Regions We Explore

Each year the list of regions we explore has grown as our desire to learn about the natural world has taken us to new national and international locations.

 Semester have included:

• Far North Alaska
• Pacific Northwest
• Atlantic Coast
• Comparative Californias
• Hawai'i
• Exploring Borders
• Desert Southwest

• Adirondack/Southern Appalachias

Microcosm of Earth: Interpreting Hawai'i's Ecological and Cultural Stories

Hawai'i'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 Hawai'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 Hawai'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 Hawai'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 conquistadores, 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 backcountry 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, archeologist, 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 clearc! uts 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, backcountry 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.