Emily Payne Co-Founder & Director
Emily hails from the mouth of the Fraser River on Coast Salish land, and now calls the Yukon home. She is a certified teacher with over 10 years experience working with young people of all ages. She has worked as an international youth leadership trip facilitator in rural Kenya and Ecuador, canoe and backpacking outtrip director, motivational tour speaker, native plant researcher, outdoor curriculum designer and classroom teacher.
She holds a BEd Indigenous Perspectives from SFU, a BA Geography (Environment and Sustainability) from UBC, and is a Level 3 Childcare worker. She has certificates in 80-hour Wilderness First Responder, Flatwater Canoe Instruction, Swift Water Rescue Level 1 & 2 and Permaculture Design. She has recently trained at The Tracker School in New Jersey in survival skills and tracking. Her big passion in the natural world is working with plants, which she pursues through harvesting and blending herbal teas, making lotions and learning to weave baskets. After traveling to nearly every continent, she continues to be inspired by the immense beauty of her Yukon home. She co-founded Rivers to Ridges out of her belief that building curiosity about the natural world at a young age is an integral part of a healthy life. When she’s not outside teaching, you can find her singing along with her guitar or piano, blues dancing, growing vegetables or trying to bake the perfect sourdough loaf. |
Erin Nicolardi Co-Founder & Director
For Erin, Rivers to Ridges was born out of a desire to bring more young people into the wilderness, and to guide them as they develop a sense of wonder and stewardship for our home planet.
Erin was raised on Mississauga of the Credit Territory between the Niagara Escarpment and the shores of Lake Ontario. Besides being an amateur paddler and bird-appreciator, Erin has worked as an outdoor, experiential teacher in Canada and abroad, a parks interpreter, and an organic farmhand, amoung other things. She is a certified teacher, with her BEd in Outdoor, Experiential Education (Queen's University). She is also an 80-hour Wilderness First Responder and Canoe Tripping Level 1 Instructor. In 2017, she completed two week-long intensive courses: The Art of Mentoring (Wilderness Awareness School) and the Standard Survival Course (Tom Brown Jr. Tracker School), and achieved Level 2 Flatwater Instructor certification. What makes Erin feel alive?
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OUR Beginnings
Emily and Erin's first encounter near Alligator Lake, YT.
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An early fall multi-day backpacking trip in with a local experiential high school program is where Emily found Erin in 2014. At the time, Erin was fresh to the territory and woefully unprepared for her first backcountry hiking trip. With the help of a shared tent, warm tea and lots of duct tape, Emily supported Erin on the adventure. A couple months later, Erin had the chance to repay the love by heading out with a friend to support Emily who was stuck in Watson Lake with a broken down vehicle. A surprise snowstorm closed the roads, and they were forced to stay the night at the Cozy Nest. Conversation eventually turned to life passions, and it turned out that Erin and Emily both had the same secret dream of guiding young people towards a meaningful connection with the land. Rooted in mutual support for one another and a deep love of working with children in wild spaces, Rivers to Ridges was born!
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OUR Team
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Kester Reid Guest Instructor
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Kester has spent much of the last years involved with environmental and cultural work in Central and South America, particularly the Amazon. He has worked alongside scientists and Indigenous knowledge-holders, and come to realise the importance of cultivating a perspective that is natural to all of us: deep connection with Place. An awareness that engages the beauty and mystery of the land is something he seeks to deepen each day. Environmental politics, youth work, and an interest in conservation led him initially to work in the tropics, where several years of transformation brought him to Canada with a clear purpose to integrate those lessons and cultivate that awareness within his ailing Western culture. After mentorship training at the Wilderness Awareness School, Washington, he began work for a forest school based out of North Vancouver, applying the 8-shields “Coyote” Mentoring model, to guide youth in their connection to the land. He’s new to the Yukon, and is enjoying getting to know the communities of Whitehorse and further afield. He finds joy in long wanders on the water or the land, both alone and with friends. Besides speaking to birds, and discovering the patterns in the landscape, he loves to play flutes and guitars, and to read and write poetry. His family home is on the rugged West coast of the Scottish Highlands. |
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Matteo Friesen Guest Instructor
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Matteo was raised in Sto:lo territory in southern BC, and has since drifted far and wide in both education and travel. He currently lives in Sechelt BC, working as teacher in a nature-based education program - NEST, Nature Education for Sustainable Todays and Tomorrows, which provides opportunity for students to learn outside and from the natural environment. He has taught for a number of years both in BC and the Yukon and holds a BA in History and Fine Arts and a BEd in Environmental Education from SFU. Before finding his groove as an educator, he was involved in urban farming projects in Mexico, helping develop a Young Weavers cooperative in Oaxaca, and pursuing his passion for the natural world through travel and work. He holds a Wilderness Advanced First Aid certificate, and a Conservation Outdoor Recreation Education certificate through BC wildlife Federation. His enjoyment of the natural world and passion to share it others, has connected him with opportunities to lead student teams on adventure and educational based trips, ranging from kayaking in south - eastern Alaska to multi-day alpine trips. |
Our team of staff are highly qualified and have professional education, training and
certifications through the following organizations, schools, and institutes:
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