Interview With
Peter Smerud
Wolf Ridge opened in 1971 as the Environmental Learning Center. In 1980, the ELC as we had become known, was the first such program and facility in the nation to be accredited as an outdoor school. The first ten years of programming was focused primarily upon K-12 student groups. In 1984, we started our summer camp program. It was a small program that grew year by year. At the core of our mission is environmental learning and that was, and continues to be the focus of all our camp programs. In 1988, our organization moved its operations from a leased facility in Isabella, MN to a gorgeous new campus, overlooking Lake Superior, in Finland, MN. We are the largest such facility between the two coasts, now a 400 bed facility, with three lodges, multiple classroom buildings, a 330 seat Dining Hall, on a 2000 acre campus that has 18 miles of trails, two high ropes courses, climbing walls, native heritage sites, a working organic farm, and a 68 acre Lake Superior shoreline field station. We are located about 70 miles northeast of Duluth, MN, atop a ridge overlooking the North Shore of Lake Superior.
Our facility offers a welcoming atmosphere, resembling a mix of classic summer camp and a college campus extension. Here, we prioritize the development of an outdoor ethic and environmental understanding for our campers.
The mid 90s saw tremendous growth in our summer camp programs for youth and intergenerational programs for families and grandparents with their grandchildren. We now offer many different in-camp programs for ages from Kindergarten through high school. Wilderness trips for high school youth and families takes the learning “into the backcountry”. All of our courses are taught by trained educators, our naturalists, whether on our campus or on trail in a wilderness adventure.
Our mission is To develop a citizenry that has the knowledge, skills, motivation, and commitment to work together for a quality environment. Our philosophy is based in outdoor hands-on learning that is facilitated by professional educators, in authentic settings. We have developed the Wolf Ridge Spiral Learning Model of experiential learning. Our campers are immersed in fun, but challenging outdoor experiences, then reflection is facilitated by trained educators who help the campers think abstractly about what has been learned and how it connects to their lives and actions. Following those steps, a new question or desire for knowledge is imagined, and the process repeats, the learning increasing with each cycle as the spiral continues upward toward understanding.
We are guided by our values for learning and innovation, collaborative community, and creation of a playful and welcoming environment that empowers our kids and adults with a can-do attitude for environmental stewardship.
Camp at Wolf Ridge occurs at the intersection where pure and simple fun in the outdoors is met with inspiration and learning. With a 2000 acre wilderness-like setting, kids and families can explore alpine-like lakes, experience 30 miles of 360 degree views looking over the largest freshwater lake in the world, search for birds or mammal tracks in the Northwoods, create art from nature, or build self-esteem atop a ropes course or climbing wall. At Wolf Ridge, the great outdoors becomes our classroom – a setting of magnificence and inspiration! While thousands visit Wolf Ridge every year, the hundreds of participants in our camp program are primarily youth that, one might say, are learning to grow up outdoors.
For parents or grandparents, camp at Wolf Ridge is a unique opportunity and an experience where one generation is passing outdoor, adventure, and environmental values to the next.
Wolf Ridge, in the summertime, has a staff of approximately 80 staff, just over half are permanent and employed year round, whereas the summer of 2024 will see 36 summer camp staff employed. Year round staff include professional educators, maintenance staff, custodians, food service, organic farm, office and administrative staff.
Summer camp Naturalists, our instructors, are routinely recruited from our graduate student program. They are bachelor degreed educators who have completed a year of Masters coursework and training at Wolf Ridge. Additional education staff are recruited from universities, nature centers, and other environmental education professions. Camp counselors are often adults who have come up through Wolf Ridge’s camp program. They are routinely undergraduate college students majoring in Environmental Studies, Education, or a variety of other areas. One of the joys of learning at Wolf Ridge is having your child, or your family, learn from inspiring and well-educated role models.
