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Wolf Camp was voted 1 of 2 Best Camps in the Northwest Family News Reader's Poll of 2001, the only year they ran a poll, and we were also chosen as one of the five "best camps ever" by YM Magazine in its March 2003 issue.
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Wild Healers
Herbal Exploration
2009-10
Scroll Down or Click for Specifics:
Program Dates, Deadlines, Prerequisites;
Benefits & Goals of the Wild Healers Herbalist Exploration;
Skills Covered In This Program;
Program Schedule & Tuition Breakdown;
Program Genesis;
How to Apply for this Program;
Wild Healers Herbal Exploration Dates: September 7th, 2009 - August 15, 2010 with optional extension to October 31, 2010, has the prerequisite of successful completion of any of our summer residential intensives. We have availability for just 4 adults (or teens with parental support) in this program for 2009-10, so reserve your spot by applying right away.
Registration Deadlines: Apply simultaneously for the Wild Healers Herbal Exploration and for any of our summer residential intensives (Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship, Permaculture Pioneer Facilitators Program, Recreational Administrative Internship, or the Youth Mentoring CIT Program for ages 13-17) and the total cost will be $3,000.
If you successfully complete a summer residential intensive, there is no extra fee for the fall-spring Wild Healers Herbal Exploration, except for 10 hrs/wk work trade while living on campus. In addition, if you have already graduated from herbal apprenticeships or earth skills courses in the past, then you will receive a discount on your fees. During fall-spring, there are some travel and food expenses, required health insurance, and optional fees for participation in external herbal training courses or conferences.
You will have greater success with this program if you have experience with as many of the following activities as possible:
Wild Edible Foods & Herbal Studies
Gardening and Farming
Permaculture Design and Earth Skills Courses
Pioneering Skills (like knowing how to chop wood, use tools safely and efficiently, etc.)
Community Living Experiences
Eclectic Spiritual Experiences
Time Outdoors (especially growing up playing in the woods, deserts, or beaches around your home; harvesting fruits and vegetables, fish and animals both domestic and wild, as a youth; plus taking adventures on the mountains, prairies, and waterways of this beautiful earth as a young adult)
Teaching Experience (especially understanding the needs of various ages)
Wilderness Survival; Primitive Craftwork
Music & Artwork; Photography & Recording; Writing & Journaling
Wilderness First Aid, Search & Rescue; Lifeguarding; EMT Training
Overview of Benefits
The Wild Healers Herbal Exploration is open to adults, and to teens with parental support, who have successfully completed one of our summer cooperative residential intensives. The program focuses on participation in four week-long group learning experiences in the fall, eight classes which run 9-5 on Mondays & Tuesdays in the fall and eight classes which run 9-5 on Tuesdays & Fridays in the spring, at least six half-day individual mentoring sessions with your program facilitator, thirty-eight independent study weeks at camp (16 required, 22 optional) plus optional participation in any of the other courses in which space remains available during the autumn through spring.
Note taking (or tape recording) during every class is required, along with weekly blogging. Attendance at herbal gatherings taking place around the country are optional, travel expenses are shared, and tuition for those are at your own expense. Your independent study coursework follows the field exercises in Wolf Journey Parts 1 and 3, plus completion of Rosemary G.'s herbal correspondence course or other similar study program of your choice.
The volunteer work you do over the summer is the reason that you may complimentarily attend any of the courses we offer in the fall and spring for as long as your relationship to the Wolf Camp community remains healthy and happy. Of course whenever living on campus between fall and spring, we all contribute at least 10 hrs/wk work trade, and we cover our own travel and some food expenses, required health insurance, and fees for participation in external courses.
And finally, graduates become eligible to receive some of the highest teaching salaries available anywhere in the outdoor educational field as a Wolf Camp instructor, though hiring is dependent on enrollment and the ongoing development of your skills. In particular, we are looking for a staff herbalist to facilitate the Wild Healers Herbal Exploration (or however that person might like to rename it) starting in 2009. We also hope that this person will add the most beneficial herbal conferences occurring around North America to our calendar so that all Cooperative Intensive participants can consider attending them with us.
