WildPlaces is a community based non-profit organization located in Springville, California in the foothills of the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our mission is to preserve, support, and protect Californias natural and rural places and the people of these landscapes through volunteer-driven habitat restoration, natural and cultural education, and career development.

WildPlaces’ efforts create and support communities that are active stewards of the land through education, youth service learning, community organizing, and hands-on restoration projects.  Our projects include: 1) Immersed in the Wild, which provides single and multi-day outdoor programs that engage youth of diverse ages, backgrounds, and communities throughout California in land stewardship.  Expert youth facilitators and activists guide our youth in safe and effective education sessions. 2) Rio Limpio: Tule River Outreach and Cleanup is a watershed-wide community effort to keep the Tule River safe, clean and open for all to use. Volunteers clear garbage and remove graffiti from the river while reaching out to and educating river users on the importance of good stewardship practices. 3) Service Learning is a holistic approach to education that combines classroom-based learning with hands-on service projects in the students own communities. WildPlaces organizes service learning projects throughout the Southern Sierra Nevada that engage youth from local high schools in Porterville, California, in issues that are relevant to their communities. 

In 2010, WidPlaces will take five groups of youth on Immersed in the Wild trips.  Three back-country trips will focus on backpacking, and two front-country trips will focus on top-roping/climbing.  We will engage each youth group in different aspects of adventure, cultural awareness, and nature ethics.  Our participating youth partner organizations are: the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the Bakersfield Karen Community, the Mongolian Youth Group, Walt Whitman High School, Monache High School, and Granite Hills High School.  Most of these youth groups are from the Central Valley of California, where transportation to the Sierra Nevada mountain range is limited to them.  WildPlaces gives these youth access to the amazing beauty of Sequoia National Forest.  For many of our youth participants, it is the very first time they have been on national public land.

P O Box 853
Springville, CA 93265
http://www.wildplaces.net/

Contact Information:
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(559) 539-5263
Mehmet McMillan