Stories from the Field

NatureBridge is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Five years from now, The United States will be commemorating its 250th. One of the lead people responsible for planning the 250th Anniversary Commemoration is Tom Medema, Acting Associate Director of Interpretation, Education and Volunteers at the National Park Service (NPS), former Chief of Interpretation and Education at Yosemite National Park and a longtime supporter of NatureBridge. We sat down over a video call to discuss how NatureBridge and the United States have made it to these milestone anniversaries, the expansion of historically excluded stories and the resilience required to build the future.

Before Ty Cobb shepherded Yosemite National Institutes (now NatureBridge) through a series of potentially devastating events as its President and CEO, he served under President Ronald Reagan as National Security Affairs Special Advisor. The position required adaptability, flexibility and high-level ingenuity each day. “The crisis of the day dominates your time, and in the White House, we were in constant crisis mode.” Little did he know, after he was hired, it didn’t take long for Ty and the organization to be tested.

NatureBridge created a fire ecology curriculum to educate, inform and transform student perception of fire so that future generations of scientists and stewards would contribute to this vital field. Part of the fire ecology curriculum is to balance people’s lived experience with the complex nature of fire. Though the increase in fires due to climate change-related factors is alarming, fires in and of themselves are part of a healthy forest ecosystem. For the students who learn fire ecology through NatureBridge, reframing their mindset to think about living with fire can be one of the most profound impacts of the program.

Over the next few months we will be introducing you to the places that make NatureBridge so special - our national park classrooms. First up, we invite you to explore Olympic National Park! From the shores of the coast, through old-growth forests to alpine peaks, Olympic National Park (ONP) in Washington state presents students with the unique opportunity to investigate and understand complex ecosystems in an example of a temperate rainforest.

Rachel Davis is a rare story—she has seen and experienced NatureBridge from almost every possible angle. From an enthusiastic student taking part in a NatureBridge program in Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1993 to a teacher leading her students into the national parks to participate in the same NatureBridge programs that once inspired her. Today, her journey expands even further as the newest member of NatureBridge’s Yosemite Board.

The Bishop-Marcus Award, named for Barry Bishop and Melvin Marcus, funds one NatureBridge staff member each year to complete an environmental research project that incorporates challenge, fieldwork and giving back to the organization’s broader community.

On a bus parked inside Yosemite National Park, Chemnui sat with her classmates as two Secret Service agents in black suits and sunglasses explained the rules: no hats, no hoods; exit the bus in an orderly fashion.

The students, teacher and chaperones filed out. The group had traveled to Yosemite to take part in NatureBridge’s environmental science program. Now, they murmured to each other with excitement as the Secret Service began their briefing.

“That’s when I got nervous,” says Chemnui, who was a fourth grade student at a nearby public school in San Francisco.

“When they said ‘you’re going to meet the Obamas.’”

As the Armstrong Scholars program looks ahead to the next 50 years, one thing is for certain: the spirit of Joie is being actively kept alive. It is woven into the curriculum and through 20+ years of backcountry experiences. The scholars and the leaders and Leslie evoke Joie in ways big and small, inside and outside of the two-week journey.

Jenn Peach led the 2017 Armstrong Scholars program alongside Daniella Beinstock. When the 13-day excursion began, the high school-age women saw Jenn as mature, but little else beyond that — she was there to lead and instruct. After Jenn and Daniella held the open conversation period around the campfire, the dynamics of the entire group changed. One of the memorable questions they fielded around that campfire in the dark: “How do you have the courage to go do things by yourself?”

“At some point I said that I was the person who gave me permission to do things, and it sparked this fascinating conversation about the ‘permission’ to be certain things as a young woman. It opened everyone’s eyes to each other.”