Goals of the Herbalist Exploration
The mission of this cooperative residential intensive is for the plant world to become your conduit for health and healing. Whether you simply process herbs for personal and family use, or if you someday open an herbal dispensary or healing practice, we hope that caretaking wild herbs and cultivating garden plants will become a lifestyle for all graduates.
At its core, this program offers you space to become an herbalist through experience. Self-directed cultivation of gardens and hands-on caretaking of wild-land flora will be supplemented by class lectures and our library resources. And in the end, we hope that your development of a personal medicine wheel of health, guided by permaculture principles, the values of earth skills, and your own spiritual study, we hope that each participant becomes a person to whom anyone could turn for advice in the healing arts.
To us, being an herbalist means being the person in a community to whom everyone can come for guidance as well as healing. To heal means preventing ailments, so an herbalist must know what tonics should be included in community meals. And to treat ailments, an herbalist must know how to deal with crises, build fire to heat water and lift spirits, then apply herbs and other remedies to cure a situation. The herbalist also makes sure that the community is caretaking its land in the most sustainable way possible, and s/he maintains a vision of peace for community action.
To realize these ideals, you will need to begin to practice an herbalist's lifestyle, based on the rhythms of your micro-climate and bio-region, as well as on the rhythms of the individuals around you. You will help develop a wall-size community calendar to document the best times to cultivate and harvest, while also developing your own personal medicine wheel of health. You will also help us expand our farm and forest gardens as we walk this land with attitude of caretakers.
The core elements of your program include Wolf Journey field exercises which guide you to become an herbalist in a broad sense of the word, while the classes with Linda Quintana (tentative depending on dates) and other herbalists show you a vision for where your skills could bring you. Plus, the week-long camps with Chris, Carol and Nikki (see staff page) are designed to push your skills to the next level. Most everyone agrees in retrospect that these camp experiences become the richest in every participant's memory, and the most difficult to convey in words, so we won't try to explain it now. They simply have to be experienced to understand.
We will also use resources by Susun Weed, Tom Elpel, Pojar & McKinnon, Paul S. Auerbach, Hillary Stewart, Tom Brown, Michael Moore, various Permaculture authors and the Peterson's Field Guide series among many other sources as our references. You will graduate from the program once you have completed a minimum required amount of coursework which is part of the above activities.
No matter your previous experience, you will be expected to fully participate in every possible training opportunity to push your skills to a higher level of excellence, although your own health will be the priority. The goal is to always develop ourselves into better and healthier herbalists.
Herbalist Skills Learned
Health & Organizational Strategies (western lineal and medicine wheel use for self, lessons, projects)
Medicinal Herb Collection & Preservation (drawing from knowledge of area herbalists)
Preventative Health & Herbal Spas (from daily health routines, to our special spa treatments)
Organic & Biodynamic Gardening
Farm Animal Care & Cultivation
Wild Edible Foraging & Preparation (Herbs, Nuts, Roots, Flowers, Fruits, Insects)
Natural Cooking & Food Storage (pit cook, clay oven, ash cakes, smoking, jerkying, pemmican)
Various Basketry Projects (one of our specialties), woodwork, and other pioneer crafts.
Natural Selection Forestry (chopping and chainsawing, wood splitting and moving)
Land Mapping & Water Navigation (orienteering with and without modern aids)
Pioneer Style Shelters, plus Emergency Shelter & Primitive Shelter.
Clay Harvesting, Molding & Firing. Canoeing, Sailing and Kayaking. Parfleching (carrying cases, drum making).
Bent cedar boxes and other important bioregional crafts.
Additional Earth Skills Learned:
Nature Sketching & Journaling.
Wet Fire Maintenance & Fire by Friction
Natural Water Purification (seeps, filters, rock boiling, and locating natural springs)
Bowls & Cordage Making (double and triple reverse wrap using nettle, fireweed, cedar, kelp seaweed)
Backpacking & Camping
Wildlife Tracking & Bird Language.
