ISSUE #33


The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

New MOS Educator Pascal teaching at Cherryfield Elementary School.

ISSUE #33
January 2025

I will never forget preparing my students for a MOS lesson about how animals collect food for winter, and the next day we went out and watched it live and in person.  We still talk about it and I have no doubt that they will never forget it!
-Hancock Grammar School Teacher, December 2024

Tracks:

How did MOS leave its mark this quarter?

Airline School 3rd-5th grade field trip to Salt Pond Preserve.

Mountain View School students cleaning up around their school.

OWL Outing to Boot Head Preserve in Lubec.

Peninsula Peninsula Kindergarteners on a field trip to the Frances B. Wood Preserve.

  • Welcomed Pascal, our newest Naturalist Educator, to the MOS team!

  • Taught public school program series at 12 schools.

  • Taught teachers about teaching outdoors at 2 conferences.

  • Continued monthly homeschool programs for the Independent Downeast Educational Alliance on mycology, advanced orienteering, and backcountry first aid for kids.

  • Led three OWL Outings: Finding fungi at Catherine Hill in Franklin, discovering mosses and mushrooms  at Ingersoll Point in Addison, and learning tips on winter plant identification at Boot Head Preserve in Lubec. 

  • Guided a fall hike in collaboration with the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Frenchman Bay Conservancy.

  • Maine Calling on Maine Public featured MOS CEO Hazel Stark twice, once to talk about porcupines and then to talk about winter recreation.

  • Held our 4th Annual New Year’s Eve Sunset Hike with Crabtree Neck Land Trust.

  • Hazel attended the MaineBiz 40 Under 40 event in Portland as an honoree!

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

This quarter's community commendation goes to Mount Desert Elementary School (MDES), a school we hadn't worked with before this past quarter. In our lessons with MDES, we covered biodiversity, population dynamics, tree identification, and nature journaling.

“Maine Outdoor School was a great experience for my class. Activities were engaging and we learned a lot while having fun. My students looked forward to their time with the instructor and the time outside. MOS customized their instruction to meet our school and curriculum needs. They were open to any and all suggestions and delivered a high quality program to our 6th graders. We highly recommend MOS and look forward to partnering with them again in the future.” - Mount Desert Elementary Teacher

Biomimicry:

Voles are a relatively simple and satisfying small rodent to identify. Unlike moles, voles spend most of the time above ground. Their small stature keeps them relatively hidden under grasses, but it is actually in the winter when I see their evidence most frequently. 

Because they eat plants, especially grasses, voles spend a lot of time in fields. They maintain trails by chewing down the vegetation so they have little runways that lead to their favorite spots. When the grasses die back in the winter, there is still plenty of food available—seeds, tubers, the inner bark of various woody plants. So voles are able to stay active, relying on stored food from the fall and also foraging food through the winter. When there’s a fluffy covering of snow, they thrive in the subnivean zone, that narrow space of warmer air between the surface of the ground and the snow cover, where they stay protected from the elements and from many predators. 

So the next time you’re outside, you can look for signs of voles. When snow melts, their tunnels are revealed as slightly raised paths in the snow. Are you more of a "sleep away the winter" animal or a "stay active and layered" animal like the vole?


This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that MOS Co-Founders Hazel and Joe produced weekly for WERU-FM from 2018-2024. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

Did you do an polar plunge this New Year's? Cold-water immersion helps reduce muscle damage after a tough workout. Learn more here.

 

What's Upstream: 

  • Are you a homeschooling family? Learn about Ice Safety and Science with us and our IDEA students on January 7th. We have lots of other upcoming programs with IDEA and Maine Coast Heritage Trust. 

  • Don’t miss out on our OWL (Outdoor Women Lead) Outings with WHRL! We have a whole year of upcoming outings including Reading the Landscape in Gouldsboro, Animal Signs in Machias, and Winter Adaptations in Lubec.

  • Plan to Summit Katahdin this year and fundraise for a great cause! The information session for this year’s program with WHRL is on February 12.

  • Bring us to you! Book a private guided snowshoeing experience for you and your friends, talk to us about options for a program series at your school, or if you have something else in mind, tell us about it! We would love to get outside with you this winter.

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #32


The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

OWL Outing participants on the Narraguagus River.

ISSUE #32
october 2024

"MOS had such a positive impact on our summer school students! They were engaged and couldn't wait for our sessions."- Blue Hill Consolidated School Summer School teacher, August 2024

Tracks:

How did MOS leave its mark this quarter?

