Inaugural grants awarded by Connie Saylor Johnson Wilderness Education Fund

Grangeville Elementary School and the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute in Moscow are among the first recipients of a new wilderness grant program established in honor of the late Connie Saylor Johnson, a lifelong educator and champion of Idaho and Montana wilderness.

The Connie Saylor Johnson Wilderness Education Fund was established by Connie’s friends and family to honor her work to provide hands-on wilderness education experiences to people of all ages. The fund has grown steadily since Connie’s death in 2018, through contributions from supporters of wilderness education. The fund is administered by the Selway Bitterroot-Frank Church Foundation for which Connie served from 2009 to 2018 as staff and board member.

The inaugural round of $1,000 wilderness education grant awards went to five organizations in Idaho and Montana.

A grant was awarded to a teacher team for second and third grades at Grangeville Elementary School for field trips to local natural ecosystems to learn about wilderness.

A grant was awarded to the Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute in Moscow for supplies for a winter outdoor education program for students 6 to 12 years old to learn about no-trace camping, fire starting and wilderness survival.  

Saylor Johnson, who lived in Nezperce, disappeared from a hunting camp where she was working as a cook in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area in October 2018. An extensive search by several local, state and federal agencies failed to turn up any clues about her disappearance, although her dog, Ace, did return to the Moose Creek Ranger Station about three weeks later.

In 2020, Saylor Johnson was posthumously awarded the Connie G. Myers Wilderness Education Leadership Award during a ceremony in Washington, D.C., in December for her work educating the public about the wilderness during her 13 years with the Forest Service as a wilderness ranger and 11 years during retirement as a full-time volunteer.

Other grant recipients are:

* The Pulaski Users Group in Hailey, Idaho, for a project to develop journals and wilderness information for trail restoration volunteers.

* One Stone Lab 51 in Boise to develop Untrammeled: A Deep Dive into Wilderness, an immersion course for high school students that includes a backpacking trip, readings and interviews.

* Helena Indian Alliance in Helena, Mont., for a weekend retreat for native youth to Blackfeet Nation, which will include a camping trip, skill building and conversations with elders.

Applications for next year’s grants will be open from April 1 through Oct. 31, 2022. The grants are open to any nonprofit organization, institution, individual or ad-hoc group working to further wilderness education. More information can be found at selwaybitterroot.org/csjwef-grant.