About
Back to Earth offers workshops, overnight retreats, wilderness programs, and backpacking trips that include backpacking experience, talks by the fire, and a daily practice called Council. The program includes a wilderness-based adventure learning and rites of passage program for teenage boys called WILD, along with the WILD Scholars Program, which combines wraparound mentoring and scholarships.
Back to Earth’s mission is to guide young people into deeper relationship with nature, self, and community through wilderness programs, retreats, and mentorship, while teaching practical skills and fostering critical awareness that support belonging, resilience, and a sense of purpose. The program is led by Co-Founder and Director Eli Marienthal and Co-Founder Jesse Sachs. Its pillars of practice include gratitude, joy, honesty, and awareness, and it is supported by a community of adult mentors and guides. The WILD Scholars Program is a wraparound mentoring and scholarship program for Bay Area high school students from communities who have been historically underrepresented in wilderness education.
Parent and youth testimonials describe experiences such as learning “the source of truest strength – the courage to be open and to connect,” feeling more confident and able to push physically and mentally, and finding Council to be a daily highlight that allowed for vulnerability in a non-judgmental way. WILD alumni also describe feeling less stressed in nature, appreciating “pure nature, pure trees,” feeling comfortable in their own skin without having to pretend to be someone else, and experiencing talks by the fire that were emotionally and spiritually meaningful. One parent reports that their child “came away with a belief in himself that he hadn’t felt before.”
Last updated August 9, 2026.
Back to Earth’s mission is to guide young people into deeper relationship with nature, self, and community through wilderness programs, retreats, and mentorship, while teaching practical skills and fostering critical awareness that support belonging, resilience, and a sense of purpose. The program is led by Co-Founder and Director Eli Marienthal and Co-Founder Jesse Sachs. Its pillars of practice include gratitude, joy, honesty, and awareness, and it is supported by a community of adult mentors and guides. The WILD Scholars Program is a wraparound mentoring and scholarship program for Bay Area high school students from communities who have been historically underrepresented in wilderness education.
Parent and youth testimonials describe experiences such as learning “the source of truest strength – the courage to be open and to connect,” feeling more confident and able to push physically and mentally, and finding Council to be a daily highlight that allowed for vulnerability in a non-judgmental way. WILD alumni also describe feeling less stressed in nature, appreciating “pure nature, pure trees,” feeling comfortable in their own skin without having to pretend to be someone else, and experiencing talks by the fire that were emotionally and spiritually meaningful. One parent reports that their child “came away with a belief in himself that he hadn’t felt before.”
Last updated August 9, 2026.
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