WildLink Family Weekend

Here's a big thank you going out to everyone who made the 2004 WildLink Family Weekend a great success. On the weekend of October 1 - 3, 2004, here in Yosemite National Park, six WildLink alumni from last year's program joined us with their families for a very special reunion. We had families join from as far away as Los Angeles, and four out of six of our participants were from the same expedition! Activities included: free bicycle rentals for touring the Park Saturday; a special wilderness walk with Yosemite Wilderness Ranger Laurel Boyers; an awards presentation for participating alumni and their families; a special outdoor dinner Saturday night complete with campfire; and a Leave No Trace skit which included almost all of the attending alumni. There was also a special screening of "American Values: American Wilderness", a special PBS film due to air sometime this year, with prominent appearances of WildLink alumni.

This was an important weekend because we were also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the first piece of legislation to really set aside and protect the wilderness areas that we so value today. To commemorate this special anniversary, wilderness managers from all over the Sierra Nevada came to Yosemite to talk about current issues of wilderness management, and to meet our WildLink families! Activities included an activities fair on the main mall, with representatives from Search and Rescue, Trail Crews and the Discovery Center in Fresno.

We also gave a special recognition to WildLink alumni from Parlier High School, who were amazing ambassadors for wilderness at this summer's Grizzly Stadium Great Outdoors event. One of the highlights for everyone involved with the wilderness fair was the way the six alumni shared their thoughts on wilderness with all of the attendeees of the fair.

This event is one that we're committed to here at WildLink, and we hope to see more alumni take part in it next year. Rember, our WildLink families are just as important to us as our alumni! Enjoy the following images from the weekend, and we hope to see you next year!

WildLink Joins UC Merced for Teacher Training Weekend 2004

October 8-10 WildLink held its annual WildLink Teacher Expedition, with the added bonus of the addition of UC Merced's participation as workshop facilitators. The workshop was a combined effort between WildLink's Mandy Vance and UC Merced's Sam Traina, who gave us use of both the UC Research station in Wawona along with his very well-trained research faculty. Representatives from more than 20 different schools joined us for this very special weekend.

The weekend's agenda included a day long, hydrology intensive field study led by several members of UC Merced professorial staff, who covered a wide range of subject matter. Included studies were nitrate analysis, field hydrology measurements, and a fascinating look at climate change with a UC postdoctoral student. Todd Newburger, Yosemite Institute's Field Scientist, led a discussion on aquatic biomonitoring with the assistance of another UC postdoctorate student. Jack Laws, always a favorite, inspired the scientist and artist within us all with a refresher field science journalling class; Barb Miranda, Sierra Nevada Wilderness Education Project Director, and Mark Fincher, from the National Park Service, reminded us of the value of wilderness in our lives and in the classroom; we also had a high energy brainstorming session with a UC Merced recruiter, the National Hispanic Environmental Council's Kristina Ortez and our talented and imaginative crew of WildLink teachers! We generated enough ideas to keep me on my toes for the rest of the year, and you'll be hearing about the fruits of that discussion throughout the coming school year. I also had the pleasure of working with several new and returning WildLink teachers with a special WildLink orientation.

The sessions were geared toward giving teachers solid science tools and skills that they can use in the classorom to link students to both wilderness and continuing education.

We'd like to recognize Enrique Iribe, WildLink teacher from Harbor City Boys and Girls Club, for his wonderful mentoring example to WildLlink alumni, and for bringing WildLink alumni Pedro and Pablo to the workshop. Thank you, Enrique, for your continuing support of the program and its participants.

We'd also like to thank all the participants and facilitators for their energy, ideas and enthusiasm. Between all of us, I really believe that there's nothing we can't do, if we put our minds together. Thanks for inspiring me, and for your commitment to WildLink.

Here are just a few of the images from the weekend: