Primitive Pursuits In the News

Periodically we are featured in the media. If you are interested in speaking with us about what we do, please get in touch!

4-H Camp Shares Experience of Operating During Pandemic

Tompkins Weekly, by Jessica Wickham | July 22, 2020
When COVID-19 hit the county in March, Primitive Pursuits had to consider the possibility of shutting down operations. But staff have managed to keep programming going, helping kids connect with nature despite the pandemic.

Read More

Primitive Pursuits on Out of Bounds

Out of Bounds with Tish Pearlman  | November 18, 2017
Since 1998 it has been our mission to steward the health of the community by fostering life-long relationships with the natural world through exceptional mentoring and nature education. Tish Pearlman interviewed Megan Pugh, about our mission and programs and why we think our work is essential.

Listen to the Interview

Learning Outside

The Ithaca Times, by | April 1, 2016
“Two years, twelve years…30 years old or 40 years old, they suddenly realize what it means to be human, what it feels to live fully alive in their bodies,” said Jed Jordan of those Primitive Pursuits puts in touch with the wild. 

Read More

Wilderness Skills Leader Launches "Wilderness Year"

CISION | January 25, 2016

Primitive Pursuits, the Finger Lakes-based nature and wilderness skills leader, will launch “Wilderness Year” – its nine-month intensive outdoor leadership program at Cornell University’s inspirational 4200 acre Arnot Forest beginning Fall 2016.

Read More

Local Fund Named for Animal Researcher, Lily Glidden

The Ithaca Journal, by Shawnee A. Barnes| January 26, 2015
To honor the life and adventures of Lily Glidden, a Freeville native who was killed last year while traveling in Thailand, a scholarship fund has been set up in her name at Primitive Pursuits, a nature-based program close to her heart.

Read More

IPEI Red and Gold Grant Assisted Boynton Classes at Primitive Pursuits

IPEI | December 19, 2014
Boynton Middle School sixth-grade students completed a four-week study of pandemics and geography with a culminating project that brought the 40 students to 4-H Acres on Halloween to practice their survival skills with Primitive Pursuits staff.

Read More

Photo Jennifer Willams

Ithaca Based Group Teaches Primitive Skills

The Ithacan, by Steven Pirani | November 12, 2014
Holding their field journals at their sides, a line of students meanders through the brush. Across each of their notebooks, it reads “Environmental Sentinels.” Dodging the gnarled, reaching arms of the surrounding bushes, they plunge deeper into one of the several expanses of natural lands that Ithaca offers. 

Read More

Learning and Playing Outdoors

The Lansing Star, by Dan Veaner| February 28, 2014
“As a mother of a pre-schooler I am concerned about how hard it is to get my kid outside,” says Forest Preschool Lead Instructor Melissa Blake.  He has so many great toys to play with and the whole screen-time issue is already coming up for us even though we swore we were going to limit his screen-time until he was five.  The more time they spend outside the more they want to go out.”

Read More

Ithaca Festival Parade Highlights

The Ithaca Voice, by Jeff Stein| June 14, 2015
The women with the Primitive Pursuits entourage wear an outfit made of branches and leaves looking much like an environmentally-conscious scarecrow.

Read More