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More at allworthfinancial.com As an educator and a conservationist, I recognize that the problems that we face are enormous, and that as one individual person, there's not much I can do except to influence other people, who will influence other people, who will influence other people.

And that ripple effect moving out from one central point can cover the whole pond.

[MUSIC] In the wild and rugged backcountry of southwestern New Mexico, there is an extraordinary expanse of wild land, the Gila National Forest and the surrounding landscapes.

The Gila encompasses the world's first designated wilderness area and includes more untamed land than any other national forest in the southwest.

It is pure and grand and a testament to those that fought to protect it.

It's no wonder, then, that the Gila remains home to coyotes, black bears, Mexican gray wolves and the elusive shadow cat commonly referred to as puma.

Much of the area, like the animals that thrive here, is untamed and uniquely protected.

Here, there's an extraordinary field school with the aim of producing conservation leaders of the future through an immersive program that teaches the science of modern biology and the practical skills the graduates will need in order to function as conservationists in the real world.

The school is taught by wildlife professionals, including its founder, Dr. Travis Perry, of Furman University.

When I was in my early twenties, I was passionate about conservation and biology and I took a field course studying bald eagles.

And I realized at that point that my passion was for teaching about the environment.

Dr. Perry was born into a working class family in the rural American South and worked part time as a blacksmith, to put himself through school.

After completing his doctorate, he began his teaching career and founded the Wild Semester, an immersive program spent in the wilds of South Africa and New Mexico.

He continues to mold the next generation of wildlife leadership.

The way as a blacksmith, he molds steel.

[MUSIC] On the Wild Semester, the classroom plays an important role in the students’ education.

But it's not the place to teach students an appreciation for the awesome splendor of nature or the perfect symmetry of a mountain lion.

To do that, you have to bring the student to the wild.

The Wild Semester is taught in and around the Aldo Leopold wilderness of New Mexico.

One of the instructors is Megan Pitman-Perry.

Megan is a graduate of the first Wild Semester, a wildlife biologist, and an adjunct professor at Furman University.

She has a passion for educating people about wildlife and wild places.

At some point on the Wild Semester, I realized that I wanted to be a wildlife biologist and probably to go into academia.

But I didn't want to have the traditional academic setting of in a classroom.

What I wanted to do was to teach these field courses.

I remember the first time I got to do a mountain lion capture.

Now I'm the one that gets to show students that.

And I'm getting to create that spark in students that I had.

And that's why I love it.

The students will stay in Hermosa, a long forgotten ghost town on the edge of the Gila National Forest.

Hermosa sits on the banks of the South Palomas River and grew up and out of cattle and mining camps.

For the first few years, the town flourished, hosting a hotel, a mercantile, a post office, and even a literary society.

I was doing a bat biodiversity survey here in the Gila National Forest, and I came around the corner and I saw the ghost town of Hermosa, and I saw all the buildings laid out and the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in the background.

I said to myself, “There's going to be my field school.” Hermosa serves as an ideal location for a field school.

The area has astonishing biodiversity, with nearly all the species that were present when Coronado explored the southwest.

And at more than a mile above sea level and almost 2 hours from the nearest town, the isolation, rugged terrain and limited contact with the outside world make it perfect for student immersion in conservation, as well as a deeper connection with the natural world.

The students that come on the Wild Semester are, they're adventurous students.

The students will experience a sharp contrast, leaving the beautiful campus of Furman University in South Carolina, and arriving in the rugged New Mexico outback.

They're choosing to be away from home, to be away from family, to go to an unknown place and experience new things.

I think that takes a tremendous amount of fortitude and an adventurous spirit.

It makes them really fun people to work with.

So this is a female bear, maybe four or five year old.

Something Dr. Perry always says is that his goal is to teach them more during this semester than they've ever learned before during a similar time period.

One, take the measurements.

You want from the gum line to the tip of the tooth.

So the experiential component of being at Hermosa cannot be overstated.

Typically, you know, you take a class and it's a compact, discreet thing.

And when you're at Hermosa, it's your life.

When students come in to Hermosa, there's no way that Dr. Perry and Master Pitman can actually give them a solid impression of what they're about to experience.

