WildLink Aquatic Biomonitoring Travels to Kingsburg High School

In conjunction with Yosemite Institute’s Scientific Research Coordinator, WildLink is running a pilot program this year in which the Research Coordinator first meets WildLink students in the field during their expedition, when he leads them through a water quality analysis project centered on macro invertebrate sampling. While in the Park the students perform an in-depth study of their findings. A few weeks later, the Research Coordinator joins the students, the WildLink teacher and the rest of their classmates for an in-lab analysis of the same samples, which is led by the Research Coordinator and the WildLink alumni. The alumni then prepare a report which is sent to WildLink and posted on the website. This is a program we hope to expand in the future.

On November 30, 2004, we facilitated one such program in Kingsburg High School. Four WildLink alumni joined Mandy Vance, WildLink Program Coordinator, and Todd Newburger, Yosemite Institute Scientific Research Coordinator, in leading a group of 12 AP Environmental Science Students through a three-hour, intensive analysis of macro invertebrate samples collected in Yosemite by other high school students. The students then completed data analysis forms, and the WildLink alumni completed a report which will be posted on the WildLink website by January 2005.

If you are a teacher or alumnus interested in bringing this project to your school, please contact Mandy at mandy_vance@partner.nps.gov

Happy Holidays from WildLink!

We just want to send out a great big thank you to all of our dedicated WildLink teachers and alumni. You have all made this an inspiring and successful year for us, and we hope that the holidays are a full and joyful time for all of you.

We'd like to leave with with some images of the highlights of our program this year. Be well, and we'll see you next January!

The Richard Iglehart Memorial Expedition

The Richard Iglehart Wilderness Foundation provides scholarships for outdoor and wilderness experiences for children of all races and creeds
between the ages of *7-14. The Foundation works with existing organizations to create partnerships
and coalitions supporting outdoor educations and wilderness adventures. This year the foundation has generously offered to support a WildLink Expedition.

The Richard Iglehart Memorial Expedition began appropriately with the arrival of a group of students as open as the winter blue sky that greeted them upon their arrival in Yosemite Valley. Once the group, comprised of students from Sunnyside High School and Merced High School, got acquainted Sunday evening, we spent some time taking those first steps towards the ultimate goal of finding our own definition of wilderness. We started with Webster’s, and that was just the beginning!

Monday morning we spent time with Ranger Shelton Johnson, who taught us about subjects as minute as conifer needles fallen on the grass, and showed us how to connect them to the giant world around us.

On Tuesday morning the clear skies that had known disappeared behind a dense curtain of early winter snow that cloaked the world around us in pristine white. The snow continued to grace us on our hike to the magical and sacred grove of giant sequoias, the Merced Grove, and the very special cabin that would become our home for the next three days.

Once we were in the rhythm of life in our little cabin in the woods, Wednesday fairly flew by. We awoke to piles of new snow, and were joined after breakfast by Yosemite Institute Scientific Research Coordinator Todd Newburger, who led us through a very special “Sequoiaometry” session. We spent most of the day performing scientific documentation, mapping and measurements of the more that 40 giant sequoias in the Merced Grove, which were last surveyed in 1930! These measurements will be used to create baseline data to allow continued and progressive study of these rare trees growth over time. This research will be posted on the website by the end of January.

We spent our final day among the giant sequoias as we hiked out Thursday, exploring the magic of the grove and saying goodbye to our friends and teachers, the big trees. We wrapped up the evening with talent-filled campfire that included everything from traditional folk tales, Thai dance, wilderness raps, happy birthday songs (and cake!) and sharing our memories.

Friday we were joined by special guest Judi Iglehart, wife of the late Richard Iglehart, whose memorial foundation made this expedition possible. She shared stories of Richard’s long love of wilderness, and laughed and listened to our wilderness stories and experiences. It was hard to believe that all we had learned, experienced, and grown to love about the wilderness and each other had happened in a short five days. It was the kind of week you never forget, that gives you strength and energy for the rest of your life.

Richard Iglehart: the Man Behind the Expedition

The Richard Iglehart Wilderness Foundation is a charitable organization whose assets are permanently dedicated to providing educational programs that allow
children and adults to take part in and learn from wilderness experiences. The Foundation is dedicated to the ideals lived by Judge Richard Iglehart: his love of family, friends and the wilderness; his dedication to the community and fair treatment under the law; his understanding that
wilderness experiences allow adventurers to test their
innate strengths and rely on the strengths of their companions; his belief that the protection of natural
landscapes benefits all Americans; and his unequivocal willingness to help and mentor all who asked for his
support.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard B. "Dick" Iglehart passed away in Istanbul July 2, 2003 while attending a State Department sponsored legal conference. He was 60. From his early childhood, Dick was happiest in the wilderness. As a
teenager he worked as a boy's camp counselor in the Feather River Canyon, and returned yearly to the high Sierra or other or with a group to hike and fish. He twice hiked Mt. Shasta. In his 40s, Dick learned white water rafting and sea kayaking, and
participated in yearly adventures in the Sea of Cortez in Baja, California, in British Columbia, and in California and Oregon's wild and scenic rivers. For several years, he and close friends would spend time scuba diving and fishing in the Bahamas and
in Mexico. During the last month of his life, Dick fulfilled a life long dream of journeying up Alaska's Stikine River following an adventure of one of his heroes, John Muir.

An avid fisherman, hiker, kayaker, sportsman, poker and bridge player, Dick was known for his compassion for those who appeared in court before him and whom he represented as a prosecutor. A graduate of Piedmont High and UC Berkeley
(where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and played Rugby), Dick served in Germany as an Army officer in the 3rd Armored Cavalry before graduating from Santa Clara Law School. He was called to public service by the words of President John F. Kennedy.

For 27 years, Dick was a career prosecutor who served as Chief
Assistant District Attorney in Alameda and San Francisco counties, and as Chief Assistant for the Criminal Division for California Attorney General John Van de Kamp. Dick also served in Sacramento for one year as Chief Counsel to the Assembly Public Safety Committee, for several years as the California
District Attorney's Association lobbyist, and one term as an Assembly Fellow.

Dick worked unceasingly to rid California and the nation of assault weapons, was instrumental in helping pass legislation lowering penalties for marijuana possession, changing laws
affecting the private sexual practices of adults, and making it easier for child sexual assault victims to testify in court. He was an expert on sentencing procedures, California's Three Strikes
Law, Proposition 36, and serialkillers, and an early champion for using DNA testing in criminal trials. He taught at Hastings andContinuing Education of the Bar classes, lectured at the FBI
Academy, at Berkeley's Center for the Study of Law and Society, spoke often at local high schools, refereed Moot Courts at both high schools and local law schools, served on innumerable civic and community based committees, and coached and mentored scores of young people. Newly appointed as a Judge in 2000, he was assigned to hear cases in Oakland's Drug Court. He held the
assignment for two years, working to further the aims of drugdiversion programs and providing help to those who worked tobecome responsible citizens.

To learn more about the Iglehart Wilderness Foundation, click here.