Parent Information

Thank-you for helping your child get ready for their Wolf Ridge trip! We are proud of our tradition of excellent environmental education, including natural and living history, group-building, and personal growth classes and activities. We look forward to meeting your child!

On this page, you will find a bit of background information about Wolf Ridge, how to contact your child during their stay, a sample schedule, letters from a parent, and a list of activities. There is also information about how to return to Wolf Ridge's summer camp, member, and family programs.

The Wolf Ridge Mission

Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center is an accredited residential environmental school for persons of all ages. It offers immersion programs which involve direct observation and participation in outdoor experiences and focus on ecology and science, human culture and history, personal growth, group building and outdoor recreation. The Center's mission is to:

Foster awareness, curiosity and sensitivity to the natural world.
Promote social understanding, respect and cooperation.
Model values, behaviors and technologies which promote a sustainable lifestyle.
Develop a citizenry that has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation and commitment to act together for a quality environment.
Rekindle the concepts of conservation and stewardship.

The Campus

Located on Wolf Ridge's 2000 acres of land are Wolf and Raven Lakes, the Baptism River and Sawmill Creek, Marshall Mountain, wetlands, maple forests and a magnificent view of Lake Superior.

The dormitories at Wolf Ridge sleep 350 persons, with 4-8 persons per room, and are shared by all groups in attendance. The classroom buildings contain seven labs, two climbing walls, two auditoriums, andsix other classrooms. Other buildings include the office, dining hall and energy center, our central wood heating plant. Three remote classrooms, a forest ecology building, a ski chalet, and a stream study building, are located off the ridge.

Daily Schedule

6:30 am Wake up
7:30 am Breakfast
8:30-11:30 am Morning Class
12:00 pm Lunch
1:15-4:15 pm Afternoon Class
5:00 pm Dinner
6:15-7:45 pm Evening Activity
8:15-9:00 pm Naturalist Presentation
9:00-9:30 pm Campfires, astronomy, etc
9:30-6:30 am Quiet time in dorm

Meals

Wolf Ridge's meals are served cafeteria-style in the dining hall. The following are menus for Menus: September 2008, October 2008 (subject to change)

Student Mail at Wolf Ridge

While your child is at Wolf Ridge you may wish to send them mail. Mail is received at the office and given to the school's Wolf Ridge liaison. The liaison will distribute mail at dinner. Address mail to:

Your child
c/o Your child's group
6282 Cranberry Rd
Finland, MN 55603

Stamps and postcards are available for purchase at Wolf Ridge for letters home.

Phone Calls

Courtesy phones are available for outgoing calls only. These phones are available with teacher permission can be used only for outgoing local or calling card calls.

In case of an emergency, and the need to get hold of a participant at Wolf Ridge, you may call (218) 353-7414 or 1-800-523-2733 (MN, WI). From 8 am to 8 pm your call will go directly to the office. After 8 pm follow the voice messaging system to reach our on-site staff. Emergency messages will be delivered as soon as possible. Throughout the day students are away from the buildings and are not directly accessible. Non-emergency messages will be taken and delivered at meal times.

Please do not use the emergency voice mail option to deliver a non-emergency message. Leave a general message and it will be delivered at breakfast.

Downloadable forms

Your school might use these downloadable health and liability forms.

Mn Education Tax Credit information

Daily Schedule

Wolf Ridge Youth and Family Programs

Summer camps are one of the best opportunities for learning kids have. Summer Camp at Wolf Ridge is one of the best around. Each age group has specific activities that only that age-group will do. Our residential camp for ages 9-18 combines the best parts of the Wolf Ridge school program with outdoor recreation and learning activities.

Wolf Ridge offers several week long Summer Family Vacations in addition to a year-ending Winter Family Vacation. Separate adult and children programming in the morning, family groups the rest of the day. We've designed a week combining the best of Wolf Ridge's programs with special events such as a Family Folk Dance, a variety show, sleepover for the older kids and a family campfire. We also offer several hiking, skiing, and nature study weekends.

Wolf Ridge Classes and Activities

Each year over 150 schools bring students to the center for residential environmental education experiences in the outdoors. Wolf Ridge naturalists contribute the majority of instruction. Teachers and parents who accompany the children contribute to instruction and supervision. They emphasize topics in our curriculum framework.

