WISCONSIN—While the USDA Forest Service is well known for planting trees, this time the Eastern Region’s Urban Connections program is planting seeds of confidence through over-water experiences in “floating classrooms” with nonprofit partner Wilderness Inquiry.

Wilderness Inquiry programs provide a continuum of outdoor experiences — from backyard to backcountry — supporting individuals wherever they are on their own journeys into the outdoors. “This begins with Canoemobile in urban areas, where we provide canoeing and environmental education programming for groups of youth from whole classrooms and schools,” said Willy Tully, external relations director for Wilderness Inquiry.

Wilderness Inquiry’s Canoemobile program is a floating classroom, bringing students out on local waterways in 24-foot Voyageur canoes to learn about science, history, geography and culture. Engaging in new experiences is a way to bring learning outside and create pathways to pursue educational and career opportunities in the outdoors.

Since 2021, the Urban Connections program has invested $1.1 million in partnership with Wilderness Inquiry with a match of $536,494. This includes a new two-year agreement signed this year.

“The Urban Connections program is unique to the Eastern Region of the Forest Service: Not only does over one-third of the U.S. population live in this region, but the vast majority also live in metropolitan areas,” said Sonja Lin, Urban Connections program manager. 

On Sept. 19, Wilderness Inquiry supported two separate Canoemobile events taking place in Milwaukee and Boston.

“Through our current cooperative agreement (October 2021-September 2024), we have engaged more than 17,000 youth in communities across the Eastern Region, including through Canoemobile in all Urban Connections communities: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, St. Louis and the Twin Cities,” Tully said. “Additionally, we provided near-nature overnight experiences and extended (multi-night) adventures to national forests and public lands, including Superior National Forest, Mark Twain National Forest, Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and the Apostle Islands.”

The event in Milwaukee included two schools engaging in activities at the same time. One group was guided by Wilderness Inquiry to try the canoes, while the other group experienced different land stations hosted by Urban Connections, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Bureau of Land Management Eastern States.

At the Forest Service station, students learned about the water cycle and the important role forests have within it. Then they got to play the part of a water molecule and travel the water cycle, learning about the different processes involved along the way.

“Working with the kids was great,” said Erik Johnson, Urban Connections program assistant. “Their energy and excitement were contagious. You could tell how much the students appreciated getting to spend the school day outside and see the impact that programming like Canoemobile has in real time, and how meaningful experiences like this were for the kids.”

Together, Wilderness Inquiry and Urban Connections have directly connected more than 17,000 youth within the Eastern Region to outdoor experiences in their home communities, national forests or public lands. Wilderness Inquiry hopes to deepen their impact in the Urban Connections communities by expanding Canoemobile offerings and supporting youth on a progression of outdoor experiences.

“Urban Connections recognizes the importance of meeting people where they are in order to build those essential connections to nature and their public lands,” said Lin. “Often that journey begins with safe and supportive introductory experiences in local outdoor spaces. And we couldn’t make any of these experiences possible without the help of our partners!”