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One summer long ago, a student,
fresh from campus life, abandoned
all the concrete trappings of modernity
and walked into the woods. Their hand in
a journal, their eyes in the trees,
they learned lessons from a new type of school
they liked to call WRFI (“wer-fee”).
The student and their classmates asked,
how could a world like this be sustainable,
when narrowing the gap between
exploitation and respect, wild and civilized,
colonized and native feels so unattainable?
They walked across ridgelines
they paddled desert rivers
they read stories of science, policy, and ethical thought;
they lived and worked with locals who
cared for the land, grew food, and made medicine –
showing how reciprocity can’t be bought.
In that way, they learned to see with more than their eyes
and to hear with not only their ears.
A vision for a better world, they realized,
was not a binary choice between two,
but a direction they’d walk through the rest of their years.
Nor was sustainability a lonely path,
trudged in silent isolation.
Instead the project required companions who
would share the load and sing the songs and laugh
until the canyons echoed in celebration.
That was thirty years ago now,
looking back through time’s scope
and every year since, we’ve watched students soar
as they finish their course with a new sense of hope
and set new directions,
to find better futures
in Earth-focused professions.
And now the WRFI community dearly does hope
to continue this work for thirty years more!
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