I want to ask the parents, or grandparents who are listening, to close your eyes, and think back to your childhood. What are your fondest memories? Where did they occur and with whom? I suspect many of you have images of playing outside that rush to the front of your mind, perhaps with a grandparent or group of friends. You may likely have played outside all day, not coming inside until dark. Whatever the memory, now ask yourself, can your child, in today’s society, create the same memories? Childhood has sadly become an act that has been turned indoors. Wolf Ridge camp is a safe place where children can explore and learn together, safely guided by trained outdoor educators and camp counselors. Our society is in the midst of a social recession. Our future generations are in danger of losing their connection. At Wolf Ridge camp we unplug children and reconnect them to nature, and create a community of caring individuals who will work together to reconcile that relationship between human and natural systems.
Most of our camps are one week from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon, just over $700 for most one week programs. Some wilderness trips are one week, while others are two weeks. Day camp provides opportunities for our youngest campers, even kindergarteners to engage in outdoor learning experiences with us. Day camp is the lowest price, at $315, while wilderness trips are the highest price. The range is from $315-$1842 depending on the camp program.
We are once again offering school year weekends for youth and family programs. Those programs are commonly on long holiday weekends and of course are lower cost.
Enrollment opens online at our web site, just after Thanksgiving. Every camp program is open for enrollment until filled, up to the week prior to the session. Our programs, particularly at peak season, have high demand and parents should make plans as soon as they can.
All of our camp programs are online and enrollment is always available via our website, at wolf-ridge.org. If questions arise, you can contact by phone at 800-523-2733, or via email at mail@wolf-ridge.org.
Located north of the Minneapolis and St. Paul metro area, Wolf Ridge has been a destination for over 50 years, welcoming more than 750,000 children on school field trips. Our renowned school program serves schools from across Minnesota, as well as portions of Wisconsin and North Dakota, making us a familiar name among parents. We’ve seamlessly blended the joy and excitement of summer camp in the Northwoods with the enriching outdoor experiences of our school program. This unique combination awaits every child at Wolf Ridge this summer.
Transportation options exist where bussing from the Twin Cities is an option that can be purchased for an additional fee.
Wolf Ridge is a professional institution of learning with up to date facilities that operates every week of the year, serving more than 12,000 in overnight programs each year. Our summer camp serves 50-100 kids each week. It’s not a rustic summer camp. When people arrive for the first time they are impressed by the fact it looks and feels much like the juncture of a classic summer camp merged with a college extension campus. Gone are the days of open stud wall rustic bunkhouse-like accommodations, we have completely finished dorms with welcoming common spaces for students to meet with their peers, chaperones, and naturalists. The MAC Lodge, home to our family camp program, is certified at the highest international standard for sustainability, full certification of the Living Building Challenge.
Children who we see do best at Wolf Ridge camp are outdoorsy, into science, care about the environment and often come from families that share these values and a passion for environmental sustainability. But, at the heart, they just love to be outdoors. If this is your family, and your child, imagine the power of them finding their peers, building lifelong friendships and memories with like-minded kids that share that passion. One might say many of our kids are often nature nerds, and I use that as a term of endearment and experiences at Wolf Ridge enables them to find their community of peers. It is often a very empowering and transformative experience for a child.
Our programs are built to move children, year by year, through a classic environmental awareness to action continuum. Our overnight programs start in the middle of their elementary school, often at 9 years old, where we focus upon discovery and awareness. We build within them a sense of wonder for nature and the outdoors. As they return year by year, through adolescence they grow to higher levels of understanding and value clarification. By high school, youth in our programs may be traveling, learning, and becoming inspired by some of the most beautiful wilderness areas of our planet. This progression, year by year facilitated by educators, is a continuum where awareness, knowledge, and understanding lead to a culmination of caring and a call to action for the environment. We know from decades of serving thousands of children every year, this also often leads to deeply impassioned career goals. Youth from our summer camps are now in positions of leadership in environmental and science careers, as geologists, wildlife biologists, climate scientists and researchers, environmental policy advocates and attorneys, and of course, naturalists, school teachers, college professors, and environmental education leaders across the globe. Alumni from Wolf Ridge programs have created the first such learning centers in South America, in Europe, and Southeast Asia. They lead nature centers, nature preschools, and centers like Wolf Ridge. They are the future environmental leaders of our nation.
