulations Lisa!

April 2006 Three Wilderness and Civilization students travel to New York City to present a poster at national symposium on Conserving Birds in Human-Dominated Landscapes at the American Museum of Natural History. Under the guidance of Visiting Scholar Chris Filardi, students Audra Labert, Nathan Taylor, and Jessica Crowley presented information on the immigration of snowy owls into the Mission Valley and proposed reasons for the shift in the public’s attitudes toward these birds.