The Wolf College is a “conservation teaching college” specializing in “earth skills education” which draws from the traditions of natural science, outdoor adventure, wilderness survival, sustainable living, traditional technologies, herbal medicine and wildlife tracking. As students of nature, we’ll step peacefully into modern society with renewed strength from the natural world, equipped to live a healthy life, and striking a healthy balance between modern society and nature as it was originally created.
We attract good role models and support special needs at expeditions, camps, classes, workshops and apprenticeships, as we are serious about nurturing the growth and success of every student. We teach students of all ages to seek their truth, develop self-sufficiency, respect hazards, strive for success, be emotionally sensitive, express art and music, improve physical health, honor their own religion or spirituality, be tolerant of differences between people, and recognize similarities amongst everyone on earth. The physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and social health of students is our top priority, and we are able to achieve these priorities because all our instructors are seasoned teachers. We look forward to your participation in this wonderful experience, sharing new skills and stories with one another.
Wolf Journey Earth Conservation Courses serve as the foundation for our curriculum, guiding students into skills of the neighborhood naturalist, traditional herbalist, wildlife tracker, wilderness survival scout, ancient artisan, honorable hunter, sustainable citizen and environmental educator.
Max Davis Scholarships are available to ensure that no person is turned away from enrollment in any Wolf Camp program due to financial constraints.
History of Wolf Camp and the Wolf College
1991: Chris graduates from the University of Wisconsin where he studied the return of wolves in the Chequamegon National Forest and volunteered as a witness to the return of Indian Treaty Rights in the northern part of the state.
1992: Chris moves to Bellingham and picks up a a series of outdoor educational books and realized all he’d missed while growing up in the north woods of MN/WI and roaming the mountains of Europe during high school and South America in college.
1993: Chris embarks on a wilderness quest to practice his earth skills.
1994: Friends in Bellingham start a tracking club, meeting weekly to practice earth skills, while Chris studies on Lummi Island.
1995: Wilderness Awareness School & Earthwalk Northwest move to Washington State, which accelerates the development of a future Wolf Camp.
1996: Chris embarks on a group wilderness quest, and the idea for Wolf Camp is born. Tracking Club runs first workshop near Bellingham, and Chris leads another on Lummi Island. Parents begin requesting that Chris teach after-school earth skills lessons.
1997: Chris officially founds Wolf Camp in January, runs the first day camp in July, and starts after-school and evening classes. Wolf Camp runs its first custom program, for the Lummi High School.
1998: Chris begins writing the Wolf Journey Earth Conservation Courses. Carol Goulet comes on board as lead instructor for Wolf Camp which runs two full overnight youth camp weeks as well as four full summer day camp weeks. After school classes start filling up.
1999: Chris publishes Wolf Journey Book One – Trail of the Naturalist. Bill Baroch and Nikki van Schyndel come on board during evening classes. Alexandra Bunker attends overnight camps at age 10 and goes on to become our youngest apprentice ever at age 15, then becomes Florida’s youngest public official as part of her successful effort to save critical wetland habitat from development.
2000: Chris writes Wolf Journey Book Two – Trail of the Tracker, and begins accepting correspondence students working through Wolf Journey. Nikki van Schyndel is first participant in the pilot Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship. Bill Baroch teaches camps along with Carol and Chris. A 40 acre property with cabin on Lummi Island becomes home for Wolf Camp. Aldin Huff attends day camp at age 7, and will go on to become our first day-camper-turned- instructor in 2009.
2001: Kate Hedges is first official graduate of the Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship, and goes on to found the first earth skills educational institute in Scotland. Griz Chambers attends camp at age 14, and will go on to be our earliest overnight-camper-turned-instructor in later years. Judy Chiasson attends her first Wolf Camp workshop, and goes on to co-found the WOLF Foundation. Torrey Burke-Weeks attends day camp at age 7, and will go on to become our youngest lead instructor ever.
