A Trip to MOSS

By: Olivia Howell

When I got an email from my professor, Dr. Chris Zajchowski, about a new field course, I jumped at the opportunity to get an excused week off from classes. I’ll be honest, I had a very minimal understanding of what I signed up for. I didn’t know much other than it was an outdoor field course and had something to do with outdoor businesses. As I attended several Wednesday lectures in preparation for the trip, my excitement grew. I learned we’d be interviewing businesses in the outdoor recreation world down in McCall, Idaho and we’d be staying at the McCall Outdoor Science School, or MOSS. MOSS is an extension of the University of Idaho, similar to a satellite campus.

Our goal for the course was fairly simple: interview natural resource related business owners using a customer discovery model. Being the first run of this course we wanted to cast a net and see what we could catch, with hopes of learning the ins and outs of what it takes to run a business in the outdoor recreation world. We interviewed non-profits, for-profits, and the in betweens. Each student was assigned a person to contact and interview during the trip. I was assigned to Sacha Jackson, the Campus Operations & Registration Manager at MOSS and scheduled to interview her right after one of my peers interviewed Gary Thompson, the Public Relations and Leadership Specialist at MOSS.

After listening to Gary’s interview and conducting my own with Sacha, I was left feeling inspired. We heard about all sorts of things that go on at MOSS, anything from budgeting questions to working with graduate students. A main part of MOSS operations is a K-12 youth environmental education program. With goals that aim to encourage students to learn more about the environment around them, inspire environmental stewardship, and help students develop communication and collaborative skills, I quickly wished I was one of the kids who got to experience the MOSS program. The information and skills shared with the students at MOSS will hopefully encourage the next generation of outdoor leaders.

This concept of inspiring a passion for the environment at an early age seemed to be a recurring theme we ran into in McCall. The community’s love for the environment has manifested into a team effort of environmental education. Outdoor preschools, after school ski programs, and a youth trails maintenance program are just some of the several examples we ran into during our time in McCall. Programs like MOSS are crucial parts of conservation, and they might even inspire our next John Muir.