Utah is home to the Mighty Five national parks, as well as a number of national forests, monuments, and various public lands. This gives students at Utah State University specialized, hands-on opportunities to learn outdoor recreation and management techniques in places like Arches National Park, similar to what Iree Wheeler did as a Ph.D. student.
USU’s Department of Environment and Society and the Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism help students like Iree work with communities to find sustainable solutions to recreate outdoors. For example, Dr. Wayne Freimund at USU Moab, who was Iree’s advisor, has worked on tracking the carbon footprints of tourism to national parks. Other alumni, like River McKay, have leveraged their passion for the outdoors to create apparel and equipment for other adventurers.