2002: Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship grows to 4 participants. Camps begin to increase in size upwards of 20 students. WOLF Foundation is co-founded by parent of a beloved Wolf Camp student Max Davis who contracted bacterial menengitis the previous winter, and we rename our scholarship fund in honor of him. Glen MacKay attends Wolf Camp for the first time, and goes on to be our first camp instructor under the age of 21. James Helms attends his first overnight camp at age 9, and will go on to become a camp instructor by 2009, with his younger brothers close in his footsteps, as well as his father Mike later joining the WOLF Foundation.
2003: Graduates of the Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship increase to 6, including Krista Rome. Micah Fay pilots our Traditional Technologies apprenticeship and goes on to live primitively in the western wilderness over the following 2 years. Griz Chambers is first graduate of our Youth Mentoring CIT Program. Lummi Island Heritage Trust secures ownership of the 40 acre camp property, now to be designated as open space. Chris buys property for Wolf Camp on Woods Lake in Snohomish County.
2004: Lorien MacAuley and Scott Fanello, as well as Griz Chambers, complete the Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship. Lorien and Scott pilot our Semester Apprenticeships. Chris buys additional 5 acres with camp house. Morgan Tidd and Patrick Wiley attend Wolf Camp, and will go on to become camp instructors, earth skills specialists, and logistical wizards in later years. Nicco Minutoli attends camp for the first time to become a camp counselor by 2011, and his father becomes WOLF Foundation president.
2005: Morgan Tidd becomes first youth to complete all portions of Wolf Journey Part One – Trail of the Naturalist to certification level. Jason Patterson comes on board the staff, and Chris “Huck” Anderson completes the Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship, then goes on to found Lost & Found Adventures back in his home of Phoenix, AZ. We also pilot our first Recreational Administrative Internship with our first graduate, and Jay Doyon pilots our Sustainable Citizen apprenticeship as our first graduate of that apprenticeship program.
2006: Megan Damofle starts her Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship, and with much prior herbal medicine training, transforms over the next couple years into our lead Herbal Instructor. Lorien, leading our tracking camp this year, comes across a young male cougar who had just died of starvation, and for Chris, it was a sign to transform leadership of Wolf Camp toward into a less individualistic program.
2007: The Ethnobotany Herbal Apprenticeship is piloted, Andrew Twele completes his Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship and goes on to develop our Outdoor Living with Traditional Technologies program. Morgan & Indigo Tidd, Patrick Wiley, James Helms, Charlie Borrowman, Elise Santa Maria, Anna Flies, and others complete our Youth Mentoring CIT Program by this time, with many going on to become instructors.
2008: Chris offers Wolf Journey freely online. After another 5 years of injury-free earth skills programs, Chris sells camp house on 5 acres, and operates primitively on remaining 40 acres around Woods Lake, which he also sells at the end of the summer. Wolf Camp gets home office in Snohomish, and begins offering weekly classes again for the first time since departing Bellingham.
2009: Kim & Chris get married, run camps from Snohomish, and gear up to re-start Wolf Journey classes and weekend workshops throughout the Puget Sound region. Kim & Chris plan to purchase Kim’s grandparent’s old homestead in Puyallup, and begin implementing a permaculture design for the house and property.
2010: Kim & Chris add the name “Wolf College” to reflect growing adult programs, and start Wolf Journey classes in Seattle, Snohomish, Bellingham, Puyallup and Olympia, as well as begin bimonthly weekend workshops. Summer camps grow 50% as we spread out locations out across Western Washington, including camps in conjunction with Wolf Haven, International.
2011: Wolf Journey class locations expand to include Portland-Vancouver, Ellensburg, Silverdale, Bellevue & Sumas. Kim & Chris also co-found Wolf Trackers in response to wildly inconsistent wolf management policies taking place at federal and state levels, with hopes of helping to bring sanity back to the situation. Wolf Journey revisions begin with a name change to the Wolf Journey Earth Conservation Courses, music videos, and artwork by Joanna Colbert.
