Regions of study:
Regions of study that we currently explore- a list that grows and changes as our desire to learn about the natural world takes us to new national and international locations.
Microcosm of Earth: Interpreting Hawaii's Ecological and Cultural Stories
Hawaii's travel-brochure reputation for warm breezes and island charm stands in stark contrast to its recent ecological and cultural history. As part of AEI's semester on the Big Island of Hawaii'i, we begin to interpret its cultural and ecological stories, from the island chain's ancient past to current issues.
Along the way, we examine topics such as (but not limited to): Ancient and contemporary Native Hawaii'ian culture, impacts of European colonization, the unique characteristics of island ecosystems and species (island biogeography), geology and volcanism, benefits and challenges of a tourist economy, ocean ecology and related marine ecosystems, and current movements for social justice and political reform.
Guiding our entire study is the attempt to understand how Hawaii'i can be seen as a microcosm of larger Earth systems, processes, and issues; both culturally and ecologically. While we will undoubtedly be camping on some beautiful beaches and spending time in the water, the Big Island also contains most of the entire earth's ecosystems, which include some cold and rain. This semester is a challenging and focused academic study of powerful ideas and issues.
Exploring Borders: A journey into the land and cultures of the desert Southwest
Our exploration of borders includes internal and external borders; natural, political and metaphoric margins; those constructed in the physical realm and those constructed of the mind. We delve into the reciprocal evolution of land and culture in the sparse and exquisite landscape of the "Desert Southwest," as it is known to those of us from the point of view in the United States.
Our semester may include investigating issues along the geopolitical border between Mexico and the United States. Though security has become quite strict, we may have an opportunity to meet with U.S. border patrol agents and border activists providing differing views on immigration issues, as well as measures taken to prevent the destruction of fragile desert habitat. Meeting with people of this place augments our own perspective; possibilities include: Tohono O'odham teacher, Cathy Ross, who magically produces tortillas as she tells stories of I'itoi under the sacred peak of Baboquivari; Steve Kemble who build straw-bale homes, homesteads, and practices permaculture outside the old copper mining town of Bisbee; or Wendy Glenn, a rancher in Douglas who is very involved in the Malpai Borderlands Group which brings together residents of varied viewpoints to form coalitions. The complexity of cultural systems runs rich in this land: including Native peoples such as the Tohono O'odham (Papago), Dineh (Navajo) and Hopi, in addition to the more recent immigrants of Western European expansion including the Spanish conquistadors, ranchers and cowboys, and Mormons, to name a few.
Beyond our travels in the "civilized" world, we spend a significant portion of the semester in the back country in an assortment of desert environments: following reliable streams to ancient pueblo dwellings, crossing slick-rock into the intricate canyon-lands of southern Utah, and heading up into some of the mountainous regions of the Sonoran. Here we will deepen our relationship with the environment, ourselves and each other by exploring the inner and outer landscape as we continue to fulfill course requirements. The practice of examining borders will persist fundamentally as we explore differences among land designations.
After venturing up on to the Colorado Plateau, possibly spending time on the reservation and Glen Canyon Dam, we end our semester on the shores of the Great Salt Lake in the heart of Mormon country. A trip to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to witness the abundance of shorebirds during spring migration is truly spectacular, having spent months in the dry desert climate, as we finish our semester's responsibilities and transition back into our lives apart.
Desert Southwest Semester
Area Covered: Arizona and Southern Utah Sonoran and Great Basin Deserts
The Southwestern United States is an intriguing region that will captivate your soul and nurture your intellect. While the Southwest deserts can be experienced as harsh and uninviting, we visit incredibly lush desert regions with flowing streams, waterfalls and deep pools. Ecologically unique characteristics abound in the Sonoran and Great Basin deserts and each desert includes specially adapted species and significant geologic features. There is a great richness and mixing of culture and history, and a number of regionally specific environmental issues and concerns. Be prepared to have the desert enchant you and shape your thoughts with both its semi-harsh living conditions and its tender beauty. Come and experience living among cat tracks that are the size of your fist and perhaps be afforded the uncommon meeting with a mountain lion. Coyotes, jackrabbits, javalina, coatimundi, mule deer, saguaro cacti, paloverde, and cottonwood trees all become well-known friends. We spend a significant amount of time traveling spectacular wilderness areas such as the canyon country surrounding the Escalante region. This gives us the opportunity to experience what the Southwest was like in the not so distant past. We also visit some of the larger urban areas to get a sense of how a city such as Phoenix can exist in a region that only receives twelve or less inches of precipitation per year.
