Biography

Jeff Rychwa, Master Tracker is the Founder and Chief Technician of Total Wild! Wildlife Control Services. Jeff holds several certificates of martial arts training, a Ph.D. of Environmental Studies, an MS of Wildlife Ecology, as well as certification in Wilderness Survival and Tracking—including Search & Recovery and Fugitive Tracking--with the highlight of his training from The Tracker School, Inc. in New Jersey. Jeff has been an avid participant in the Kamana Naturalist Training program of the Wilderness Awareness School for over ten years, as well.

Jeff went further to achieve high ranking in several martial arts styles, including Kajukenbo, Aiki-jitsu, Shaolin Chin-Na, and Aikido, and served during Desert Storm in the United States Air Force as a Fire Protection & Rescue Specialist.

Along with a heavy workload, he continues to find time to cater to his passion for Tracking by lying in the dirt for hours at a time studying the degradation and movements of tracks, stalking and touching the animals (which he does not recommend to anyone without years of instruction and preparation), and practicing all facets of primitive living, along with other hobbies, such as: whip-cracking, roping, archery, drawing, writing, and music.

Jeff teaches workshops, including Lostproofing for children, to anyone who has a genuine passion, or Oyasin, to learn about nature and how we can become children of the Earth once again.

Jeff is one of the most poignant and outspoken philanthropists and environmentalists or our time, with a genuine passion for the reinstitution of natural rights and living as caretakers of our world, and he has renounced his "obligations" as a contributor to the modern system of economics and artificial society.

A Forensic Toxicologist examines drugs and chemicals related to crimes. A Forensic Anthropologist examines human remains to create biological profiles. A Forensic Criminalist may examine fingerprints to identify suspects and victims. A Forensic Tracker looks at the kinesiology registration of footprints.

Tracks speak volumes. Beyond shoe sizes and tread patterns, a Forensic Tracker looks into the tracks for subtle weight distributions and substrate responses to physical actions. Quite simply, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. What one does while standing upon the Earth must register as a reaction upon the Earth.

A Forensic Tracker studies and interprets these reactions--movement indicators--and is able to put together the processes of gross motor, fine motor, and internal actions of the maker of the tracks. Tracks have been shown to be more accurate in identification of a subject than fingerprints have. Tracks indicate gender, weight, timeline, directionality, and all internal and external movements of the body.

At Total Wild!, all technicians are trained to see animal tracks, as small as a mouse's, on virtually any substrate--including rock and concrete. Technicians are constantly training in track identification and movement indicator studies. We are not satisfied with finding a track and calling it: "a deer, probably a male, going in this direction . . . " We train to see: "A male deer, approximately 160 pounds, full stomach, stopped to scratch it's ear, slight muscle injury in the right thigh, turned its head to the left, continued to browse, etc."

Technicians are trained in Awareness beyond the track, coordinating evidence at a scene or situation in order to put together a scenario. Aging tracks, breaks in flora, decomposition of bodies, spatters, and other related facets are studied. These are important elements in the field of Wildlife Forensic Pathology. All technicians are trained in Search Tracking, Fugitive Tracking, Illegal Burial Processing, and Wildlife Forensic Pathology.

But our passion is for the tracks. The tracks don't lie, and unless people learn to levitate, their stories will always be told by the ground.

You might recognize several of these local businesses and organizations we've serviced:

Total Wild! LLC Has provided effective and successful exclusion services and consultation for several hundreds of private residences, residential rental agents, and businesses. In fact, several clients have been so impressed with our work that they’ve had Total Wild! service their out-of-state properties, as well.

Jeff has been invited to give talks for both public and private organizations, including local schools, regarding wildlife, nature awareness, tracking, primitive living, and wildlife control.

The Highland Center of the Appalachian Mountain Club, at Crawford Notch in the White Mountains, invited Total Wild! to present several workshops of survival skills, nature awareness, and Lostproofing for children in January of 2005.

Total Wild! presented a Lostproofing workshop for children at Stonewall Farm in winter of 2003.

Total Wild! has been a consultant for several, local Real Estate agencies and agents who want to provide their clients with the most accurate and complete coverage for home inspections, wildlife awareness, and methods of exclusion and animal-entry prevention for the safety and sales of homes.

Total Wild’s Trackers successfully participated in the search and recovery of Henry, the missing miniature-collie, who had traveled miles from his home in Hancock, NH all the way to Peterboro, NH, where he lived in the wild for several weeks before being returned home safe and sound.

In 2006, Jeff was invited to explore Horseneck Beach in southern Massachusetts, a protected nesting area of the endangered piping plover (Charadrius melodus), where he identified coyote activity that provided information leading to reinforcing the area against coyote infiltration.