You can't imagine what this place is until you're actually here and living it in real time in the moment.

[MUSIC] Before the semester can begin, Dr. Perry and the teaching assistants must bring in the supplies for the staff and students to live and work for four months And making the decision to cross the Palomas with those supplies had better be the right one.

The New Mexico summer was wetter than usual.

Rainfall can be rapid and concentrated in the narrow, rocky canyons.

Trickles become rivulets and rivulets become streams that in turn join rivers.

And in minutes the rivers are swollen and become too dangerous to cross.

Icy water has swollen the Palomas between the supply truck and the school.

Dr. Perry needs to determine if it's safe to cross.

And as with everything in his life, he wades right in.

We can get over that.

The crossing is unlikely to be dangerous in the sense of being washed away.

But the danger of getting stuck is real.

And being stuck in the wild is different, and the ramifications are much more significant.

There’s no one to immediately help you.

And what help there is, is miles and hours away.

With the truck safely across the river, the semester can finally begin.

[Dog barking] Every day is filled to the top for the Wild Semester students.

KP hits the kitchen at 5:30.

First class is at 7:30.

Lunch is at noon.

They have lab after lunch and dinner at six.

Most evenings, there's an educational component after dinner.

The students learn to care for themselves and each other, taking turns, cooking and cleaning and organized crews.

The days are long and hard, for both the students and their supervisors.

This is a challenge.

Yeah.

Yet there is joy, and wonder, and an eagerness that doesn't seem to fade.

See him doing his head?

When I see that spark ignite in a student, when I see their curiosity inflamed and satisfied, by learning something new about how the natural world works.

It's a very, very powerful feeling of connectedness and feeling of positivity.

And I would say even a feeling of progress.

You know you're moving forward.

The Wild Semester is an opportunity for professional and personal growth.

Before you can save the world, you have to learn how to take care of yourself and your mates.

To that end, the students learn wilderness first aid.

They also receive crosscut sawyer certification since wilderness conservation often means clearing your own trail.

During their semester, they learn how to identify plants and animals and how to design remote camera grids to monitor wildlife populations on the landscape.

They'll learn about unique biomes from the Sonoran Desert to the Rocky Mountains, by exploring them with boots on the ground.

They also get to be a part of long term scientific efforts, such as the Furman Cougar Project.

This project has studied the ecology of mountain lions and their numbers and movement on the landscape for the last 16 years.

The Wild Semester focuses on skills that will enable students to practice conservation in the field, as teachers, researchers, and wildlife managers.

[MUSIC] Before you work with puma and bear, you need to learn to work with smaller animals.

One of the students’ labs is museum specimen preparation.

Biologists and naturalists have been collecting museum specimens for hundreds of years.

These specimens provide physical documentation of biodiversity and enable us to see how that biodiversity changes through time.

Arguably, the most famous museum specimens are the Darwin Finches.

The adaptations observed in these birds helped Darwin solidify his idea of natural selection.

Even today, specimens prepared this way help scientists study and understand evolutionary adaptations in animals.

Science is integrated into the students’ everyday lives every day.

[MUSIC] Tonight, around the campfire, the students begin pitching their independent research project ideas for the semester.

Once approved by Dr. Perry, they conduct their research projects right here at the school.

And while the students plan for their semester, Dr. Perry has to plan for the future of the school.

[MUSIC] Hermosa is part of a larger swath of land owned by a family with a tremendous conservation ethic.

But as with all things seasons change and the future of the Wild Semester program and Dr. Perry's access to the property is uncertain.

It's most likely that the property will change hands in the near future, and it's unknown as to whether or not Dr. Perry will continue to have access to it.

[MUSIC] This has been the centerpiece of my career objective.

We've produced now all almost 100 alumni from the Wild Semester program, I think, to tremendous success.

And I think to lose the program would be tragic.

It is unclear to me how this program can function without access to this location.

And it is hard for me to imagine or envision a more ideal setting or location for the program than what we currently have.

So the short answer is I don't know what the future holds for this program.

[MUSIC] Dr. Jenn Summers is a typical Wild Semester alumni.

While she spent many years working in the field and loved it, she felt like her best contribution would be to help inform policymakers.