Bioregional Ecosystems (old growth temperate rainforest, glaciated alpine meadow, intertidal and estuary, river and lake, wetland and bog, desert and sagebrush steppe, mixed pine and subalpine forest)
Music and the Arts (flute making, drumming, songwriting, poetry, clay sculpting, natural paints, singing and pianos/guitars on hand)
Influences of Nature on Spirituality (buddhist, christian, hindi, indigenous, jewish, muslim) including opportunities of retreats and quests, sweat lodges and fasts
Management & Educational Skills:
Emergency Rescue, Advanced First Aid, CPR (wilderness and water settings) Most effective ways to treat age group (3-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-15, 16-18, 19-21, young adults, parents, elders)
Most effective methods to use with each age group (didactic/wolf, questioning/coyote, imagining/fox, imitation/dog)
Delivery of age appropriate stories (personal, european, african, persian, chinese, other eastern, indigenous)
Risk Management (assessing sites, planning activities, mitigating hazards)
Incorporating Earth Skills & Starting New Schools (examples of non-profits, partnerships, sole ventures, and communities)
Political Environmentalism (left and right wing strategies, legislative and artistic strategies)
Schedule (see one of the summer cooperative intensives pages for your schedule from June-August which must be completed before embarking on the Wild Healers Herbal Exploration schedule)
Take a look at our Calendar for a visual perspective, and click on Training Camp Weeks for descriptions of initial courses. International Students: The INS just added some extra hurdles, so please inquire as to the latest status on obtaining a visa for study with us.
Your summer volunteer work during our youth camp season, though the best education in its own right, also results in the following benefits:
The schedule for the fall-spring Wild Healers Herbal Exploration runs from September 7th, 2009 - August 15, 2010 with optional extension to October 31, 2010. Our program is designed for you to arrive at Wolf Camp in May or June to do some work trade, receive intensive training during the summer camp season in order to cultivate our new vegetable and herb gardens, then add a greenhouse and do wildcrafting through the fall, winter and spring, plus help guide new up-and-coming herbalists during your second summer with us. In reality, you are welcome to extend your Herbal Exploration to last as long as you wish, staying until it is manifest, for as long as your relationship with the Wolf Camp community remains healthy and happy.
Again, there is no fee required for the following schedule as long as you successfully completed one of the summer cooperative residential intensives, and you continue to contribute 10 hrs/wk work trade in exchange for living at camp. Travel and some food expenses, along with your health insurance and care, are your own responsibility, as are fees for optional participation in external herbal training courses which we may attend together, including some of those found on following links: TBA
Monday, Sept 7: Wolf Journey Reflections, Wilderness Medicine & Mushrooms required class.
Tuesday, Sept 8: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, Sept 9: Preparing for the Stone Age - Processing Plants & Animals, Shelter Building and Trapping optional class if space remains available.
Thursday, Sept 10: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, Sept 11: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
Sept 12-19: You can choose to study Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, or travel with us to the Rabbitstick primitive skills rendezvous at your own expense.
Sunday, September 20: You can complimentarily attend our International Day of Peace & Equinox Bonfire, Medicine Lodge & Feast for alumni.
Sept 21-28: Study the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, and schedule a half day mentoring session with your program facilitator.
Monday, Sept 29: Wolf Journey Reflections, Wilderness Medicine & Mushrooms required class.
Tuesday, Sept 30: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, Oct 1: Preparing for the Stone Age - Processing Plants & Animals, Shelter Building and Trapping optional class if space remains available.
Thursday, Oct 2: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, Oct 3: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
October 3-12: You can choose to study Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, or travel to the Falling Leaves Rendezvous with us at your own expense.
October 13-17 You can complimentarily attend the following alumni group project at your own travel expense: Hunting & Harvesting the Dry Side.
October 17-19 You can travel to the Okanogan Family Barter Faire or the International Tracking Symposium with us at your own expense.
Monday, Oct 20: Wolf Journey Reflections, Wilderness Medicine & Mushrooms required class.
Tuesday, Oct 21: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, Oct 22: Preparing for the Stone Age - Processing Plants & Animals, Shelter Building and Trapping optional class if space remains available.
Thursday, Oct 23: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, Oct 24: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
October 25-26 You can complimentarily attend our 12th Annual Harvest Party for alumni, friends and family.
Oct 27 - Nov 2: Study the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, and schedule a half day mentoring session with your program facilitator.
Nov 3-7: Complimentarily attend the following alumni group project: Pioneer & Primitive Living Experiences.
