Partnerships
Partnerships & Citizen Science Projects at Wolf Ridge
We collaborate with dozens of partnerships around the country to put authentic science research into the hands of children and the curriculum they use every day at Wolf Ridge.
Students Eagerly Acquiring Knowledge (SEAK)
Started In 2009, Wolf Ridge created the SEAK program to address inequitable access to environmental education for students from urban backgrounds.
Our three-year program engages high school students in hands-on experiences throughout each school year and summer which better position them for success in Environmental-Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (E-STEM) subject areas.
SEAK programming includes weekly meetings, field experience, weekend retreats, and three weeks of environmental immersion in the summertime.
SEAK Partners Include:
Midwest Peregrine Society
Since 1987, Wolf Ridge has partnered with the Midwest Peregrine Society (MPS) to reintroduce and monitor the population of Peregrine Falcons along the North Shore.
The Peregrine Falcon population, which used to reside naturally in the Wolf Ridge area, was decimated by DDT use in the 50s and 60s. Since the late 80s, Wolf Ridge Naturalists have partnered in the banding and monitoring of the recovered population, and Wolf Ridge has been a site used to release young chicks into the wild.
Institute for Bird Populations
For nearly 30 years, Wolf Ridge has been monitoring the health of its bird populations as part of the nationwide Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) project run by the Institute for Bird Populations.
The connection of habitat and bird biodiversity at Wolf Ridge is built into teaching tools used for the birds class and other classes such as forest ecology. Each spring we invite the public to help us with bird banding. Watch our calendar for upcoming dates.
UMD Natural Resources Research Institute
Wolf Ridge works collaboratively with UMD’s Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) in breeding bird research in the North Shore Highlands region with our one-mile transect survey plot on Wolf Ridge property. This diverse piece of land provides data on changing bird populations and locations of species, all of which are used in our birds class – the most highly requested ecology class at Wolf Ridge.
Academic Partnerships
Antioch University New England
Our partnership with Antioch provides a graduate-level Certificate of Environmental Education and Sustainability to our cohort of graduate naturalists each school year.
University of Minnesota Duluth & Northland College
We collaborate with UMD and Northland to support undergraduate training programs that create licensed classroom teachers who are also experiential educators and professional naturalists.
Undergraduate Field-based Learning Programs
Wolf Ridge partners with a variety of higher education partners in the provision of undergraduate field-based learning programs and practicums for organic farming and wildlife interpretation. These summer academic internships provide real-world learning with career pathway opportunities.
National Weather Service & Minnesota Office of Climatology
Wolf Ridge is a certified national weather service coop monitoring station with one of the biggest snow data records in the state going back 30+ years.
Wolf Ridge naturalists also check for things like snow depth, cloud type and cover, and precipitation each morning at 7:00 am.
Data collected by our weather station is used in our weather classes.
National Atmospheric Deposition Program & Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Since 1984, Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, in partnership with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, has participated in the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), supplying critical data on air quality and acid rain monitoring, one of just eight monitoring sites in Minnesota to do so.
Each Tuesday, a sample of rain or snow near our Stream Study Building is collected by Wolf Ridge staff to be analyzed.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
We collaborate with the MPCA on a variety of air and water quality environmental monitoring research projects, including ongoing monthly monitoring of Wolf Lake, a unique body of water in the higher elevations of the North Shore.
The water and air data gathered in partnership with the MPCA are used in classes taught at Wolf Ridge such as acid rain, climate change, lake and stream ecology, and weather.