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Just down the road from Cook County in Finland, Minnesota, is Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, the largest accredited residential environmental learning center in the nation. This summer Wolf Ridge is holding a 50 plus year reunion for former staff, community members and longtime supporters. The reunion will take place August 26-28 and is also open to the public.
Wolf Ridge was started in 1971 on a former Jobs Corps site in Isabella, Minnesota. Wolf Ridge was the first environmental learning center in the U.S. to be credited as a K-12 school. Today Wolf Ridge annually offers 166,000 plus visitors a chance to experience hands-on learning in an outdoor setting.
In 2021, the 22,000 square foot Margaret A. Cargill (MAC) Lodge dormitory, became the first renovation project in the world to receive the full Living Building Challenge certification by the International Living Future Institute. To accomplish this, the building had to achieve a Net-Positive Energy and Net Positive Water over 12 months, proving it could generate more energy than it uses.
Wolf Ridge Executive Director Peter Smerud said, “The MAC Lodge is a teaching tool to help visitors understand their effect on the planet, and ultimately how to become better stewards of the land. The entire ethos of our legacy and goals as an organization is at work in this building project.”
There will be tours of the Margaret A. Cargill Lodge building through the weekend.
Guests will also see the Wolf Ridge organic farm, and 68-acre Lake Superior Field Station located on the shoreline of Lake Superior. There will also be classes offering rock climbing, adventure ropes course, canoeing, lake study, and naturalist-led hikes offered throughout the weekend.
Register through Wolf- Riddge.org/50th.
The cost is $20-50 for adult day passes and $160 for full-weekend registration; camping is available.
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