I am a program officer at the National Academy of Sciences Gulf Research Program.

We were created after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the subsequent settlement.

And the intention is to improve safety and resilience, including for human and natural communities in the Gulf of Mexico.

In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 crewmen and causing the largest marine spill in history.

It's estimated that over 800,000 birds were killed and that as many as 206 million gallons of oil poured into the Gulf.

The damage to the local environment and economy was massive, as tourism and the fishing industry were severely impacted.

I moved into the policy aspect because it felt like a very tangible way that I could take what I knew and what I learned and try to turn it into action, try to influence people using evidence.

That was my motivation to get involved in policy at the National Academies.

You know, when I think about my time in New Orleans and the hope that I have that we're improving the future for that incredible city and the entire region, and that pairs with that conservation ethic that I got out of Hermosa where promoting science and scientific pursuits and conservation and conservation ethic, something I really care about.

Jenn is just one of many wild semester graduates making a real world difference.

[MUSIC] A common theme surrounding wildlife biologists is an acceptance and embrace of hardship.

This theme is constantly on display at Hermosa.

The staff and the students have to deal with a lack of control over just about everything except for their own actions.

There's a resourcefulness that grows out of these challenges, and it ties the students together.

Tricia Rossetti is a graduate of the Wild Semester and a wildlife guide.

Over the years, she's returned to work as a teaching assistant for the Wild Semester.

Seeing students surprise at just the funniest little things.

“Oh, we have an oven.” Yes, we have an oven.

We can actually make meals for 18 people without having to cook over the campfire every night.

That's great.

And then, the oven doesn't work when the power goes out.

Turns out we are cooking over the fire for a few nights.

So, seeing those little moments of surprise, and then as the time goes on, the students really embrace those sorts of things and they react to it almost as seasoned veterans of the unexpected.

And you know that when they go home, when something happens, it will be like, “Oh, this?

I deal with this all the time.

You should see how it goes at Hermosa.” Always know where you're pointing.

Today, Tricia is teaching the class about animal immobilization, an essential skill in fitting GPS collars on wildlife for conservation research.

Not many years ago, Tricia was here learning how to dart for the first time.

Many of these students will likely go on to work as members of capture teams.

And one day, like Tricia, some will find themselves responsible for leading a capture of their own.

[MUSIC] I remember the first time that I approached a sleeping animal that I had just seen be awake and moving around in the trap and to go up to that animal and have to trust a drug is actually holding it in that sedated state.

Because if that animal wakes up, you know, it's bigger and more powerful than you are.

That's a trust exercise.

And it's trust in yourself, trust in the system, trust in what you've been trained.

And to pull volunteers into that for me has been really neat.

One of the best ways to save wild places is to expose people to them.

As an advocate for the environment, Tricia has made it her life's work to bring people into special places and educate them about the natural world.

Everything that I learn, I like to see others also get to see and see the light come alive in their eyes.

[MUSIC] As much as we're fascinated by wildlife, it doesn't always mean we manage our resources well.

From the colonial period until the late 1800s, Americans’ interactions with nature was characterized by uncontrolled exploitation, eliminating millions of acres of forest, drastically reducing wildlife populations, and even driving some species to extinction.

In the Gila, mining and ranching, as practiced in the 1800s, left abandoned mines, tailings and overgrazed lands.

There was little regard for the future of the environment based upon a pervasive sense that natural resources were limitless.

But as we know, those resources are not everlasting.

Aldo Leopold came to New Mexico in the early 1900s.

He spent years wandering the mesas, mountains and valleys of the west.

One afternoon he spotted several wolves crossing a river.

Without hesitation, he unleashed the fury of his weapon.

His bullets sink their teeth deep into the flesh of the animals.

These were by no means the first wolves he had killed.

But one lived in Leopold's imagination forever.

He would later write “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.

I realized then and have known ever since that there was something new to me in those eyes.

Something known only to her and to the mountain.” Leopold had believed that a world without wolves would be a hunter's paradise.

What he discovered is that the extermination of one species from a landscape simply creates a broken and unbalanced ecosystem.

He likened the deer and elk in these newly wolf-less regions as the pruning shears of God.

