Programs | WINTER Programs | CHILE

Participants must arrive to the program fully vaccinated against COVID-19, having reviewed our health and safety page

Program Details

Location: Puerto Montt, Chile

Dates: Winter 2025: January 17–March 1, 2025

Applications: Accepted on a rolling admission basis

Accommodations:  Primarily camping, occasional youth hostel or rural lodge

Credits: 15 quarter credits or 10 semester credits

Language: English instruction

Courses: Environmental Wildlands Studies, Environmental Field Survey, Wildlands Environment and Culture

Prerequisites: One college level course in environmental studies, environmental science, ecology or similar. 18 years of age

Program Costs

Application Fee

Paid when you submit your application. Refundable until you are formally accepted into a program.

Program Fee

Your tuition for the program, paid directly to Wildlands Studies.

In-Country Logistics Fee

Covers most on-the-ground expenses such as transportation during the program, camping and lodging fees, park and nature reserve entrance fees, permits, study facilities and other related logistical costs. For some programs, this fee also covers a portion of your meals. This fee is paid directly to Wildlands Studies.

Estimated Airfare and Mandatory Travel Insurance

Airfare costs are covered by the student and vary depending on your starting location and airline ticket prices. Travel insurance is required for our programs. Details about airfare and travel insurance will be provided in the Logistics Packet.

Estimated Food and Personal Expenses

Our estimate for the out-of-pocket expenses you will incur during the program for items such as food, snacks, drinks, laundry, entry visa and personal items. This amount will vary from student to student depending on spending habits.

Chile Winter 2025
$      150      Application Fee
$   7,000      Program Fee
$   4,800      Estimated In-Country Logistics Fee
$   1,900      Estimated Airfare and Mandatory Travel Insurance
$   850      Estimated Food and Personal Expenses

$14,700      Total Estimated Cost
Winter 2025: Program fees due by November 1, 2024

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The Program

Team members will take part in hands-on investigations of the ecology and conservation of southern Chile’s species and communities. Our first objective is to become fluent in the natural history of this region, its climate and geography, and to become intimately familiar with many of the species that live therein. We will travel across a transect of ecological systems ranging from coastal Valdivian rainforests, home of the ancient alerce trees, to the alpine forests, tundra and snowfields of the Andes, to the grasslands that lie in the rain shadow of the cordillera. As we become familiar with the inhabitants of these ecosystems, we will conduct ecological research projects that examine interactions, patterns of diversity, and ecological niches of the species we encounter.

We will also investigate the effectiveness of key conservation measures, such as the establishment of national parks and private reserves, which seek to create sustainable livelihoods for local communities while protecting biodiversity through participation in ongoing conservation, restoration, and sustainable agriculture projects. Highlights will include extended field investigations throughout the Cochamó Valley, an area of incredible biodiversity and home to some of the most majestic granite formations in the world, and Parque Nacional Chiloé, on the fabled Isla Grande. These are two remarkable natural laboratories with intact forest and wildlife communities. However, despite their protected status and almost impenetrable landscapes, daunting conservation challenges loom, ranging from unsustainable and unregulated resource use by local communities to ambitious multinational development plans including new roads, dams and salmon farming.

 
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More Details

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Syllabus

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Manual

 

Program Photo Gallery

Jenna Spackeen

lead instructor

PhD in Marine Science, Virginia Institute of marine science, 2017

Jenna is an oceanographer who is interested in nutrient cycles and the impacts of global change. Her research has taken her all over the world.  She has spent a considerable amount of time aboard research vessels in the Arctic and at field stations in Antarctica, investigating how climate change affects phytoplankton communities and the cycling of nutrients in the ocean.  Her research has also taken her to Mexico, where she studied food web interactions in estuary systems. Jenna is passionate about science outreach and experiential education.  She believes that personal awareness, environmental appreciation, and a desire to make the world a better place can be fostered when one is immersed in nature.  Jenna leads our Iceland and Chile programs.

Jenna’s other PROGRAM: