An Interview With ReWild Eugene

I first heard of Matt and Anna Bradley when they taught my children animal tracking at a summer camp. My kids came home and told me they had learned to track animals from professional trackers that day. Professional trackers? This sounded like a wonderful thing to be. I was intrigued. Then I had the pleasure of watching Matt and Anna create fire without matches at a Kalapuya traditional skills workshop at Alvord Farm and Museum. As I watched them, all I could think was that I wished someone would have shown me how to do this when I was a kid. I wished I would have known this was something you could be when you grew up! When they offered outdoor skills classes to children through their organization, ReWild Eugene, and co-organization Whole Earth Nature School, there was no question that my children needed to do this. Over the past year, they have taught tracking, edible plant harvesting, invisibility, nature awareness, fire starting, shelter building, and a myriad of other skills to my children that have strengthened their self-reliance and connection to the earth. I have to say that Matt and Anna have the coolest job I could ever imagine. They are my personal heroes of quitting your day job and creating work that you love.

So, I would like to introduce everyone to Matt and Anna Bradley, creators of ReWild Eugene, and share with you their inspiring interview.

In 2007 we moved back home to Oregon and one of our reasons for moving was to follow our passion for traditional skills more closely. The trouble was that we didn’t know anyone in town who shared our interests so we decided to start a club to attract like minded folks. We had a few initial failures but that club eventually evolved into ReWild Eugene by October of 2008. It was a very natural development that seemed to have a momentum of its own. Then, last fall we were approached by the founders of Dancing Sol Nature Programs [www.dancingsol.com] about partnering our efforts in working with kids. that synthesis resulted in the creation of the Whole Earth Nature School [www.wholeearthschool.com] which is the new home of all our kids programs including after-school and summer nature camps.

Most weekdays we spend the morning prepping for our afternoon class and then focusing on the “business end” of things. There always seems to be an endless stream of emails to respond to and phone calls to make. That is the indoor part of our job which makes all the fun stuff possible. In the afternoons we are typically at a program teaching for several hours. We try to synchronize our curriculum at different classes on a given week so that we are at least teaching on the same subject and doing many of the same activities at each school we teach. On the other hand, kids and nature make for an unpredictable day everyday and we rarely teach exactly what we planned. Some days circumstances change and we make up the whole curriculum on the fly.

Doing the work itself is inspiration enough. The great thing about following your passion is that you are constantly just playing and doing what you love. The best part is when you get unexpected feedback. For example, we recently had a parent tell us that when his son comes home with stories from our program he says “Heck yes!” inside, and sometimes out loud, too. That is a great feeling.

Matt: Tough one. One of my favorites is the headwaters of a small tributary of the Willamette. There are twin springs that bubble up on the forest floor into a raging creek and it is rarely visible because there are no trails nearby. Hanging out in that forest and drinking that clean water is spectacular.

Anna: That is certainly a toss-up. My favorite childhood place is our family cabin nestled between straw-colored velvet canyon walls on a section of the Snake River in Eastern Oregon. Most recently, I fell in love with the area around Mt. Bachelor near Bend – most notably is Hosmer Lake with it’s crystal clear aqua blue waters and Thule marshes.

Matt: When I was a kid I was a budding scientist and I can remember going to the nearby slough to collect water samples to perform “science experiments”. To this day I have no idea what kind of experiments I would have done. On the other hand, I never was much of a young outdoorsman. I mostly remember my feet hurting when we went on occasional hikes. You never can tell what interests a kid will develop later.

Anna: I grew up an in-town country girl in Eastern Oregon. Much of my earlier childhood was spent on my Uncle’s ranch riding horses on cattle drives and branding cattle. Otherwise we spent many weekends as a family hiking, camping, and exploring the Elkhorn and Wallowa Mountain Ranges. My father and I would share fond adventures together searching for artifacts and fossils on my Uncle’s land. From late elementary school on my mom would have to yell for me to come inside for dinner because I was too busy doing amateur archaeology digs in the 100 year old garbage dump of our backyard.

Begin in your own backyard

Learn hazards first

Use stories for inspiration and tap into natural passions

Keep it real, if you know edible plants try them with your kids (use a reliable field guide and start slowly, beware of allergies). Make it about real experience and not some predetermined lesson.

Be sure to experience the outdoors in all times of the year and in all weather.

Don’t be afraid to get dirty.

We want to help create a future where humanity can use ancient wisdom to find new and better ways to live together with each other and our planet. Any new way of living is destined to fail if it doesn’t offer an improvement on the current way of doing things. We are hoping that by attracting people who are passionate about finding those new ways and teaching them to young people that we can affect positive change for modern humans. In concrete terms we are always looking for more people who are passionate about teaching and learning together to grow our little network. Eventually we would love to be able to help other people in other places find their own voice and path to the same goal that we have.