These landscapes were quickly overgrazed, which destroyed or drove out other species that depended on that environment.

Leopold experienced a profound change in his view of the natural world and discovered a deep and powerful connection to the wild.

In turn, he became one of America's greatest conservationists.

Now, over 100 years later, the wilderness that bears his name will serve as a classroom for conservation leaders of the future.

[MUSIC] Today the students start the big hike.

Dawn finds them with backpacks ready to go.

Even BobbiSue has her backpack and can't wait to get started.

For the next six days, the students and their supervisors will backpack into the Aldo Leopold Wilderness.

The planned round trip distance will be close to 30 miles, with nearly 4000 feet of elevation gain.

The big hike is an opportunity for the students to see a variety of species, including deer, black bear, elk and many other types of animals.

In this rough and rugged country, people and even horses are severely challenged.

But the mule is perfectly adapted to the steep, rocky slopes.

Almost unique among academic programs, the Wild Semester teaches students the safe and ethical use of pack stock in wilderness areas.

While some supplies will be brought in with mules, the students are still carrying about 40 pounds on their backs.

In addition to their camping gear, the students carry crosscut saws and safety equipment.

Temperatures have increased over recent decades, resulting in historic drought events in spring and summer.

Conversely, heavier rains in fall and winter generate more underbrush, which results in more fire fuel production.

This combination of extremes results and more wildfires.

On the big hike, the students are constantly reminded of this, as they must avoid or clear dead trees.

For some, this will be their first time camping.

For most, it will be their first real wilderness experience of their lives.

[MUSIC] But the hike isn’t just an immersive trip into the mountains.

It's a class that aims to teach the students many of the practical skills they'll need if they want to conduct science in wild lands.

If you're going to do meaningful research on the ground, there's a set of practical skills that you have to have in order to produce a tangible product.

How to use a map and compass.

So orienteering.

How and where to put your tent.

How to pack mules... ...and ferry equipment into the wilderness.

We'll teach them a unique combination of the academic and the practical to train tomorrow's wildlife professionals.

[MUSIC] Back at Hermosa, Travis’s access to the property, and the fate of the school have become more clear, and more worrisome.

The landowner has decided to sell the property, and they've given Travis and Megan one year to raise the money to buy it.

Otherwise, it will be sold to someone else.

It is hard for me to imagine the Wild Semester working at another location.

I think either the program would be changed fundamentally or that would be the end of the Wild Semester.

And it just it would no longer be taught.

How would that make you feel?

That would make me feel like the crowning achievement of my career had met an untimely death.

[MUSIC] I have a special connection to this place.

And it was, it honestly, it's it really is heartbreaking to think that we wouldn't be able to use this place.

But then other students and just other people wouldn't be able to experience this place.

So we've always been a little worried that it would no longer be available.

Travis always says that, you know, well, if it’s not, then we'll just find another place, you know, we'll make another plan.

But, uh, that's hard.

[MUSIC] Unless Travis and Megan can raise the money to purchase the property, this will be the last year the Wild Semester will be held at Hermosa.

While the future of the school may be in limbo, its graduates are in the real world, making real world change.

Jesse Woodsmith is a conservation biologist and a 2011 Wild Semester graduate.

She's director of conservation and stewardship at Southern Conservation Trust, where she guides individuals through the conservation easement process for wildlife corridors.

The Wild School programs provided the foundation for my professional training as a wildlife biologist and my introduction to landscapes and our role in them.

They sparked my interest in working across disciplines to achieve conservation goals and motivated my career in protecting special places for the benefit of future generations.

The Gila and Aldo Leopold wildernesses represent enormous areas of contiguous wild land.

It's the size and unfragmented nature of these areas that's partly responsible for the biodiversity seen here.

In areas where habitats have become fragmented, once large populations of plants and animals become lots of small and isolated populations.

In these habitat islands, potential mates are likely to be genetically related, leading to higher rates of inbreeding, making new generations more vulnerable to genetic anomalies.

When land can't be spared from development or changes in land use, what we can try to do is connect habitat islands.

People are getting creative with how to do this by involving professionals from fields like engineering and transportation to do so.