Nov 10-14: Study the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, and schedule a half day mentoring session with your program facilitator.
Nov 17 - Dec 19: Optional independent study weeks to further manifest your case study and continue with the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade when living on campus.
Saturday, Dec 20: You can complimentarily participate in our Solstice Sweat for alumni.
Dec 21 - Jan 7: Optional complimentary campus living to participate in our holiday dreaming project.
January 8-11: You can participate in our alumni envisioning retreat in exchange for 5 hours of work trade.
January 12 - March 5: Optional independent study weeks to further manifest your case study and continue with the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade when living on campus, and/or attend optional earth skills and permaculture gatherings at your own expense to further your education.
March 6-8: Cooperative Intensives Reorientation, with tentative trip to the Mountain Man Rendezvous here in Monroe at your own expense.
Monday, March 9: Wolf Journey Reflections and the Hidden Wilderness is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
Tuesday, March 10: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, March 11: Wilderness Medicine and Grand Projects of the Stone Age recommended class if space remains available.
Thursday, March 12: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, March 13: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design required class.
March 16-20: In exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, participate in the following optional events: Group meeting and mentoring on Monday; St. Patrick's Day party on Tuesday; rebuilding the medicine lodge on Wednesday, equinox sweat on Thursday and equinox wandering day on Friday.
March 23-27: Study the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, and schedule a half day mentoring session with your program facilitator.
Monday, March 30: Wolf Journey Reflections and the Hidden Wilderness is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
Tuesday, March 31: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, April 1: Wilderness Medicine and Grand Projects of the Stone Age recommended class if space remains available.
Thursday, April 2: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, April 3: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design required class.
April 4-12: Optional independent study week to further manifest your case study and continue with the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade when living on campus.
April 13-19: Optional week to further manifest your case study and continue with the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, and/or attend the Rivercane earth skills rendezvous at your own expense.
Monday, April 20: Wolf Journey Reflections and the Hidden Wilderness is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
Tuesday, April 21: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, April 22: Wilderness Medicine and Grand Projects of the Stone Age recommended class if space remains available.
Thursday, April 23: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, April 24: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design required class.
April 25 - May 3: Study the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, and schedule a half day mentoring session with your program facilitator.
Monday, May 4: Wolf Journey Reflections and the Hidden Wilderness is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
Tuesday, May 5: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, May 6: Wilderness Medicine and Grand Projects of the Stone Age recommended class if space remains available.
Thursday, May 7: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, May 8: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design required class.
May 9-18: Optional week to further manifest your case study and continue with the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade
May 16-18: Recommended travel with us to the Native Shores Rendezvous at your own expense.
May 18-25: Study the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade, and schedule a half day mentoring session with your program facilitator sometime mon-fri.
Tuesday, May 26: Herbal Gardening and Seashore Wildcrafting core class of the Wild Healers program.
Wednesday, May 27: Wilderness Medicine and Grand Projects of the Stone Age recommended class if space remains available.
Thursday, May 28: Search & Rescue plus Tracking the Pines, Alpines, Dunes & Canyonlands optional class if space remains available.
Friday, May 29: Farming, Forestry & Appropriate Technology Design required class.
Monday, June 1: Wolf Journey Reflections and the Hidden Wilderness is highly recommended for Wild Healers participants, if space remains available.
June 2-12: Optional independent study weeks to further manifest your case study and continue with the Wolf Journey Field Exercises and continue Herb Caretaking Projects in exchange for 10 hrs/wk work trade when living on campus, or attend the MAPS Meet earth skills rendezvous at your own expense.
June 13 - July 11: Continued manifestation of your herbal caretaking projects and help orient new Wild Healers applicants arriving at camp.
July 12 - August 15: Help guide youth attending Living with Primitive Food, Fire & Shelter camp; enjoy a week on the sailboat as part of Herbal Medicine and the Seaside Spa; help guide youth attending Natural Artists & Musicians camp; guide participants attendingthe Ultimate Herbalist: Wisdom of the Alpine; and help guide participants attending the Permaculture Activist - Pioneering the Future.
Aug 16 - Nov 7: Optional continuance of your herbal caretaking projects to bring it full circle, harvest the fruits of your labor, and celebrate the success of your experience.
