Mt Adams Institute

Land stewards is a career development program for young adults interested in supporting public lands throughout the pacific northwest. The program is supported by a grant from the corporation for national and community services (americorps). In 2024, 15 participants served with a variety of public agencies such as conboy national wildlife refuge, umatilla national forest, gifford pinchot national forest and the okanogan wenatchee national forest. These americorps interns served 11,084 hours on a variety of wilderness stewardship, environmental education and environmental restoration projects.

Vetswork is a career development program for military veterans interested in public lands/natural resources management careers. The program is supported by a grant from the corporation for national and community services (americorps) and partners such as the u.s. Forest service and u.s. Fish and wildlife services. In 2024, over 45 participants were engaged in the program in washington, oregon, missouri, north carolina,alaska, michigan, south dakota, california, pennsylvania, kentucky, georgia and west virginia. Participants learned new skills and information and built professional connections while working on real projects. Their collective impact includes 53,418 hours of volunteer service, over 47,444 acres of public lands improved, and 2,344 miles of hiking trails maintained or built, 885 facilities maintained or improved and 4,326 students educated on scientific and environmental topics. 3,082 miles of aquatic and riparian habitat improved, 7,786 visitor contacts, 10,650 animals surveyed, 1,500,004 hatchery fish raised,3,454 hazardous trees removed from trails & recreation sites, 770 drainages cleared.

Sense of place lecture series provided 11 lectures that were viewed by over 9,700 people interested in learning about people's connections to the columbia river gorge.

The institute rents facility space to various organizations and schools to further the educational purposes of their programs. In 2024, the american climbing association, cultureseed, and the university of washington hosted classes at our facilities with approximately 150 participants.