A recent successful approach has been the creation of wildlife overpasses or tunnels to act as bridges across major interstates where road mortality is high.

These corridors facilitate movement and mixing of populations that were once impeded by manmade creations.

Nowhere are corridors more needed than Southern California.

What began as a grassroots conservation movement to save wildlife became a revolution in public attitudes toward the natural world.

Arguably, that change was catalyzed by one photo of a mountain, lion P22.

While P22 was lucky enough to establish a home range near Griffith Park, he was also alone and isolated from other pumas, with virtually no opportunity for breeding.

That photo sent ripples across California and the world and contributed to a successful conservation movement to save the pumas and other species that were being locked into smaller and smaller habitat islands.

In an effort to save puma and many other species, a consortium of private citizens banded together to pay for a wildlife corridor.

This corridor will cross over ten lanes of the 101 freeway, allowing animals to move freely between previously fragmented wild areas.

P22 will never see the benefit of this bridge.

The future generations of puma, deer, bear, and many other species will for decades to come.

[MUSIC] Let it take a photo.

One of the students’ labs is to set and monitor remote cameras.

The students will learn how this research tool can be applied to a variety of ecology and conservation questions.

Trail cameras are used to assess animal diversity relatively quickly, even in large areas, and with a high degree of confidence.

By regularly reviewing their trail cameras over the course of the semester, the students learn which species are present, how various species use the landscape, and see changes in species abundance and diversity over time.

Equipped with infrared imagers, the trap cams allow the researchers to see wildlife quite clearly, even on the darkest moonless nights.

Cameras also introduce surprises of their own.

GPS data from a collared puma led Travis and Megan to an elk the puma had killed.

Trap cameras placed at the site revealed something fascinating.

A golden eagle feeding on the elk while simultaneously fending off an interloping coyote.

Without the camera, we might have assumed the coyotes would always win such encounters.

It's unusual to see two different species in a photo together.

But researchers have discovered that spotted skunks and gray foxes frequently appear together.

Scientists now believe that we are witnessing a previously unknown hunting partnership.

Trail cameras are non-intrusive windows into the lives of wildlife.

The students documented a vast assortment of animals, but one of them caught something truly extraordinary on her camera.

One of the rarest animals in the Americas still roams the Gila.

The Mexican Gray Wolf.

These wolves are a subspecies of their Timberwolf cousins, weighing about two thirds as much.

Similar in color to coyotes, but much different in behavior in that wolves are very social and prefer living in packs.

They're beautiful, intelligent and, inquisitive animals.

Driven to extinction in the wild, the population was saved by zoos and other facilities that allowed captive breeding of the animals.

Dr. John Oakleaf is the senior wolf scientist for U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service and has been an avid outdoorsman since he was a child.

Much like their northern cousins, there was persecution that caused Mexican Gray wolves to go extinct by the ‘90s.

Fortunately, in the ‘80s, the Fish and Wildlife Service had commissioned a trapper, a trapper by the name of Roy McBride, to go down to Mexico and capture some of the last remnant Mexican wolves.

And he was successful and managed to capture, oh, five wolves at the time.

And so that was the start of the captive breeding program for Mexican Wolf.

If we didn't have that captive breeding program and the success of our our partners, zoos across the United States and Mexico, Mexican wolves would be extinct today.

The subspecies would be gone.

A key factor behind their extinction was predator control programs.

These programs were designed to eliminate any animal that appeared to interfere with agricultural economic growth.

From wolves, grizzlies, and coyotes, to the humble prairie dog.

Agents engaged in trapping and poisoning of wildlife.

Today, remnants of the past could still be unearthed.

They're now defunct due to the ravages of time.

This trap was left ready to snare an unsuspecting coyote, puma, or wolf.

Gila behind me, and in Arizona, further to the west, there's about 200 Mexican wolves out in the wild.

There's over 300 in captivity, and there's about 40 in Mexico.

And it's a great conservation success story.

Thanks to conservation visionaries, the howl of the Mexican Gray wolf can still be heard.

[WOLF HOWLS] Everyone here at Hermosa is doing science.

Students design their own field research activities, complete them, and perform scientific analysis.