Daytime Classes

Animals
Animal Senses
Animal Signs
Beavers
Birds
Small Mammals
Snowshoe Hares
White-tailed Deer
Wildlife Management

Plants
Forest Ecology
Plant Study
Trees and Keys
Wetlands Ecology

Aquatics
Fisheries Management
Frozen Lake Study
Lake Study
Stream Study

Earth Science
Acid Rain
Geology
Weather Forecasting

Daytime Classes

Human Culture and History
Living Lightly
Ojibwe Heritage
Ojibwe Snowshoe
Seeds of Change
Voyageur Life

Personal Growth
Adventure Ropes Course
Rock Climbing

Team Building
Basic Survival
F.I.R.S.T GAMES

Outdoor Recreation
Beginning Orienteering
Canoeing
Competitive Orienteering
Cross Country Skiing
Superior Snowshoe
Superior View Hike

Evening Activities

Adventure Ropes
Animal Trivia
Astronomy
Block Printing
Campfire
Canoeing
Creature from Wolf Lake
Creative Expressions
Dream Catchers
Lake Superior Game
Night Hike
Owl Pellets
Paper Making
Rock Climbing
Star Lab
Volleyball
Voyageur Canoeing
Woodland Art

Naturalist Presentations

Bats
Bears
Bogs
Critter Tales
Echoes of the
Ancient Skies
Fur Trade
Glaciers
History of the
North Shore
Logging Camp Life
Loons
Moose
Night Sky
Prairies
Raptors
Ravens
Spiders
Wolves

When Greenwood Elementary School arrived for their annual stay at Wolf Ridge, parent David Larson came along. Like many other parent chaperones, David didn’t really have a clear understanding of what he was getting himself into. He had been recruited, took time off from his regular work and agreed to spend 24 hours a day for five days with over a hundred sixth graders that he didn’t know all in the name of good parenting and school support. And like many other parent chapeones, he came away learning as much as the kids. The following are excerpted, with David’s permission, from letters he later wrote to those sixth grade students and to Wolf Ridge.

Dear Wolf Ridge,

I would like to thank your staff for one of the most exhilarating and uplifting experiences in my adult life. Being in the midst of eager minded sixth graders, learning about the natural order of life while at Wolf Ridge, was a powerful combination of forces that I did not foresee when I first volunteered to be a parent chaperone.

The staff at Wolf Ridge are tremendous. I can see your training come through in many ways. You achieve tremendous results with your approach. I forget that children must first learn the basics before we can expect them to try and resolve the many hard environmental issues ahead. We must arrive at workable solutions which address our growing population and its attendant problems. We do have the power to resolve these issues if we can communicate clearly and intelligently.

I cannot tell you the effect that Adventure Ropes and Rock Climbing had on these children. Children need to be allowed to take on risk and to discover that they have tremendous courage within to overcome their fears. Wolf Ridge allows children these experiences in a safe environment. I applaud your creativity in allowing these strengths to be born in kids.

Sincerely,

David Larson

Dear Greenwood Elementary Cougars,

I would like to thank you for making my Wolf Ridge experience a spectacular event in my life. As a parent chaperone, my original intent was to volunteer my time to what I had heard was a worthwhile event. Little did I know that I had it backwards. I thought that I was “giving,” while it ended up that I received far more than I gave. You were the reason for this.

What started out as a disconnected group called “C” became a connected group of intelligent children that worked together and watched out for one another. In order to accomplish activities as you did, it took discipline, teamwork and an extreme amount of courage. You will use these skills for the rest of your lives to become successful and productive adults. I applaud you for the successes you achieved while at Wolf Ridge.

It is your generation that will be in charge of caring for our environment. My generation and those that preceded me have been too focused on “building” our economy while ignoring the environmental costs. We have taken more than we gave at times at the expense of “Mother Nature.” You will do a better job and we now entrust you with the tough but doable task of caring for our earth.

Best regards,

David Larson

Parent Information

Perspectives From A Wolf Ridge Parent Chaperone

Perspectives From A Wolf Ridge
Parent Chaperone