A View from the Ridge by Gary Deason Wolf Ridge Executive Director Wolf Ridge Almanac Fall 2002

What do we want Wolf Ridge to be in 2010? The Wolf Ridge Board and staff have asked this question during the past year. The result is a strategic plan now nearing completion called WOLF RIDGE 2010. Two goals have emerged from the planning process that I want to share with you and ask you to support.

First, Wolf Ridge will work to strengthen its educational impact. We will build on our long tradition of successful programming with upper elementary students by offering more learning opportunities while students are at Wolf Ridge and an entirely new cluster of opportunities after they leave. An interactive website with teacher resources, student pages, and suggestions for local environmental projects is in development. Plans are underway to bring our avian education program into schools in northern Minnesota. In addition, we will continue to work with teachers in local schools to help them with environmental curriculum and projects.

We want to provide more opportunities for elementary students who have experienced Wolf Ridge to return in high school, college, and graduate school, and later as adults. Repeat visits will reinforce environmental awareness, knowledge and commitment, and thereby strengthen the long-term educational impact of our programs.

An exciting idea under discussion is to expand our program of teacher education to provide environmental education instruction to graduate students, student teachers, teachers on leave, and staff from other nature centers. By training teachers to carry environmental education back to their schools and classrooms, Wolf Ridge can multiply significantly the dissemination of environmental education in Minnesota and the upper Midwest.

Second, Wolf Ridge will seek to secure its financial future. We have always been fortunate that strong participation in programs has provided the basic financial support for much of our annual operations. However, Wolf Ridge has very little reserve for emergencies, facilities maintenance, youth and family scholarships, new program initiatives, or staff development and compensation. While we have been able to make ends meet each year, we have not been able to build the short-term reserves or long-term financial strength necessary for an educational institution to survive and even thrive during times of economic downturn.

In addition to strengthening programs, WOLF RIDGE 2010 calls for a concerted effort by the Board and staff to increase Wolf Ridge’s non-program income. This will be accomplished through efforts that support annual operations and operational reserves including new membership initiatives, an annual fund drive, corporate benefactors, and grants supporting operations. It will also be accomplished through development of a standing endowment to provide continuing financial security into the future. Matching grants from foundations, major gifts of cash, stock, or land, and numerous vehicles of planned giving, including charitable lead trusts, remainder trusts or life insurance, will be important means for growing the Wolf Ridge endowment.

The educational and financial goals of WOLF RIDGE 2010 are mutually reinforcing parts of the same vision. Neither is doable without the other. Together they represent the continuation and strengthening of the unique idea for environmental education that gave birth to Wolf Ridge thirty years ago. Over the next several years, as we seek to achieve these goals, I ask you to join with the Wolf Ridge Board of Trustees, Wolf Ridge staff, members and friends to help continue the dream.

Gary Deason has been the Executive Director at Wolf Ridge since July 2000.