Travis, Megan, and Trisha continue their research for the Furman cougar project.

Santana Tosi is a Wild Semester alum and has been invited back to participate as a teacher's assistant.

In addition to working at the school, she's conducting a research project of her own.

I'm currently working on a project looking at the different interactions between mountain lions and coyotes in different habitat areas.

And I've picked a camera grid that sets up with 16 cameras against areas of high topography and areas of low topography to see how those interactions change in these different areas.

To check these cameras, she must go deep into the field.

[MUSIC] You may want to turn around.

The biggest benefit of being out in the field is just how hands on it is and how you get thrown a new task every day.

The task may be overall, go out and set a camera.

But the new task could be, “Wow, I just learned how to change a tire, because the tire popped.” Or, the site we set up and we thought we were going to go to, turns out we can't go there anymore because it started flooding in the area.

And it's the quick on the spot thinking that you learn that is just one of the biggest advantages of coming out and doing research in the field.

Once the cameras are installed, Santana must return regularly to check for images and to refresh the batteries.

Here she walks on all fours, doing what researchers call the “lion walk.” It's designed to test that the camera will detect the study animal.

For Santana, this experience, even with its hardships, is an opportunity to learn new practical backcountry skills, become more self-reliant, and pursue her own scientific endeavors.

As Santana was packing up her kit, the crew came across something interesting.

What is it?

What are we doing?

If you couldn't tell, the crew was mildly excited.

I am so glad I didn't step on any of that.

And we're looking at what is a juvenile mountain lion track.

We have some scat right here.

And right next to it, off of the scat is another track that's pretty petite compared to this one.

So I don't think it came from the same cat.

This is definitely a carnivore scat due to the fact that you can see a lot of the hair and fur from the organism it ate.

Puma are ambush predators and stealth is essential to their lifeway.

The Gila’s narrow, steep, rocky canyons and cliffs allow the animals to surprise their prey.

The same terrain discourages humans, who are their main threat.

Because the puma survives by not being seen, simple observation and counting methods that work for other species like deer and elk, and even bears, do not work for puma at all.

They're too stealthy and secretive.

Even though nothing has appeared on this camera.

Santana knows there are puma active in the area.

[MUSIC] Megan is a master trapper, with dozens of safe captures and releases to her credit.

Based off of Santana's observations, they decide to set a trap in the area to collar a puma for study.

But first, they have another animal to catch and release.

That’s bigger than I thought.

Look at its head.

A Western Diamondback has decided to warm up in the classroom, but will get to spend the afternoon outside lazing in the sun.

Experiential takes on a whole new meaning during the wild semester.

I didn't realize that being a wildlife biologist was an actual job that I could do until I went on the Wild Semester and met a lot of wildlife biologists working in the field and saw that they had real jobs and they were real people and what they did, working outside, working with animals, following animals, seemed very interesting to me.

It was one of those moments where I kind of thought, “Wow!

People get paid to go outside and try and find out where animals are, what they're doing, how many there are?” That was a pretty, pretty, important moment for me.

Before Megan builds the trap, she checks the area to make sure no collared pumas are nearby, to avoid recapturing an already collared animal.

The collars transmit GPS information to satellites, but they also produce a beeping tone on VHF that Megan can track using a portable receiver and antenna.

GPS collars may look awkward.

They're a vital tool for conservation.

They allow scientists to say with certainty how animals use the landscape.

Without them, biologists cannot manage habitat to keep the populations healthy.

Over the next few months, these collars will transmit information that tell scientists how the secretive animal lives, where they go, what areas they avoid, and even where they're killing prey animals.

This map indicates areas of little predation in purple and predation hotspots in red.

Collecting this data from 22 collared puma took many years of patience and hard work by researchers on the Furman Cougar project.

But its value to scientists and consevation managers is immeasurable.

The selected site of the trap is in a river valley that had been overgrazed in years gone by.

But thanks to the owner's restoration, it's now unspoiled, beautiful and serene.

In this remote and semi-inaccessible world, the Gila makes a secure home for wildlife.

Building a trap is an art and a craft.

Megan has spent years honing her skills and perfecting her traps.

Today she's sharing some of that knowledge with the teacher assistants.

