Part One: Leadership Project Mentoring Part Two: Deep Wilderness Trek Part Three: Leadership Action Project Part Four: Leadership Enrichment Part Five: The Wild Gift Leader Network

The deep wilderness trek is a 20-day backpack trek across one of the wilderness classrooms descibed below and is led by a trained guide and Wild Gift mentor(s). Although prior outdoor experience is not required, the deep wilderness trek is physically and mentally intense. Pre-trek, the recipient will be in contact with the trek guide relative to conditioning and equipment/clothing requirements.

Beyond the rewards of overcoming physical/mental challenges and learning wilderness travel techniques, each class of leaders will use the stunningly beautiful backdrop of the deep wilderness classroom to discuss issues relating to wildness, wildlands stewardship and leadership.  Pre-trek, the Wild Gift Executive Director charges recipients to research and facilitate discussion on several topics.  Inspired by wildness and the group dynamic, Wild Gift recipients use their group as a 'think tank' to achieve consensus on topics presented, refine leadership action contracts and collaboratively decide any trekking route changes. Relationships that may last a lifetime will be forged.

Wild Gift covers all land costs including guide service, lodging, food, and bush plane flights during both the deep wilderness and leadership enrichment treks. Recipients are responsible for securing their own equipment and clothing as advised by the trek guide. They are also responsible for expenses incurred traveling to and from the treks but are eligible for a stipend of up to $700 to reimburse these expenses ($350 for the deep wilderness trek/$350 for the leadership enrichment trek).

Wilderness Classrooms. Wild Gift and its mission are the manifestation of founder Bob Jonas’ belief that deep wilderness areas serve as excellent classrooms for cultivating leadership qualities and building relationships. Born in Alaska, Bob has dedicated the past 40 years of his life to exploring the wild country of Alaska and the American West. He and the Wild Gift Board have selected favorite places, the largest and most remote American wilderness areas, as Wild Gift classrooms. These are places where few, if any, people are encountered during the 20-day period of the Deep Wilderness Experience. Trained guides and mentors lead each trek in one of the following deep wilderness classrooms:

1) The Sawtooth & White Cloud Wilderness (IDAHO)

Located in the heart of Idaho, the spectacular mountains of the Sawtooth and White Cloud ranges encompass over 300 high lakes nestled in steep alpine tarns. Forty peaks are higher than 10,000 feet. Forests of pine and fir are punctured by granite cliffs and fanged towers. The Wild Gift Trek through the ranges is almost entirely off-trail, ascending and descending very rugged terrain. The mountains are the headwaters of the famed Salmon River and part of the 765,000 acre Sawtooth National Recreation Area. The SNRA is home to charismatic large wildlife including wolves, wolverines, black bear, mountain loins, mountain sheep, mountain goats, moose, deer and elk. Located just north of Sun Valley, Idaho, the SNRA is contiguous with the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. The SNRA was established by Congress in 1972 "to assure the preservationand protection of the natural, scenic, historic, pastoral, and fish and wildlife values and to provide for the enhancement of the recreation values of the Sawtooth Valley region. Subdivisions in the Valley have actually been torn down to conserve scenic and wildlife values, making the SNRA one of the few areas in the United States to counter the tide of recreational housing development in a truly graphic way.

Sample presentation topics:
o The new politics of Wilderness Preservation in the US: The Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act
o Rural Economies and Wilderness Preservation
o Motorized and non-motorized recreation management.

2) Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness (IDAHO)

At 2.6 million acres, “the Frank” is the largest designated National Forest wilderness in the continental United States. It encompasses the drainage of the famed Middle Fork of the Salmon River, one of America’s charter Wild and Scenic Rivers. Two other Wild and Scenic Rivers, the Main Salmon and the Selway, also renowned whitewater rivers, traverse the wilderness.  The Frank is an extremely rugged mountain landscape of soaring peaks and plunging river canyons (the Main and Middle Fork canyons are deeper than the Grand Canyon). The Frank and Yellowstone National Park were chosen for wolf reintroduction to the continental United States in 1995. Remnant runs of king salmon still spawn in the Frank’s pristine streams. The seventeen month Wild Gift opportunity concludes in the Frank Church River of No Return wilderness. During a float on the famed Middle Fork, the leaders present their project results to peers, mentors, alumni and Wild Gift Board. Strategies for continued project success are plotted and wilderness issues discussed.

Common Literature:
• Of Wolves and Men by Barry Lopez
• The Middle Fork and the Sheepeater War by Carry & Conley

Sample Presentation topics:
• The challenge of Endangered Species conservation
• Issues of United States Wildfire Management Policy
• Limited entry wilderness recreation management: issues and impacts of non-motorized recreation

3) Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve (ALASKA)

Bordering Canada’s Yukon Territory and the Gulf of Alaska, Wrangell - St. Elias is the largest U.S. National Park, covering an area equivalent to six Yellowstones. It is the biggest unit of four contiguous parks in the Yukon and Alaska that constitute the largest internationally protected wildlands on Earth. Wrangell – St. Elias includes 9 of North America’s 16 highest peaks and the most extensive non-polar icefields in the world. The Park was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations in 1979.

While backpacking, rafting or skiing in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park, young leaders cross mountains, streams, and glaciers that have been visited by few humans. Grizzly and black bears, wolverines, and Dall sheep are likely to be seen along the way.

Wild Gift founder Bob Jonas began exploring Wrangell St. Elias in 1965 while helping a friend construct a homestead in the Wrangell Mountains. His travels in the country include a ski traverse of the icefields from Kluane Lake in the Yukon to Cordova Alaska, descents of the Alsek, Tana, Chitina and Copper Rivers from their headwaters and a circumski and ascent of the giant Mt. Logan massif, centerpiece of this vast wilderness. In addition to his extensive first-hand knowledge, Bob has assembled a support team that includes some of the area’s top guides and legendary bush pilot Paul Claus, co-owner of Ultima Thule Outfitters, the most remote private in-holding in the park.

Common Literature:
• World Heritage Wilderness, Vol. 26(2) Alaska Geographic

Sample presentation topics:
• The values and issues of wildlands preservation to the world community
• Commercial in holding development in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park
• Recreation access management in remote wildlands: How best to preserve the world’s largest designated wilderness for future generations of the global community