About the WSCP

 Who We Are…

The Eppley Institute is Indiana University’s unique outreach program for the park and protected lands management profession, focused on enhancing the quality of natural, cultural, and recreational experiences for all people. The Eppley Institute’s expertise and services include Public Engagement and Outreach, Research, Website Services, Master and Strategic Planning, and Training and Education for park, recreation, community health, and protected area organizations around the world.

The Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center was established August 1993 to preserve the values and benefits of wilderness for present and future generations by connecting federal agency employees and the public with their wilderness heritage through training, information, and education. The staff works with experts within and outside the agencies to develop comprehensive interagency solutions to critical wilderness stewardship issues. Using an interagency team approach, we work across Department and agency boundaries to develop comprehensive, interagency solutions to wilderness stewardship issues that directly meet the needs of the field.

The Society for Wilderness Stewardship is a community of practice whose mission is to promote excellence in wilderness stewardship. The Society is striving to ensure that wilderness professionals have the knowledge, skills and support they need to ensure that the values and benefits of wilderness are understood, treasured, and preserved by all people. In doing this, they utilize their membership to maintain a credible voice and be effective advocates for wilderness. The Society is the only organization working exclusively to advance the professional practice of wilderness stewardship.

Our philosophy for the online curriculum…

The philosophy of the Wilderness Stewardship Certificate Program curriculum includes a focus on the training needs of adult learners, with the important elements of active learning and job relevance. In addition, this curriculum has an educational mission that exceeds the traditional philosophy of training. As wilderness professionals, WSCP graduates will ultimately respond to and plan for resource protection in uncertain, complex, and changing situations. This understanding is reflected in the complexity of the course content and learning objectives.

Students who complete the program will have the following:

• foundational knowledge in wilderness management and policy;
• the ability to apply complex knowledge from many different sources to a specific situation in wilderness settings;
• the ability to recognize management situations and facilitate or lead effective responses for an agency;
• applied skills in identifying complex factors that contribute to “trade-offs” between conflicting needs and constraints in wilderness;
• an overall ability to provide leadership, including interdisciplinary team and work group effectiveness, in varying capacities and roles to effect actions that result in enhanced wilderness stewardship; and
• demonstrated behaviors that make for effective and complete stewardship of wilderness-area resources.

Our learning philosophy suggests that the students enrolled in this program will confront uncertain and intricate situations to which they will apply a wide range of possible explanations and corresponding actions.This framework is best approached from an educational point of view, where uncertainty is anticipated, rather than a training point of view, where specific situations are anticipated and desired actions of employees are specified. Therefore, the philosophical focus of the WSCP is on assessment and application of learning in various ways over a longer period of time, including the application of knowledge, skill, and ability in real-life situations.