LEARNING EXPEDITIONS — 2008

IJNR learning expeditions help reporters and editors at all career stages to gain perspective and understanding and to become better storytellers. Mid-career, early-career and veteran reporters and editors from a diverse range of newspapers, magazines, broadcast operations and on-line news organizations are chosen to participate. Journalists working for smaller organizations, including tribal and ethnic news media, are encouraged to apply. IJNR fellowship awards cover the costs of meals, lodging, chartered bus and all other field activities during the expeditions. In addition, some travel stipends are available.

These expenses-paid fellowships are designed for reporters and editors who aspire to produce deeper, more explanatory news coverage of issues that affect growth, economic development, rural communities, natural resources and the environment.

Funding for IJNR programs comes from a broad spectrum of charitable foundations, conservation and environment groups, state and federal government agencies, news-media groups, natural-resource companies and trade associations, as well as individual donors. (See IJNR's Sponsors page.)

Please review How To Apply for details on selection criteria, application materials and costs.

Energy Country Institute

Geography: Four Corners Area
This expedition will offer plenty of attractive geography — northwest New Mexico, southwest Colorado, northeast Arizona and northeast Utah.

Themes and Issues to Examine:

• Producing America’s Energy for the New Century
• The West’s Bounty: Coal, Oil, Natural Gas, Wind, Sun and Geothermal
• The Outlook for Emerging Energy Technologies
• Atmospheric and Stored Carbon: Caps, Trades. Credits and Taxes
• Energy and Public Lands: Habitat Protection and "Sacrifice Zones"
• Western Water: Laws and Practices in an Era of Increasing Scarcity
• Nuclear Legacies and Nuclear Futures
• Cutting Through the Haze: Air Quality in the Four Corners Region

Great Waters Institute

Geography: Lake Erie Basin
Parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York and the province of Ontario

Themes and Issues to Examine:

• Ballast water regulation and the introduction of exotic species
• Aquatic Invasive Species: Scientific Advances and Obstacles
• Great Lakes Fisheries: Understanding a Troubled Food Web
• Lake Levels, Surface Temperatures and Climate Change
• Climate Change, Lake Levels, and Water Temperatures
• Aquatic Invasive Species: Scientific Advances and Obstacles
• Water Diversions and the Great Lakes Compact
• Energy for the Great Lakes Basin: Coal, Hydro, Wind and Nuclear
• Legacy and Recovery: Toxic Hotspots in the Great Lakes Basin

Willamette Valley Institute

Geography: Willamette Valley
A watershed program from the headwaters of the Willamette River to Portland

Themes and Issues to Explore:

• Trends in Northwest Farming: Crops, Workers, Technologies and Markets
• Land-use Patterns and Population Growth
• Energy and Food Security: Challenges and Trade-offs
• Hydrology, Water Supply and a Changing Climate
• The Opportunities and Obstacles of Renewable Energy
• Recovery and Restoration of Watershed Processes

Puget Sound Institute

Geography: Northwest Washington State
Seattle-Tacoma to Port Angeles

Themes and Issues to Examine:

• Climate and Rising Sea Levels: Implications for Northwest Coasts
• Fish and Marine Mammals: Surviving in Big Metropolitan Areas