The fish so integral to Pacific Northwest life for millennia is our starting point for a grand (and delicious) journey upriver along the Columbia and its various tributaries. The central theme of this trip is the impact of a changing climate on the First Foods of the interior Northwest, as well as the resilience of the tribal and rural communities that live close to the land here. Visiting artists, land advocates, and knowledge-keepers will speak to the importance of the intact ecosystems and undammed rivers that allow salmon to thrive, and the threats to those waters from energy development and extractive industries. We will gather and taste many of the same foods that helped Northwest peoples thrive since long before European conquest and settlement.
Our seventh-annual Summer Immersion trip is a series of backpacking excursions, linked by travel and site visits in-between. Our group will be together the entire time, feasting on a suite of readings that illuminate the cultural and natural history of the region, and responding through shared discussion and experimental art and writing projects, on site in the backcountry. Braided together with this regionally-specific study will be an inquiry into the cultural construction of wilderness, in which we interrogate our nation’s founding myths and trace that trajectory through today’s environmental movement. Add on instruction in safe and responsible backcountry living, river swims and feasting and, of course, lots of games, and our group will have a very full month together. This course involves moderately challenging backpacking and day-hiking, but we teach everything from the ground up. It is appropriate for anyone in good physical condition, whether you are a seasoned backpacker or a first-timer. Students have the option of taking the course for undergraduate or graduate credit through one of our academic partners.
Participants: Matthew Bacher, Kaleb Bass, Sophie Henry, Sarah Mills, Brittany Rudolf, Lindsay Schoeneman, Cassidy Schoenfelder, Rebecca Sexton, Abi Joyce Shaw.
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