Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center is an accredited school located in Finland, Minnesota that focuses on K–12 environmental education.[1]
In 1969, Jack Pichotta created a program for students in a high school in Cloquet, Minnesota. The program replaces a week of normal classes and instead teaches about environmental topics. These environmental topics are taught by over 100 environmental specialists. Pichotta joined a group of concerned educators to discuss environmental education in Minnesota.[2] Pichotta and his team decided to use a closed down U.S. Forest Service camp as a school to teach about the environment. The camp, previously named Isabella Job Corps Camp, was renamed Isabella Environmental Learning Center.
In 1974 Pichotta and his team decided that the program would need a new permanent location. Between 1975 and 1985, the program moved to Finland, Minnesota, and eventually evolved into Wolf Ridge, a 3–5 day school.
Wolf Ridge's main campus was built in the Sawtooth Mountains on a precipice overlooking Lake Superior. The campus contains about 2,000 acres of mixed conifer–
Wolf Ridge offers various programs for visitors of all ages, but the school is primarily known for its school-year outdoor education programming, available to K–12 school groups and hosting over 10,000 students every year. Other programs include summer camps, educational offerings for seniors and families, virtual field trips, a teacher institute, and "graduate naturalist"[4] training in Environmental Education through a partnership with Antioch University New England. The first environmental learning center in the United States to receive K–12 accreditation, Wolf Ridge is the largest environmental learning center in the nation.[5]