Ethical Groundwork As this internship serves to connect the student with an organization that serves the relationship between community and landscape, my experiences at Free Cycles must be prefaced by the mission of local legend, Bob Giordano. Learning and teaching about bicycles and healthy city design for the past twenty years, Bob strives to create…
Where’s the spontaneity?
A year ago, I didn’t know what a land ethic was. Aldo Leopold was just another name associated with some white guy who had done something somewhere. Land ethic? I just wanted to get out of the state I was living in. Away from being taxed for heavy rainfall. Away from owing the state money,…
Wild River Voices
On April 18-21, 2019, students in the Wilderness & Civilization program embarked on their Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument field studies course. Below are excerpts from their reflection papers. That’s when I realized I was fighting a losing battle and gave up trying to keep everything dry. The rain caused intense mud at our…
Another Rusty Spoke
Wheels are the most important part of the bike. This rule of thumb has been repeated many times by Bob, pretty much every time we start working on a bike. And it all started with a simple question: “Got anything for me to do?” Free Cycles may be laid back, but we sure get things…
Pelts and PowerPoints: My Time with the Great Bear Foundation
The vast majority of my internship with the Great Bear Foundation has been spent behind a computer, updating PowerPoint presentations on the fundamentals of bear safety. These mundane hours, however, were punctuated by two events on the opposite side of the stimulation spectrum: taking my knowledge of bears to the public sphere and sharing it…
Fracking in Montana: What People Don’t Know
This semester I chose to work with Environment Montana, an organization focused on protecting clean air, water, and open space for the environment that we all share. They have several different projects that they’re currently working on, but I decided to put my efforts into their Holding Our Ground campaign that is working to protect…
An Unexpected Opportunity
Last November, I had the opportunity to take a tour of the Bad Goat lumber mill and learn about some of the important work Watershed Consultation does in the western Montana area. It was all part of a make-up field trip for Wilderness and Civ. We began the day out at the water treatment facility…
Watershed Education Network
This spring I have had the pleasure of interning at the Watershed Education Network, or WEN. WEN offers a variety of programs in citizen science and educational outreach. Personally, I have had the opportunity to develop curriculum for 6th graders on Missoula’s watershed. The games and activities I am developing will be used in classrooms…
Oceans of Change
“The oceans are the planet’s last great living wilderness, man’s only remaining frontier on Earth, and perhaps his last chance to prove himself a rational species” – John L. Culliney, marine biologist and author Our oceans, rivers, and lakes are being emptied of life at a frighteningly rapid rate. In less than two…
PEAS Farm
For this spring semester, I chose the PEAS Farm for my internship. The farm is on 9.5 acres in the Rattlesnake, and my internship there involves all the aspects of a spring time farm operation. I will learn how to seed and tend to hundreds of plants in the green house, prune fruit trees, manage…
If a Frame Falls in the Bike Forest
Late one night before a chemistry exam, I entered a fit of frustration. In my frenzy, I disassembled my $100 Craigslist bike. It started with a flat tire. I took the tube and tire off the wheel to inspect it. I couldn’t find a hole to patch, but I did find rust. I removed the…
Wilderness through Fungi
When tasked with coming up with an internship for Wilderness and Civilization, I was tugged in the direction of turning what was going to be my undergraduate research of the Fir Engraver Bark Beetle into an actual internship. The internship has given me the chance to devote more time to delving into this work and…
Wilderness & Civ 