Conservation Education at the TRM Ranch

Kids and young adults from across North America travel to B&C's TRM Ranch on the East Front of the Rocky Mountains to learn more about wildlife conservation, careers in wildlife, and outdoor skills. This group traveled from South Carolina to experience a wilderness different than they find in their home state.

The future of our wildlife and the habitats that support them depends on choices people make. Research and science are key factors in determining what is possible, and Conservation Education provides the knowledge upon which the right choices can be made. The Boone and Crockett Conservation Education Program strives to offer perspectives that will foster shared use of natural resources, conservation, sustainable development, and stewardship of the land to build a common ground for sustaining healthy ecosystems.

The Conservation Education Program began in 1994 as a research project titled: Conservation Education Curricula for Montana Schools. The project, conducted by Lisa Flowers for the completion of her Master of Science for Teachers of Biological Sciences at The University of Montana, was funded by the Boone and Crockett Club with Dr. Hal Salwasser as the principal investigator. The project focused on developing multi-day teaching units for public schools along the Rocky Mountain Front and used the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch as an outdoor classroom. The original project was successful in developing a foundation for the Boone and Crockett Club's Education Program at the TRM Ranch.

Today, the education program is constructed around a theme of appropriate and shared use of natural resources. It specifically integrates agriculture and wildlife conservation and has an actual model—the TRM Ranch, a working cattle ranch—to base or illustrate the disseminated information. Our efforts differ from others in that we are teaching about the components of the landscape in such a way that people are kept in the picture. The information participants take away will help them better understand the interconnections between the various strands that make up the landscape tapestry. We hope, and believe, that people who take part in our education program come with questions and leave with answers, new questions, and information that helps them discover new ways that can help sustain the land upon which we all depend.

The Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center on the TRM Ranch.  

In 2001, the Boone and Crockett Club completed construction of the Elmer E. Rasmuson Wildlife Conservation Center (RWCC), an education and research facility that serves as a hub for the Boone and Crockett Club’s Wildlife Conservation programs. Elementary and secondary school students and teachers, university students and faculty, natural resource managers, local community groups, and others use this facility in the pursuit of the Boone and Crockett Club’s conservation research, education and demonstration mission. This mission seeks to increase humanities’ awareness and understanding of wildlife and the ecosystems we share and our influences on the natural and cultural resources of these ecosystems. The goal of the program is to apply the results of wildlife related research and demonstration techniques that strive to increase wildlife and land use compatibility.

The education program is conducted in a variety of classroom settings, but the very best classroom is the TRM Ranch and the RWCC. The Ranch has an inherent magic that provides a setting for the evolution and discussion of ideas and realism behind multiple-use, sustainable-use, and shared-use issues. The magic comes alive when individuals visit the ranch to participate in an educational function conducted by the program managers. The magic results from the dynamic combination of many influences—the individuals, the activities, and the physical location of the ranch.

From April to October each year the TRM Ranch and the RWCC is a center of activity with a variety of field trips from area schools, workshops, camps, outdoor classes, and outings, including the following programs:

• Outdoor Adventure Camps

  • Little Critter Day Camp – 3 consecutive 1-day camps for ages 6-9, parents and additional sibling welcome.

  • Outdoor Skills Camp – Targets youth 10-14 or those with lesser amounts of experience in the outdoors.

  • Wildlife Conservation Camp – Targets youth 14-18 and features more advanced conservation skills.

• Hunter Education Courses

  • Hunter Education Workshop – Open to any adult seeking their Montana hunter education license or just looking for an educational field day!

  • NRA Youth Hunter Education Program – A fun-filled, practical competition that builds upon skills learned in basic hunter education courses.

  • Hunting for Sustainability – Offers college students with little to no hunting experience a chance to explore hunting fro top to bottom.

  • First Hunt Foundation – An actual hunting experience on the TRM Ranch for first-time youth hunters.   

• Montana High Adventure Base – A nationally accredited Boy Scouts of America High Adventure Base Camp featuring 5-day and 10-day wilderness trekking and packrafting trips.

MISSION OF THE CONSERVATION EDUCATION PROGRAM:

To increase humanities' awareness and understanding of wildlife and the ecosystems we all share and our influence on the natural and cultural resources of these ecosystems.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSERVATION EDUCATION PROGRAM

To provide students and educators opportunities to build a lasting awareness and understandings for the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components of ecosystems.

To develop conservation education materials that are implemented into rural and urban schools throughout the world.

To offer opportunities to teachers and high school students to work with researchers and natural resource professionals on conservation related projects.

To foster a land ethic in which people are committed to the principle that their use of natural resources must be sustainable both for themselves and future generations.

Scholarship opportunities for these programs are proudly supported by Vortex Optics.