Women Exploring the Northwoods: an Interactive Experience

June 23-30, 2012

Introduction | Details & Tuition | Schedule | Registration | Course Leaders | Recommended Reading

Chris, her husband, and children now live in the boreal forest of extreme northeastern Minnesota, reliving those wondrous early years on that remote island in Canada and experiencing Earth every day as manifested on a wild border lake. Through it all, Chris remains a staunch defender of wild country, protector of our human heritage of interaction with earth, and facilitator for enabling others to sense their truest roots in the wild places.

Historian Pam Brunfelt      

Pam of Mining Our History is a historian who teaches at Vermilion Community College in Ely. She previously worked as the archivist/historian at the Otter Tail Historical Society in Fergus Falls and as the Executive Director of the Crow Wing County Historical Society in Brainerd. Her research focus has been Minnesota’s Iron Ranges with special emphases on the Cuyuna Iron Range and on political history. Other research emphases are the Great Depression and the impact of the New Deal in Minnesota, and the importance of the Iron Range on the industrialization of the United States. Among her publications is "Minnesota's Communist Mayor: Karl Emil Nygard", Minnesota History, Fall 2002 and "Political Culture in Microcosm: Minnesota's Iron Range" in Perspectives on Minnesota Government and Politics, 6th edition, 2007. She has written book reviews for Minnesota History magazine and the Finnish American Reporter.

She was also the co-lead humanities scholar for Building America: Minnesota’s Iron Range, U.S. Industrialization, and the Creation of a World Power. The seminar was a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of American History project for K-12 teachers from throughout the United States. The program was held on the Iron Range in 2008 and in 2010. The result of the Landmarks seminar was a documentary, Iron Range: Minnesota Building America, which won 2009 regional Emmy for “Best Cultural Documentary.” Brunfelt was one of the scholars who appeared in the film. It was produced by Lisa Blackstone in conjunction with TPT (Twin Cities Public Television), the Minnesota Humanities Center, and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board.

Author Kurt Mead

Kurt Mead, author of the NOBA Award-winning Dragonflies of the North Woods, recently expanded and released a second edition of his book, and is the founder and coordinator of the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project (MOSP). MOSP seeks to expand our knowledge of the ranges of dragonflies and damselflies in Minnesota through the assistance of participating citizen-naturalists. Most recently, Kurt has been working as a naturalist himself, at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center near Finland, Minnesota. He has also worked in a pea canning factory, as a grunt for the MN DNR, as a garbage man, an animal control officer, an urban wildlife trapper, an aquaculturalist, a security guard, an acid rain monitor, a waiter, a delivery driver, an elected township supervisor, a DNR fisheries creel surveyor and, in Sweden - as a log home builder and a carpenter. His scavenging habits lead his wife to believe that he was a turkey vulture in a former life.

Kurt has a BS in Biology and a BFA in art, both from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Kurt has given hundreds of talks and workshops on dragonfly identification and ecology.  Kurt lives in the North Woods near Finland, Minnesota with his wife, Betsy, also a naturalist, and their two lovely daughters, Yarrow and Lily. They recently spent a year living and working in Sweden, just because they could.

Norma Malinowski

Norma Malinowski grew up on a small dairy farm in PA, spending lots of time playing in the woods, creeks, and nearby lake.   She received a BS in Recreation Resource Management from Slippery Rock State College. Norma worked as a Park Ranger, Park Manager, and Outdoor Recreation Planner for the US Army Corps of Engineers for 17 years in OH, KY, VA, and MN, managing and protecting natural resources and providing places for people to spend time outdoors. 

In 1992, Norma moved to Ely, MN where she worked for the Superior National Forest as Assistant District Ranger for Recreation, Wilderness and Trails.  Since retiring in late 2007, she has been spending much of her time in bogs and fens searching for TES plants, birds, and butterflies.  

Journaler Consie Powell

"I love to muck around in nature's lovely untidy places, and I try to convey my fascination with the natural world through my art and writing." Exposure to nature has always been a way of life for Consie Powell. During her childhood in California, Consie snooped ocean tidepools, found desert tortoises and horned lizards in dry canyons, and went camping with her family. Animals and the out-of-doors were her constant companions. During college in Minnesota she got permanently hooked on winter and the critters and habitats of the North. After graduating with a B.A. in Fine Arts, Consie pursued a Master's degree in Elementary Education.

Graduate work steered her not towards teaching, as she had expected, but into the creation of natural science art and stories for young people. Marriage to her biologist husband added constant opportunities to be involved with scientific research firsthand and to continue a rich life centered on the natural world.

Consie has written and illustrated numerous books for children, including Leave Only Ripples: A Canoe Country Sketchbook, winner of the 2006 Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award for Children’s Literature. Consie also illustrates, designs, edits and occasionally writes the North Carolina WILD Notebook, a monthly young readers' nature feature in Wildlife in North Carolina magazine. She has created illustrations for field guides and numerous scientific publications, including books on bears, weasels, and fishers.

After 30 years of living in North Carolina (but escaping to Minnesota for several months every summer), Consie and her husband now live in Ely. She continues her work with the WILD Notebook, is half done with illustrations for a picturebook due out this fall, and has mental files overflowing with ideas for stories and artwork. Consie keeps a nature journal handy wherever she goes, taking written or visual notes (usually both) about the world around her every day.