Many generations have grown up in the Southwest Desert region not knowing what the ecosystems looked like just one hundred years ago. For instance, the dry river channel that one sees in the city of Tucson looks like most of the other waterways. Few realize that this river, and many others, had water in them all year long not more than 100 years ago. We invite you to figure out where that water might have gone and to look into the possibility of it ever returning. Most of the topsoil is now gone from a significant portion of the grasslands in the Sonoran desert. Join us to figure out where it might have gone and how it may have been prevented. You will learn key concepts to help you understand some of the massive changes to the landscape that have occurred since the time of European settlement and earlier. We explore a sky island in a sea of desert landscape. By simply traveling up in elevation a few thousand feet we experience the curious phenomenon of altitudinal zonation as we travel through the magnificent geological wonders and the unusual diversity of vegetation that exists in the Chiricahua Mountains. You learn how water is transported 330 miles before it arrives in Tucson, what defines a desert, why the Sonoran desert is where it is, defining characteristics and differences of the four North American deserts, what factors help create desert regions, reasons contributing to a 95% decline in desert perennial streams, the differences between a properly functioning and anon-functioning riparian corridor, and the ecological impact of cattle on desert ecosystems. This program investigates ranching and water issues and also explores past and present native cultures such as the Anasazi and Navajo. Immersion in the desert landscape allows for study of desert ecology, migratory bird routes and the rich and vivid geology of the canyons and mesas. Students learn first hand about issues such as the Navajo/Hopi land dispute, the damming of the Colorado River, and land management in the West. A sampling of some of the people we might meet includes: radical environmental leader, grassland scientist, cattle rancher, archaeologist, park ranger, and a Navajo chanter.
Adirondack/Southern Appalachias
This semester focuses on two forest ecosystems in the Eastern United States. The semester begins in the Adirondack mountains of northern New York - a landscape of moose and martin, autumn maples, peat bogs and pitcher plants. In past semesters we have walked clearcuts with logging foresters, dayhiked to the peaks of Mts. Algonquin and Marcy and backpacked along the remote West Canada Lakes. After the break we journey to Appalachians of Eastern Tennessee and North Carolina where experiences may include the Overhill farmstead, medicinal plant lore with a Cherokee herbalist; time with a professional tracker; and an extended hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Both the Adirondacks and the Great Smoky mountains are regions that have endured significant human impact, and yet wildness remains. Does that wildness translate to wilderness? As a learning community, we will engage in this discussion.
Comparative Californias
This new AEI field semester focuses on issues of sustainability, ecology, social justice and cultural diversity within the states of California in Mexico and the United States. This region is incredibly rich and diverse on both cultural and environmental levels. From old-growth redwood forests to suburban community farms of Los Angeles, indigenous communities of Mexico to sub-tropical marine ecology, this semester explores creative solutions to the complex issues of the 21st century in both the states of California and Baja California—two quite different cultural expressions of very similar ecological regions.
The semester begins around the San Francisco Bay Area and the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our studies in this area could include explorations the modern Miwok indigenous community Yosemite Valley, back country hot springs of the high Sierras, and time in the Bay Area to explore organizations working with the intersection between social justice and ecological citizenry. Moving south, we will explore current tensions in immigration rights and restrictions, the activist-centered public art of Tijuana, and marine ecology in Baja California's Bahia de las Angeles.
As an introductory semester for many students to the AEI program, this semester will explore the theme of "Sustaining Communities" while focusing intensely on solution systems to the complex and pressing crises of climate change, water rights, cross-cultural communication and education as a vehicle for social change.
