The World Is Her Stamping Ground : Irene Birchard Got a Close-Up Look at Nature on 24 Earthwatch Expeditions

A week of pampering at the Ritz is decidedly not Irene Birchard’s idea of a vacation.

Birchard has been on 24 expeditions with Earthwatch, an organization that sponsors scholarly field research by finding paying volunteers to help scientists on expeditions around the world.

She took a trip to the Arctic with five men and almost floated away on a breakaway iceberg. She has also explored sacred islands off Ecuador and documented the feeding habits of Alaskan musk ox.

“The musk ox are active 24 hours, so we took shifts around the clock sitting in a heated observation tower punching a computer and recording the data,” she said. “But we were also on alert for sighting the Northern Lights and would wake people up . . . to look at the display. There are things in this world you just have to see in person.”

Birchard was in Chile in January exploring caves that no one except the natives had ever seen. As she stood on a mountaintop she saw a condor flying straight at her. “Well, I thought, ‘Is he going to carry me off?’ I just stood there. He did swoop down at me but veered off.”

Earthwatch trips don’t have to be as vigorous as Birchard makes them. On many trips, buses are provided. Some expedition members have special needs and a schedule is customized for them.

Birchard, however, likes to take miles-long walks, sometimes with a backpack. She is also a jogger.

“I’m always at the fringe,” she said. “I get up early and I like carrying my own stuff, but it’s on purpose. I can’t sit for long. I need to do this and the others understand.”

She is going to Bolivia in June. “This is really the mildest one I have ever been on. It’s the first feminist project. Bolivia has the highest baby death rate in the hemisphere--50 times higher than the U.S. The mission is to go door to door taking a census and distributing birth control information.

“I’ll have to do a lot of running at 8,000 feet to make up for the lack of physical activity,” she added.

Birchard has been marching to the beat of a different drummer for most of her life. Her father wanted to climb Mt. McKinley, but was too infirm to climb much of anything. He pushed his little girl, still in grade school, to climb mountains near their home in northern Minnesota and then tell him about it.

“I never told my friends--little girls wouldn’t have understood it,” Birchard recalled. Her educational path was also singular. She attended five universities, sometimes changing her major two months before graduation. She became a lawyer, handled one case, disliked it intensely and never practiced again.

Birchard’s study in her Westside home contains the trappings of a renaissance woman: modern technology, a full set of the Oxford dictionary, a world globe and an exercise bicycle. How else can you define a woman who loves salsa dancing and hopes one day to run rivers on every continent?

Earthwatch is represented in 53 cities and has more than 73,000 members worldwide. Expedition team members are intergenerational; about one-third are over the age of 55. Expedition costs range from $800 to $2,500 and are tax-deductible. For further information: (800) 776-0188.

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Retired Teachers--The Santa Monica Bay Area Division of California Retired Teachers will present James Butts, Santa Monica police chief; First United Methodist Church, 1008 11th St., Santa Monica; 12:30 p.m. Tuesday; information: (310) 450-7808 ($7).

Medicare Issues--The Century City Hospital Diabetes Management and Research Center will sponsor a seminar on Medicare issues and changes; 2080 Century Park East, Century City; 11:00 a.m. Thursday; reservations required; information: (310) 551-1463 (free).