TFT's target audience is elementary, middle and high school students. During the school year (September through May) groups of 30 to 90 students, along with their teachers, travel to the "Trees" campus in Eagle River from a three state area of Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and northern Illinois for student workshops which generally last three days. Over 5,000 attend annually.

Participants stay in comfortable, furnished student dormitories, eat three meals a day in a full service dining hall and prepare for field studies in the classrooms of TFT's Education Center.

During a workshop, students participate in field studies conducted in the forests, lakes, streams and bogs of the Northwoods. The field studies involve activities like tree identification, orienteering, wildlife tracking, water chemistry sampling and dozens of others.