Great Lakes Wilderness Emergency Readiness Training (WERT)
Are You Prepared?
No ambulance. No hospital. No helicopter. Miles from the nearest road. Hours, perhaps days away from help. No rescue is coming. What are you going to do?
Who Are Our Classes For?
Avid campers, anglers, hunters, boaters, hikers, Boy Scout leaders, Park Rangers, people involved in missionary work, or anyone who wants to prepare for time in the wilderness.
Wilderness First Aid
Wilderness First Aid (WFA) is a 16-hour course that teaches basic information about caring for a sick or injured person in the backcountry. This is a SOLO course with a national certification that lasts two years. These courses are presented at the Rockford Ambulance Training Center.
Course scheduled in 2025
March 14th & 15th, 2025
Friday and Saturday, 9a – 5p.
April 25th & 26th, 2025
Friday and Saturday, 9a – 5p.
May 23rd & 24th, 2025
Friday and Saturday, 9a – 5p.
Cost – $250.00
Off-Site Wilderness First Aid
We have WFA courses scheduled at some colleges that have a registration process through the school.
North Central Michigan College
Petoskey, MI
April 5th & 6th 2025
Saturday and Sunday, 9 – 5p
West Shore Community College
Scottsville, MI
July 11th & 12th 2025
Friday and Saturday, 9 – 5p
Wilderness First Responder
The Wilderness First Responder Course (WFR) is a SOLO certification course. This certification is often required for outdoor guide companies, the National Park Service, summer camps, and all sorts of businesses in the outdoor industry. Our course begins with an online component that is the same online course that Great Lakes EMS Academy used in their Medical First Responder Course. Students will click through lectures and take quizzes on JB Learning every week. This part of the course does have some time in the classroom for short discussions and skills training.
Students will take the wilderness component with the Wilderness EMT students during the class. To be clear, this course will not allow you to be a licensed MFR in Michigan. We only schedule one a year.
The 2025 course starts in February, when students will begin completing online assignments through JB Learning.
Skills training and scenarios classes are held sporadically on Fridays from 10 am to 4 pm.
March 21st - CPR and Airway
April 18th - Trauma
May 30th - Medical Emergency
June 27th - Review
July 14th (Monday) through July 18th (Friday) 2025, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. We will complete the wilderness medicine training with the WEMTs. This will be held at Conestoga Campground in Grand Haven or West Shore Community College (just north of Ludington). Overnight camping is not required, but it will be fun!
Cost – $1,200.00
Wilderness EMT Module
The Wilderness EMT (WEMT) module is a 40-hour course for people who are already MFRs, EMTs, or Paramedics. They could also be currently taking an EMS course.
Successful participants will be certified as WFRs or WEMTs, the premier certification for those who want to work in the backcountry. The WEMT module is scheduled for the following days:
July 14th (Monday) through July 18th (Friday) 2025,
9 a.m. – 5 p.m. We will be at Conestoga Campground in Grand Haven or West Shore Community College north of Ludington. Overnight camping is not required, but it will be fun!
Cost – $800.00
Mountain Bike Trauma Care
Great Lakes Wilderness Response Training has created a one-day wilderness medicine course that covers the care of traumatic injuries associated with mountain biking. To learn more about these courses, click on the tap at the top of the page.
Great Lakes Wilderness Emergency Response Training teaches its courses at various locations throughout Kent and Ottawa County. We may spend our day inside at a local ambulance company or college. If the weather cooperates, we like to go outside and spend time in the woods or an area park. Participants will know the location of the course far before the course date.
Traction Splint
Traction Splint
Closing a Wound
Starting a Fire