Wilderness experience

[Linda Bich-Kieu Wasson]

Wild Rockies Field Institute and the University of Montana Extended Studies
are offering a 10-credit multidisciplinary course in Big Bend National Park
this winter, February 2-March 21, 2000.  The course, "Mountain Islands and
Desert Seas," integrates work in geography, natural history, and
environmental studies with an extended backcountry journey by canoe and
foot down the Rio Grande and into the Chisos Mountains of southwest Texas.
The curriculum includes readings and discussion on water developments and
dependence in the Rio Grande basin, public land management and laws, the
culture of the Texas-Mexico borderlands, and field studies of the
Chihuahuan Desert and Rio Grande riparian ecosystems.  Cost of the course
is $3775.

The ten semester credits are listed by the University of Montana as
follows:  3 credits each, EVST 395:  Nature and Society of the Desert
Southwest; GEOG 351:  Environmental Geography of the Texas/Mexico Border
Country; SCI 395:  Natural History of the Chihuahuan Desert; and 1 credit,
Health and Human Performance 195:  Wilderness Canoeing.

Instructors have graduate degrees in environmental studies or ecology, and
are certified in wilderness medicine and canoe instruction.  Course size is
limited to 10 students.  The deadline to apply is December 15, 1999.  For
more information contact:  Wild Rockies Field Institute, PO Box 7071,
Missoula, MT  59807; (406) 549-4336; www.wildrockies.org/wrf; or email to
wrfi at wildrockies.org.

Wild Rockies Field Institute is a non-profit, educational organization
dedicated to studies of the natural world and the role humans play in that
world.  Since 1994, WRFI has been offering academic, field-based courses
approved for credit through the University of Montana Extended Studies.
Courses explore a range of ecological and social issues encountered through
extended backcountry trips.


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Wild Rockies Field Institute
P.O. Box 7071
Missoula, MT 59807
406-549-4336
www.wildrockies.org/wrfi
FAX: 406-728-9432