Our Registration Process

This registration process is not immediate. It can take 24-48 hours to receive access to your course.

Our courses are hosted by the University of Montana and certified in their Extended Education program. So, the first time you register involves a couple extra steps to get you into the University of Montana system.

First Time Registration Process

1. After checking out with the course below, you will receive an email to register with the University of Montana's online learning platform: Canvas. This email may take 24-hours to arrive.

2. Once you complete Canvas registration (instruction included in the email), you will receive a second email from Canvas when you are given access to your course. This second process may also take 24-hours, but is usually much faster.

Registering for Additional Courses

Once you have a Canvas account, the registration process for additional courses is much faster. Your course will appear in your Canvas dashboard shortly after checking out below. 

Special Provisions in Wilderness: Water Rights

Course summary

This course is intended to highlight the need to engage with water rights issues to preserve wilderness character. 

The mandate from Section 4(b) of the Wilderness Act states that "each agency administering any area designated as wilderness shall be responsible for preserving the wilderness character of the area." In this course, we will discuss from where water rights originate, the extent of the water right associated with wilderness, how to prioritize work towards safeguarding water rights, and the basic elements of the work required to accomplish these tasks. 

Though the course will not make you a water rights expert or equip you to work independently, it is intended to provide wilderness managers with sufficient knowledge of the topic, so as to engage with other staff in the important work of securing and maintaining water rights. The course is also intended to bring awareness to hydrologists, realty specialists, and biologists of the importance water rights play in preserving wilderness character. 

Course objectives

• Describe the importance of water rights to wilderness stewardship. 
• Define the fundamentals of the two systems that allocate water in the United States. 
• Describe how water rights may be protected for the benefit of wilderness. 
• Identify the water resource features on which to focus the most attention. 
• Describe basic principles in data collection. 
• Identify the roles of different staff specialists in water rights work. 
• Characterize the allowances for water conveyance facilities. 

These are self-paced, continuous enrollment courses offered through the UM Wilderness Institute in partnership with the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center.