About Us

Copyright Coyote Road School 2010

Education With Nature In Mind

The Founders

                 Coyote Road, as many parents and kids know it, is a family-run business owned and operated by J. David Wilson and his wife, Jennifer Rennick. Our goals and objectives are multifaceted: The primary purpose of creating an organization like this was to provide a single vehicle for Dave to share his love, knowledge of and experiences in nature with children. Additionally, and in keeping with the True Work or Right Livelihood ideas, Coyote Road is a way for Dave to fulfill his need to earn a living and in an area he is passionate about in a way that is congruent with his and Jennifer’s ideals, values and philosophy. We are committed to providing high-quality nature-based experiential education programs for all ages. Our mission is to teach lifelong skills in nature awareness and outdoor living and to provide experiences that create a positive and lasting connection with the earth.

Our Work

                 We connect children to nature. We teach youth and adults skills that connect them to the land in which they grow and live. We expose kids to nature in a real way—we explore and discover. So often it seems that people today grow up not knowing what trees are in their neighborhood, what wild plants are edible or hazardous, which birds are residents, and what animals are truly here and not here, let alone how to recognize evidence of their passing.

                 We strive for what has been termed bioregional or place-based education – that is, education about the local environment in one lives. We have no classrooms save for the natural resources found in and around our magnificent county. Our floor is the earth, our walls are shaped by the trees and hills; our ceiling is the sky.

                 We take children into nature and explore and have adventures. Our mentors role model that which we teach to our students – wonder, passion, curiosity, and a deep love for and a great respect of the natural world. We use primitive skills to inspire our students to learn to live without modern tools and to be self-sufficient. We honor community and each person’s individual path. We teach tracking and awareness so that our students can learn the language of nature for themselves.

                 We facilitate the deep connection children naturally want to have with nature. We open up a child’s senses and connect them to the natural world. Our educational philosophy is experiential in nature and our aim is to instill a lifelong love of learning about the natural world— it’s Education with Nature in Mind.

History

                 Coyote Regional Outdoor Adventures, a.k.a. Coyote Road School, has been teaching kids wilderness skills since 1997! It is amazing to think about all the different things we’ve done since then and all the different places we’ve visited and explored – ALL those animal tracks, feathers, flowers, poison oak leaves (!), carcasses, bones (including Mt. Lion remains), and glimpses of mice, rats, rabbits, possums, weasels, coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, deer, owls, hawks, ferocious water bugs, tarantula hawks, frogs, newts, … and so much more!

                 It all started with a small, popular summer nature camp at the San Luis Adult School in 1997 – a 10-day, two-week morning or afternoon day camp for kids aged 7-12. In that program Dave developed a comprehensive student journal and taught kids nature awareness, firemaking, cordage making, shelter building and did a lot of fun exploring around the San Luis Obispo Adult School. Students ate plums from trees saved from a long abandoned orchard near the high school, observed the owl in the Eucalyptus Grove east of the school, explored the Anise Forest, and collected Yucca leaves from the hills above to make into cordage. The environment around the Adult School has been improved much since the beginning, and, unfortunately, they no longer offer summer camps at all.

                 That one program alone spawned so much: it got Dave invited to develop a program for a homeschool group and also enabled Dave to be the Resident Naturalist at a local school for 8 weeks. Since then, Coyote Regional Outdoor Adventures and Dave has worked with Girl and Boy Scouts, public and private schools, other homeschool groups, individuals, organizations, and has written curriculum with coyote mentoring in mind. We’ve sponsored speakers like Jon Young of the Wilderness Awareness School and Eugene Blackbear (Northern Cheyenne elder and actor); offered community programs like the Tracking Club, the Family Tracking Adventure and the BBQ Skills days. Dave, Coyote Regional Outdoor Adventures and his programs were instrumental and foundational in getting the Central Coast Village Center up and running.

                 The future of Coyote Road sees plans for rites of passage programs for boys and girls, wilderness expeditions and adventure programs (cycling, kayaking, canoeing, family camping), and skills programs like rock climbing and fishing for all ages, and all with the Coyote Mentoring philosophy/culture in place.

                 We are always looking for new ideas for programs and program site locations. If you love nature based adventure and have an idea for a program we’d love to talk to you. Contact us at info@CoyoteRoadSchool.com