_Become a Trip Leader with the Wolverine Tracking Project

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Our volunteer trip leaders are the backbone of the Wolverine Tracking Project. They are responsible for identifying tracks, completing wildlife survey forms, teaching the material to participants and setting the general tone of outings. They are a knowledgeable, fun-loving, and supportive group of people who truly cherish their local wild places and wish to better understand and take care of them.

What we provide to our trip leaders in return are many opportunities to learn more advanced tracking skills, a strong community of like-minded people, and many chances to find evidence of rare carnivores, maybe even wolverine! The more people we have leading trips, the more land we can survey and the greater our chances of detecting our target species.

About the Intensive Study Program

__This intensive study program is designed for participants who wish to further their tracking skills beyond the basics. In exchange for this instruction, we ask that intensive study participants help lead trips for at least two years after the training is completed. 

The intensive study program provides long-term mentoring consisting of a mixture of class time, dirt time, and self-study.  Participants have a lot of freedom to tailor the program towards their own individual interests, availability and learning style.

Participants will be paired with a current trip leader who will serve as their mentor. Mentors provide a source of guidance and discussion, answering questions and encouraging the student along the way. Participants also attend discussion classes and special survey trips, along with other dirt time opportunities. We have several trips each year to Mt Hood specifically for trip leaders and intensive study participants. We also have monthly evening discussion sessions during the winter. These present a short learning topic and offer a chance to ask questions and to share what you've learned. We are here to support your learning, but we also expect you to be studying on your own as well. The more you put into it, the more you will get out of it!

We expect a student to complete the course of study in approximately 1 to 2 1/2 years. Even then, we do not expect you to know everything. New trip leaders will be paired with experienced ones until they feel comfortable. 

To be a part of the intensive study program, you must have previously participated in the Wolverine Tracking Project for at least season. The annual fee to be part of this intensive study program is $50, or $40 for Cascadia Wild members.

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Wolverine Tracking Project Home

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Become a Trip Leader
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_Requirements of the program

-Document 100 hours of 'dirt time' (tracking in the field). This can occur during a tracking trip, Tracking Club, a class, or on the student's own. To document the time spent, the student may show journals of what they have seen.

-To become familiar with how the project works, the student must volunteer 20 hours helping with the tasks associated with running the Wolverine Tracking Project. This may include helping out on survey trips.

-The student must develop competence in animal tracking, navigation, wilderness safety, and also one or two other naturalist skills. These could be tree/plant identification, bird language, or primitive survival.

- Be friendly, able to communicate, and willing to work cooperatively with others.

- Be able to represent Cascadia Wild, its mission and activities to participants.

- After completing the program, be able to lead 2-3 trips per season for a minimum of 2 years.

Graduation!

_To become a trip leader, students must pass a written and field evaluation to demonstrate that they have the required tracking skills.  The evaluation will be administered by a committee of senior trip leaders. We estimate an average student can reach this level in approximately 1 ½ to 2 ½ years, but this is a flexible time frame.