It's like they're anchored to the ground, which is a really safe anchor point for the animals.

The trap is monitored by a camera that shares images via email so that the team is immediately alerted and dispatched to process and release a captured animal.

Three sets will be open in the area for one week, which encompasses the only chance the students have to capture and collar a puma.

The window is short, but hopes are high.

In 2008, in the spring... [MUSIC] This week of the semester, Dr. Perry, staff, and the students camp near the trap site on the outskirts of Hillsboro, New Mexico.

They monitored the remote cameras.

As evening falls, it finds the students pitching their tents along a creek among giant cottonwood trees.

After dinner, there's time for a game.

Times like this are important for student morale, bonding, and human connection.

Four months is a long time to be away from their families, especially after coming out of the COVID shutdown.

They had been pretty much stuck at home for quite a while before coming.

And so it was a really big change coming on the Wild Semester.

Not just a study away program, but going from not being used to be around people to being around 17 people pretty much all day, every day.

COVID 19 created the largest disruption of education systems in history and isolated young people in a way that’s never been seen before.

Like most, the Wild Semester students adapted to the COVID 19 pandemic the best they could.

As biological scientists, they're keenly aware that it wasn't the first pandemic the world has faced, and it certainly won't be the last.

100 years before the Wild Semester, students faced COVID 19, the town of Hillsboro faced the Spanish flu.

In 1918, the pandemic struck the community and struck hard.

Influenza killed many people, especially children, At the Hillsboro Cemetery, the children killed in the pandemic have their own row.

Due to COVID 19, the students will spend another month in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness, unlike previous cohorts, which were able to travel to South Africa.

Dr. Dan Parker teaches African ecology on the Wild Semester.

This year, he's a Fulbright scholar, visiting the United States, including New Mexico.

I've been involved in the Wild semester pretty much since it started.

But my role has been really from a South African perspective.

So the Wild Semester students will spend the 12 weeks or so over in in New Mexico.

And then we'll fly out to South Africa, where we end up spending roughly about three weeks together experiencing the different biomes, the different animals.

The students will gain a new perspective in South Africa as they're immersed in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth.

Roughly 20,000 species of plants, over 6700 species of animals, and nearly 10% of all bird species in the world are found in South Africa.

We had a group of Wild Semester students come out.

And we were really fortunate, because one of our colleagues had to replace collars on two young sub-adult lions.

We were really fortunate in that the national park's veterinarian came out and the students were allowed to participate in this capture.

What was really, really cool was to see these students who had never in their lives seen an African lion that close and to see how really large and potentially dangerous those sorts of animals can be.

And the sheer excitement of these students being able to experience such a wonderful animal up close and personal.

[MUSIC] Back at the campsite, Travis, Megan, and the students enjoy the fire and continue to monitor the remote cameras.

The skies here in the Gila are extraordinarily clear and dark.

Tonight, Ursa Major, Gray Bear, is clearly visible.

And in the darkness, another bear is on the prowl.

At 5:00 a.m. the following morning, Travis receives multiple alerts that a bear has stumbled into the set and must now be released.

While this is different than the puma they'd hoped to capture, information on the bear is biologically useful, and the educational component cannot be overstated.

It's not unusual for bears end up in traps intended for puma, even though they're built to discourage them.

The students will participate in real world biological science as they process the animal.

Yeah, drop students at bear, but go close that now.

Okay, cool.

Megan and a few of the students will get out in front of the capture team and close the other two sites.

Capturing one apex predator presents a learning opportunity.

Capturing two at the same time would create a logistical challenge.

It's important to reach the bear quickly, immobilize it, and remove it from the trap.

In all of this, the well-being of the animal is second only to the well-being of the students.

The team knows that this is an American Black Bear, but less than 100 years ago, Grizzly bears still roamed New Mexico.

In 1927 New Mexico added the Grizzly to the list of protected big game.

But it was too late.

The numbers were too small to sustain a viable population.

The last recorded Grizzly in New Mexico was killed in 1931, not far from Hermosa.

The team arrives and operates as quietly as possible so as not to upset the bear.

The bear will be somewhere about here, like 90 degrees to where we are right now.

