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Wolf Watching/ Wolf Tracking Expedition

"This week was an experience of a lifetime! ...Getting to move through this breath-taking landscape and appreciate both the grand-scale beauty of the land along with the details of each track was terrific!"
-Julia A Towne

Wolf Watching/ Wolf Tracking Expedition
July 26-August 1, 2009; 1:30 p.m. Sun. - 4:30 p.m. Sat.
Backcountry, Idaho; Lead instructor: Emily Gibson. Instructor: Dave Moskowitz
$875 ($50 discount to Tracking Club members, see below). Food and camping provided; Airport shuttle from Boise, ID available free
Secure on-line registration, or call to register: 425-788-1301

Join Wilderness Awareness School for an experience you won't soon forget.

Our Wolf Tracking Expedition offers participants an exciting opportunity to explore remote and beautiful backcountry, while learning first-hand about the ways of the gray wolf and the rest of their ecosystem.

Expedition participants learn through immersion in this diverse landscape, as we discover and follow the tracks and sign of wolves and other wildlife on the edge of the largest designated wilderness area in the continental United States.

Guided by skilled tracking instructors from Wilderness Awareness School, participants learn first hand about using the skills of a tracker to understand the activities of wolves and their relationships with other parts of the landscape in which they live.

Field activities are complimented with information on wolf biology, current status and conservation of wolves in the western United States.

Tracking Groups

This course is ideal for beginning trackers and those with some prior tracking experience. Beginners leave with a solid set of technical skills, while students with some previous experience are able to apply and enhance their skills in a dynamic setting with mentoring from experienced instructors.

Each day we split into small field groups based on interest and experience. Then we head out into the field to search for, study, and follow the tracks and sign of wolves.

Community

Participants also share in a remarkable community experience created during the expedition. Our days start and end at a comfortable basecamp. Evenings offer a chance to relax, enjoy good food, re-live stories of the day's adventures, play music, and enjoy the starry skies!

Our Tracking Philosophy

Tracking lures us on an amazing journey into the world of nature, and encourages us to open all of our senses to its subtle clues hidden everywhere. At Wilderness Awareness School we teach tracking as an interpretive art--one that sharpens our awareness of nature and deepens our understanding of our place in the natural world.

Trackers speak a language which is based not only on a thorough knowledge of tracks, trails and sign, but also on a rich grounding in the natural history, anatomy, and behavior characteristics of animals and plant ecology. Our curriculum prepares you to continue your exploration of the behavior and ecology of wildlife through tracking.

On our Wolf Tracking Expedition, we always strive to stay "one day behind" the wolves, so that our presence does not disturb their natural activities. However, under the skilled guidance of the expedition's instructors, participants in past years have almost always been able to see and experience a rich diversity of fresh wolf tracks and trails, and sign (including feeding sign and kill sites/carcasses, scat, hair, etc. and sometimes even signs of previous den activity) that a let us know of the wolves are active in that area, and allow us to feel their presence.

Some years the wolves seem to want to make their presence more fully known to us, through such actions as passing close by within easy sight of our group, or crossing right through our camp at night, or doubling back and walking over our tracks later the same day we are tracking them! Whether your experience is one of wolf watching or wolf tracking, you are guaranteed to have an experience filled with adventure.

Instructor Biography

Emily Gibson serves as Wilderness Awareness School's Adult Programs Coordinator, Assistant Summer Camp Director, Adult and Youth Program Instructor, as well as Outreach Coordinator. Before coming to Wilderness Awareness School, Emily studied Wildlife Science at the University of Washington. She spent two years as a research assistant studying the effects of urbanization on songbird populations in the Puget Sound region.

After graduating from the Residential Program in 2005, Emily participated in the Instructor Training Apprenticeship and was an Apprentice Instructor with the Residential Program. She has also continued her study of tracking through two years of Wilderness Awareness School’s Wildlife Tracking Intensive. She is a team leader for the Cascade Wildlife Monitoring Project, and is certified as a Level II Track and Sign Specialist with CyberTracker International.

David Moskowitz: David has been studying the art of wildlife tracking for over a decade. He holds a bachelors degree in Environmental Studies through Prescott College with an emphasis on Field Ecology and Tracking. David has been involved with several animal tracking related research projects including snow tracking surveys for rare forest carnivores in the Oregon and Washington Cascades, and currently is the project manager for the Cascade Wildlife Monitoring Project. He has taught tracking courses in a variety of settings and for applications including environmental education, wilderness expeditioning, and training volunteers involved in wildlife monitoring courses. David trained extensively with Charles Worsham and Tom Brown Jr. Along with his tracking expertise, David is a skilled adult educator and has been involved in experiential/outdoor education and instructor training for a wide variety of organizations.

Course Registration

Secure on-line registration, or call to register: 425-788-1301

NOTE: In addition to the adult expedition, we also offer Teen Wolf Tracking Expeditions for ages 13-18

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