BCJ_SUMMER18 Digital Edition

BY MADDIE VINCENT
TYRELL HALL DIDN’T HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS.
Although he loved the outdoors, the 17-year-old from Vancouver,
Washington, had never experienced the wilderness firsthand.
So, when he embarked on a week-long raft trip down the Ivishak
River in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with a group including
veterans and several other inner city youth, it blew his mind.
“Being in the wilderness and getting along with my peers was
really touching to the heart,” Hall said. “It felt like we became
family instantly out there; it was just us and the wilderness.”
Hall’s trip was with Soul River, a Portland-based non-profit
founded by Chad Brown, a decorated U.S. Navy veteran and
avid fly fisherman. Through Soul River, Brown brings inner city
youth, veterans and America’s wildest places together. Soul River
trips pair kids with veterans, who serve as mentors, guardians and
teachers, and work to develop environmental advocates through
outdoor stewardship and fly fishing.
The summer 2016 Soul River trip Hall attended was the organization’s
first to the remote Arctic. In 2017, the Arctic trip doubled
in size, with Hall and four other kids from the first excursion now
leaders of the larger group. Hall said they taught the first-timers
how to recognize the impacts of climate change above the Arctic
Circle and talked about the potential for oil and gas development
within the refuge. He said the second excursion was much harder
than the first, both logistically and emotionally.
“A lot of humans don’t learn about the ancient lands. When
we went up the first time, we learned what permafrost was. The
second time we saw it start to melt, and the mountains started to
look different, like they fell apart a bit,” Hall said. “Seeing how
we’re speeding up climate change and the human effects firsthand
was a little emotional.”
Emotional responses like these are what Barry Whitehill hopes
for. A BHA Legacy Partner, Life Member, Alaska Chapter board
member and Soul River’s Arctic Refuge “guide,” outfitter and expert,
Whitehill is driven by intangibles like sharing his love for
hunting on wild public lands and showing new people the wonders
of Arctic Refuge. He hopes visitors will become passionate
voices for protecting one of North America’s most pristine – and
vulnerable – wild places.
At first, Whitehill was apprehensive about bringing an inexperienced
group into the remote Arctic. But while organizing the
Barry Whitehill photo
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