Dr. Roger A. Powell

Dr. Roger A. Powell, Professor Emeritus, Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, is the author of Natural History of Weasels and Stoats: Ecology, Behavior and Management, Ecology and Behaviour of North American Black Bears: Home Ranges, Habitat and Social Organization, Martens, Sables and Fishers: Biology and Conservation, and The Fisher: Life History, Ecology and Behavior, 2nd edition as well as papers and book chapters too numerous to mention. During the past two decades, his field research has emphasized animals' home ranges and spacing.  He now envisions animals living in a fitness landscape where habitat value at each place is the potential contribution of that place to an animal's fitness.

From 1981 through the early 2000s, his field research was on black bears developing approaches to estimating fitness landscapes. The approach and results can be applied widely and generalized to other forest animals. Beginning in 2009, he conducted multifaceted research aimed at applying these approaches to fishers. 

From Dr. Powell, “as a kid, I would read field guides with a flashlight under the covers after my parents told me to put out the lights. Did that destine me to become a field biologist or was I just a crazy kid?  Since then I have held a frightened fisher by the tail, had a weasel urinate on my head, watched a mother black bear nurse her cubs in their den, and have spent too many hours in front of a computer monitor.  In the end, I still don’t know what I shall be when I grow up.  Shall I be a biologist who builds wood/canvas canoes, does photography, runs, trains dogs and loves to camp, or shall I be a canoe builder who is also a biologist who does photography, runs and trains dogs, or shall I be a photographer who . . .”

Arctic Adventurer Paul Schurke

Adventurer, author and outdoor educator, Paul Schurke is an arctic adventurer and outdoor program leader. Following a degree at St. John's University, he did graduate studies in environmental journalism at the University of Minnesota and worked as a science writer. In 1977 he founded Wilderness Inquiry, a ground-breaking nonprofit adventure agency for disabled persons that has achieved international acclaim. He has since worked with numerous other outdoor programs and founded his own called Wintergreen Expeditions.

His polar career began in 1986 when he co-led with Will Steger the historic International Polar Expedition, which resulted in a National Geographic cover story and television special, a best-selling book, personal commendations from Pres. Ronald Reagan and the Merit Award from the World Center for Exploration.

Paul went on to build a Soviet-American expedition team that trekked from Siberia to Alaska in a mission of "adventure diplomacy" that led to the opening of the U.S.-Soviet border in the Bering Strait and resulted in personal commendations from Pres. George Bush and Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev, a National Geographic television special and a second award-winning book. In 1995 Paul worked with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to help China establish research programs in the polar regions and led the first Chinese team ever to reach the North Pole, a project hailed by Chinese leaders as a "milestone in China's efforts to step out its shell and become a global partner in scientific and environmental issues affecting remote parts of the world. In 1999, Paul led his 5th North Pole trek involving a national education charity and a team of NASA scientists.

In spring 2001 Paul dog sledded with Polar Eskimos through northwestern Greenland to produce a documentary film for National Geographic television. Paul's company, Wintergreen Designs and Dogsled Lodge, was recently selected by Outside Magazine as one of the most most innovative and influential outdoor businesses of the past quarter century.

In 2006 and 2007 he led expeditions across the high Arctic Island of Svalbard and in spring 2009 he led a dogsled expedition up the east coast of Greenland with the Explorers' Club. In the mid '80s, Paul's wife, Susan, designed a Inuit-inspired line of clothing to keep Arctic explorers warm.

Bill Tefft

Bill Tefft is a naturalist and a resident of Ely, Minnesota of over thirty years. If he can help connect people to the landscape, he will work to get them out of doors. This has been his passion in a variety of roles: naturalist at an arboretum, assistant director for a Nature Conservancy Center, ranger guide for the Superior National Forest, mine interpreter at Soudan Underground Mine State Park, college instructor at Vermilion Community College, Elderhostel (Exploritas) instructor, father and grandfather, and radio show host. He welcomes you to northeastern Minnesota.

Chuck Wick, born and raised in Minneapolis, has a BS and MS in Forestry, with graduate work in Ecology. Chuck worked for the US Forest Service for six years. Much of his professional career was spent at Vermillion Community College, in Ely, where he has taught for over 30 years, providing instruction in Environmental Science, Dendrology, and Wildlife Management. He has been married 34 years and has one married daughter who just delivered Chuck's and his wife, Marty's, first grandchild! (much to his delight) Besides Chuck's extensive knowledge of Minnesota's flora, he is an avid fisherman, hunter, and wilderness advocate. 

For those familiar with one of Ely's most famous authors and environmentalists, Sigurd Olson; it is interesting to note that Chuck knew 'Sig' quite well. His father met Mr. Olson in 1929 and the two became life long friends. Chuck met Sig when he was about five years old. When he started his teaching career in 1972, Sigurd Olson lived right next door! During those years, Chuck had the privilege of spending much time with him and they remained friends until Sig's passing. But their strong connection lives on. In 1994, Chuck and his wife, Marty, bought the Sigurd Olson home, where they continue to live today!

Additional course leaders to be listed as schedules are confimred and bios are submitted