Please to be quiet.

But basically these vehicle noises are already going to be upsetting enough to the bear.

Before anyone else can access the animal, Travis must check on it.

He will assess the size and temperament of the bear before determining the amount of drugs to be administered.

I’m guesstimating this bears between two and three hundred pounds.

It's the moment the students have been waiting for.

Dr. Perry walks them through preparation for a safe capture, data collection, and release.

So one of the first things I want to check is that the dart is functioning properly.

They learn about the dosages of medication needed for the species and size of animal.

Dosage chart.

This is for bear and puma.

You got the bear spray?

Yes.

Travis and Megan approach the bear cautiously.

Even though they have years of experience and dozens of captures under their belts, one mistake could prove costly.

Get close with the bear spray.

He’s pretty excited.

Okay, we gotta back up now.

With the drug administered, the clock is now running.

On the single dose contained in the dart, they'll have about 45 minutes to process and release the animal.

If the work goes beyond 45 minutes, a supplemental dose will need to be administered.

We caught a bear.

And it was a life- experience for these students.

The bear is, it's a little more active than we would want it to be.

Right.

And we got to take them through all the practical aspects of working with large carnivores.

They got to see firsthand how concern and management for the animal welfare was implemented.

They got to see the use of immobilization drugs for the capture in practice.

They literally got hands on experience with collecting data from a wild bear.

It put us over the moon with respect to life experience and engaged learning opportunities for students going into conservation.

She's an exceptionally healthy 220 pound Black bear.

In a few months she'll hibernate for the winter.

For the students, it's been the experience of a lifetime.

They've done something new and challenging that required discipline and focus, and the burgeoning maturity that would otherwise not have been cultivated.

They're justifiably proud and amazed.

That feeling of amazement never leaves those who dedicate their lives to working in the natural world.

Several years ago, Tricia caught, tagged, and released a small female bear While reviewing camera video, she saw that same bear in the same river valley, healthy and strong.

To be here along this creek where I worked five years ago and managed to catch this female who was traveling with her cub, and then to see recent game camera footage of her showing up, still wandering the same stream corridor years later, looking just as healthy as she did before.

It's a really magical moment to know that that animal is still on this landscape operating the same way that she did and that the animals around her are still doing the same thing.

And that we're just a piece of that puzzle of the greater landscape and knowing that we can introduce other people to that, I think is a fantastic experience.

Back at Hermosa, the festive season has arrived and while the students have enjoyed the term and the excitement of work in the wild, they're also aware that the semester is coming to a close.

For Travis, the question remains.

Will this be the last Wild Semester?

What started off as just another school term for the students has turned into an unforgettable life experience.

[MUSIC] One student has taken her Wild Semester experience to the far side of the world.

Kaya is conducting research on a game reserve in South Africa on a tick borne illness called Theileria, which is affecting African wild game, as well as the cattle of subsistence farmers.

Her research is designed to help understand the seasonal occurrence of tick species, how climate and habitat affect tick distribution and abundance, and determine which species of tick carry the disease.

Dr. Perry also starts collecting ticks.

So you seem to be doing your own tick sampling over here.

87.

Part of the job.

Kaya will collect as many tick specimens as possible.

These, along with environmental data during the collection period, will be analyzed to help understand the spread of the sickness.

Kaya has worked hard and collected a lot of data.

A lot of ticks Excellent.

Thanks.

Kaya is already making an impact on the world.

The Wild Semester graduates have moved on to the next stages of their careers.

Spending a semester in this remote and difficult location has prepared them academically and practically to confront the conservation challenges facing our world.

Similar to the conservation visionaries from the turn of the last century, the students know that these problems can and must be solved.

It took 363 of the 365 days Travis and Megan had been given to raise the money for Hermosa.

But they finally did it Thanks to countless volunteer hours and hundreds of private donors, the school will continue to educate those who will fight to protect the natural world.

When I saw Hermosa 20 years ago, my ambition was to be able to teach courses here and that I could leave as a legacy for environmental education to change people's hearts and minds, to provide them with the tools to practice conservation moving forward.

To throw the pebble into the still water and see those ripples come out long after I'm gone.

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