Watershed Camp participant excited to use tools to complete trail maintenance work

A few of the Summit for a Cause hikers

Beech Hill Pond Lake Association Community Event

Jesup Memorial Library plant program

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Watershed Camp 2024

This quarter’s community commendation goes to Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), which has helped conserve over 180,000 acres, 337 islands, and over 100 miles of hiking trails. This was our first year collaborating with MCHT to host Watershed Camp, a week-long day camp held within the Orange River watershed in Whiting this August. Campers learned about watershed health and the importance of conservation through hiking, science projects, nature observation, and canoeing. Thanks especially to Cathy Lookabaugh who co-led this camp with Hazel this year!
 

“Watershed Camp was a week where landscapes were not just observed but understood, where nature became a classroom, and where young people discovered their role as stewards. Through their journey along the Orange River, they found that the heart of a landscape lies in the connection between all its parts—and in the hands of those who care for it.”  Read the rest of the article here.

Biomimicry:

While blue-bead lily berries are indeed blue berries, they’re not blueberries, and should not be eaten. However, other parts of this plant have been used in many ways. The young leaves in early spring can be eaten raw or cooked. Many indigenous tribes have historically used a poultice of these leaves to treat various skin wounds, like burns or infections. The Algonquin people applied the crushed leaves to the skin as a mosquito repellant. The Iroquois made a compound decoction out of the whole plants to treat diabetes.  And Chippewa children often would bite patterns into the leaves for fun. 

There are so many ways we can learn from nature to make our lives better! But as always, make sure you consult many reliable resources and are harvesting with care for the species, its habitat, and others who need it, if you choose to harvest.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that MOS Co-Founders Hazel and Joe produced weekly for WERU-FM from 2018-2024. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

According to the CDC, regularly scheduled recess time for physical activity and play helps students stay on-task, reduces disruptive behavior in the classroom, and improves their social and emotional development. Learn more here.

 

What's Upstream: 

  • Join our upcoming OWL Outings: Finding fungi at Catherine Hill in Franklin, discovering unique organisms at Ingersoll Point in Addison, and learning tips on winter plant identification at Boot Head Preserve in Lubec. 

  • Not as motivated to get outside now that it is getting cooler? Schedule your own private guided experience! We can show you something new on even your most visited trails.

  • We have an additional Outdoor School Naturalist Educator joining our team next week! We can't wait to introduce him to you. More soon!

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #31


The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

Most of the MOS staff (except Pogy) pictured at MOS's 8th birthday party celebration in June.

ISSUE #31
JULY 2024

"Every time I go on an OWL hike, I become more deeply connected to nature and return home more knowledgeable and aware of the birds, trees, wildlife, and flowers surrounding my home....you expand my world a little more each time I walk along with you."
- OWL Outing Group participant, June 2024

Tracks:

How did MOS leave its mark this quarter?

OWL Fundraising event at Fogtown Brewing Company

Ella Lewis teachers learning teambuilding activities

Hancock Grammar School 2nd Grade Students at Carter's Beach

OWLette Campers going to Flint Island

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Volunteer Carrie, black shirt, Forest Camp 2024 (top left), Volunteer Andy, red shirt, Forest Camp 2024 (top right), Volunteer Zoie Zanoni, blue shirt and pants, OWLette Camp 2024 (bottom)

This quarter’s community commendation goes to some of the people who make our free summer camp opportunities possible!

Zoie Zanoni, Carrie Cobb, and Andy Steinharter each gave 4 days of their valuable time to volunteer at one of our summer camps so far this summer: Zoie at OWLette camp with Women for Healthy Rural Living and Carrie and Andy at Forest Camp with Downeast Coastal Conservancy. Having these extra adults on hand not only helps camps run smoothly but also helps us give campers more individualized attention. We couldn’t do it without you and we’re so grateful!

Biomimicry:

Once July comes, moments of shoreside watching and thinking become much more possible—until a massive section of calm surface erupts in a torrential rush, and moments later, a harbor seal rising for a breath of air. This surface disruption is caused by none other than a school of pogies.

Pogies are members of the herring family and have a distinctive dark spot near their gills. Because pogies are such efficient filter-feeders, they are a critical part of the food chain converting energy from tiny plankton into their own big fish bodies that in turn are perfect food for stripers, bluefish, seals, a variety of seabirds, and even as bait for human fishermen. With adult pogies able to filter seven gallons of water a minute, we can be grateful they join the ranks of a variety of filter-feeding bivalves that help keep our coastal waters clean.