Adirondack and Outer Banks
The first half of the semester is spent almost entirely in Adirondack Park. At six million acres, this unique park is almost three times the size of Yellowstone, and is larger than any other park in the United States outside of Alaska. Adirondack Park is as large as the neighboring state of Vermont. It is a landscape of moose and marten, a place where the brilliant hues of autumn maples overlook peat bogs and pitcher plants. It is also a place where people live, work and play. Unlike the typical park, which we are allowed to visit but not to inhabit, Adirondack Park is a mosaic of wild and settled lands. Our stay in the Adirondacks allows us to study what effect this amazing park has had on the land and the people who live there, and how it might serve as a model for other protected areas. We paddle canoes in the waters of Cranberry Lake, hike the forested trails and learn of village life from the people who live there. We have opportunities to examine current park issues such as commercial wind power, expanding ATV trails, additional wilderness designation and whether wolves should be allowed to come back to the Adirondacks. We talk to locals and people from "away", ordinary citizens and people in positions of power.
We also wander an hour or so north of the park to visit with our friends at Akwesasne, the Mohawk reservation that straddles the United States and Canada border. Our host, Bob Stevenson, is a character in his own right and committed to building an educational center on an island in the St Lawrence, which is where we camp during our stay. Bob brings in an amazing variety of people. There's Lionel the trapper, Zeze the medicine woman, native language singers and a Mohawk elder who has visited nearly every country on Earth in his work for peace. There are tribal chiefs and government chiefs; reformed smugglers and visiting scientists, there are tribal officials who have worked for decades to clean up the water and the air. Every year we meet people that were not part of our Akwesasne visits in the past.
The second half of the semester has us migrating south to the Carolinas. We exchange balsam fir and northern bogs for longleaf pine, maritime forest and coastal sand dunes. Among other places in this region, our travels take us to the Outer Banks, that fragile ribbon of sand that carves a thin line off the coast of North Carolina. An ephemeral strip of shifting sand that is both shaped and surrounded by the sea. The comparison to the solid granite bedrock of the Adirondacks is stark, and in that contrast we may see both places more clearly. Here we sleep on the sand and live with the wind as we immerse ourselves in the ecology of migrating sand dunes and the biota they support. The lines between people and park may seem more delineated as we explore the boundaries of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. People who historically lived here made there living close to the sea and now tourism prevails both inside and out of the park. We visit with local activists who have rallied to stop offshore drilling or the destruction of the last maritime forest. Our interests sometimes lead us to visit the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge where a recently established population of red wolves holds out the hope that wolf howls might once again be part of the night sounds in the Carolinas>.
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest, also known as the Cascadia bioregion, stretches from the Sitka Spruce forests of South Alaska to the Redwood forests of Northern California and inland along the continental divide. Timothy Egan describes the region as "wherever the salmon can get to." This area, the leading edge of the continent, is unique; ecologically with its historically dense temperate rainforests and abundant salmon runs, geologically with the Cascade chain of volcanoes and an active earthquake zone and culturally with vibrant indigenous communities and leading edge politics and sustainability initiatives. Our theme for the semester is "sustaining communities." We engage in an inquiry into what it takes to sustain both human and ecological communities of this region in the age of peak oil. At the same time we practice creating a learning community and exploring the tensions/balance between individuals and the community, and between diversity and union.
Our travels take us to British Columbia's Manning Provincial Park where we backpack through subalpine meadows, and then to the Okanagan First Nations, where we visit the En'Owken Centre, a school of indigenous arts, leadership and science. In Washington State we spend time with the glaciers and alpine meadows of Mt Rainier National Park, the community of Bellingham where we learn about Conservation Biology, the Olympic peninsula including the Makah Nation in Neah Bay and time in the wildlands of the Hoh Rainforest. From there we travel south to Oregon to learn about the mighty Columbia river and issues of hydro-power and salmon hatcheries and then on to Portland to learn about urban sustainability initiatives. After Portland we move through Southern Oregon towards the Redwood forests and coastline of Northern California, meeting with author and cultural critic Derrick Jensen, pro-democracy organizer Paul Cienfuegos, and learn more about the local politics of forest and salmon protection efforts. The semester ends with a short backpack at Point Reyes National Seashore, just north of San Francisco.
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