History of the Wild Healers Herbalist Exploration:
2007 was the pilot year for the Wild Healers Herbalist Exploration, and we ran the program from March 1st - July 1st, with one full-time and two part-time students, plus two staff members who participated in Linda Quintana's every-other-week classes on her herb farm near Bellingham. The classes were wonderful beyond description, as anyone who has experienced Linda will tell you. For us, it is her expertise, kind hospitality, and authentic background which most astounds us. From being raised on an original homestead hours from Fairbanks, Alaska, to sensitively co-creating her family, home and herb farm carved from scratch out of the northwest rainforest, to opening an herbal dispensary in downtown Bellingham where everyone runs as soon as we get sick, Linda's experience cannot be topped in our view.
It is an honor to help Linda in her gardens. Linda wildcrafts with the wisdom of a caretaker, brings her herbs directly to her store named Wonderland Teas & Herbs, 1305 Railroad Ave. in Bellingham, WA, phone 360-733-0517, dispenses them at incredibly fair prices, and counsels all who enter with decades of experience. Mostly, it is an absolute joy being around Linda, and every moment is a lovely learning experience, now matter if we are helping her clean her storage room, picking weeds, or processing herbs for the store.
We also enjoyed every-other-week classes with seaweed-god Ryan Drum on the beautiful shores of Puget Sound. With the foundation Ryan laid for us, we'll will be taking over the seashore classes with support from Nikki, who spent two years subsisting off the shores of the northwest coast as part of her primitive living experience. Nikki's book on the experience is currently being reviewed by a publisher, but you can read this Written Message from Nikki to get a sense of the unprecedented work she did in the field, for which additional words just can't do her justice. Suffice it to say that the backcountry healing she did without hope of getting to a doctor (just like back in the day), basketry, and other crafts which you will learn from her, are of museum quality. Perhaps we'll get some photos to add to the site here which can demonstrate what we're talking about.
Click Here if you would like to listed to an Audo Recorded Greeting from Nikki for which you may need the free RealOne Player if it's not already installed in your system, and there is also an Audio Recorded Camp Greeting from Chris for you to listen to if you like as well.
I decided that due to the advanced (self-motivated) nature of the Wild Healers Herbal Exploration, I would require participants to graduate from one of our summer residential intensives to see if applicants are ready for the program. First off, I really want to make sure we honor the time Linda is providing us at her home and farm by bringing the very best of students to her. And second, I want to make sure that the projects which Wild Healers participants start, such as herb garden cultivation and wildcrafting on our beautiful land, are brought full circle throughout the year's seasons in order to honor the spirits of land, waters, plants and critters. Summer residential intensive graduates have all become my friends, meaning that we mutually depend on one another, just as I know that future Wild Healers participants will also become friends who honor their commitment to this environment. Together, we will enjoy the fruits of the Herbal Exploration for as long as it remains our priority for health, happiness and community. - Chris
Application Process for the Wild Healers Herbalist Exploration
Of all our cooperative intensives, this program is the most selective due to the maximum 4 participants which Linda Quintana accepts into her gardens at one time. To apply, first call Chris Chisholm at 360-799-1997 or 360-319-6892, and send him a short initial email with your full name, address, phone numbers, and specific interest. When you are ready to apply, begin by choosing one of the following summer residential intensives, and follow the application directions found at these links:
Earth Skills Teaching Apprenticeship
Permaculture Pioneer Facilitators Program
Recreational Administrative Internship
Youth Mentoring CIT Program
In addition to the application directions required for the above summer residential intensives, answer the following questions, and your answers will be forwarded to Linda for her review:
: Make a list of previous relevant herbal studies in the academic sense, including trainings at other schools.
Mention where you might have experienced herbs in the past on a personal level, whether due to an effect on your own healing, exposure as a child or adult which had an impression on you, etc. Also include your favorite herbs if you have some, without getting too off-tangent and lengthy.
Note if and when you have experienced gardening with herbs. Please give as much detail as possible without getting too lengthy.
Explain why you would like to study herbs, and where would you like to take your studies in the future. Mention the herbs you are most interested in studying, and where you feel you might use your knowledge, succinctly if possible.
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