Nature at once teaches you to follow the school, as with the shimmering pogies on a hot summer day, and to fight every riffle, rip, and waterfall, like a solitary Atlantic salmon taking its autumnal pilgrimage to its ancestral spawning grounds. In both cases, they leave the world a little more clean or nourished after passing through. Which lesson do you follow?

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that MOS Co-Founders Hazel and Joe produced weekly for WERU-FM from 2018-2024. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

Walking as little as two hours a week can reduce the risk of disease and help you live a longer life.

To learn more, read this article. 

 

What's Upstream: 

  • Register for our Riverside Family Scientist Series with Frenchman Bay Conservancy and Ellsworth Public Library. This series runs weekly until August 13th and we have lots of upcoming topics!

  • Come to an OWL Outing for women ages 16+:  Canoeing on the Narraguagus River on September 15th.

  • Discover Plants with us at Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor August 3rd. 

  • Schedule your own MOS experience. We offer private guided hikes, canoeing, and fishing. 

  • Talk to us about programming at your school this fall!

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #30


The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #30
April 2024

"[Having a MOS program series for a class] can almost guarantee that children may play and explore the outdoors more often than the child without this [series] in their life.  Maine Outdoor School has figured out how to make school not feel like work. It's the most natural and serene experience, while learning with children."
- Hancock Grammar School teacher, March 2024

Tracks:

How did MOS leave its mark this quarter?

George Stevens Academy Junior Liberty Farmer with a deer skull

Airline Community School K-2nd graders on a field trip at Baker Hill

OWL outing group participants at Roque Bluffs State Park

Jonesport 1st-grader on a field trip to Backfield Park

  • MOS is celebrating its 8th birthday this month!

  • We moved! Our office is now located on Oak Street in Ellsworth. 

  • Launched a new logo thanks to Zeraph Dylan. 

  • Guided 3 OWL outings: birding at Birch Point Trail, studying winter adaptations at Roque Bluffs State Park, and winter phenology at the Frances B. Wood Preserve. 

  • Taught program series at twelve schools!

  • Taught three programs for local homeschoolers on weather, winter phenology, and maple sugaring

  • Confirmed Katahdin hikers for the annual Summit for a Cause, peer-to-peer fundraising campaign to benefit Incredible Edible Milbridge. 

  • Opened registration for two of our summer camps, Forest Camp with Downeast Coastal Conservancy and OWLette with Women for Healthy Rural Living. 

  • Welcomed local high school student Liberty Farmer to join our programs and support us with some projects, like cleaning and fixing some teaching skulls, for her independent study project. Thanks Liberty for all your help!

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Bernadette, in an orange t-shirt, at Forest Camp in July 2023

This quarter we are honoring the memory of Bernadette Eyerman. Bernadette participated in OWLette camp, Forest Camp, and joined her mom on an OWL canoeing outing with us over the past couple years. She was a nature-loving, wise girl, and we were lucky to have known her. 

Please read her touching obituary that includes advice for all of us about how to live more meaningful lives.

Our hearts go out to the Eyerman family.

Biomimicry:

Beaked hazelnuts are quite tasty if harvested with care, but it is neither the nuts nor the beaked quality of this shrub’s fruits that are useful or interesting this time of year. What comes before the nuts—in fact, what allows for the nuts to emerge at all in the long term–are the shrub’s flowers.

Before the bright green leaves burst forth from their buds in the coming weeks, two types of flowers emerge from its branches. The yellow-brown male catkins hang like pendulums, ready for a gust of wind to carry their pollen away. Above the male catkins appearing from the twig tips are the female flowers, which for the most part are quite inconspicuous, but for the fiery fuchsia feathery fibers spilling from its tip. These tiny yet colorful flower parts are the styles—the part of the flower that serves as a tube for the pollen to enter and later fertilize the flower so it can form a fruit (those nuts we were talking about, to be exact). The placement of the female flowers above the male catkin is a clever trick to help minimize self-fertilization, which can harm a species’ population over time.

So the next time you’re feeling impatient about spring, you could explore forests and field edges in search of the tiny, bright pink flowers of beaked hazelnut. And if you take note of the spot, you could return in the fall to sample one of our native hazelnuts. 

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

Excess screen time harms child development, but providing alternatives to screens, like outdoor play time, is much more effective than just taking screens away.

Learn more about the effects of excessive screen time in this study. 

 

What's Upstream: 

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #29

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER


ISSUE #29
January 2024

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in.

OWL Outing Participants at the Forest Stewardship Program

Narraguagus High Schoolers on a field trip up Schoodic Mountain

Airline Community School students studying ice

Jonesport 1st graders on a December field trip

 


Co-Founders' Note:

This quarter was rife with activity at MOS, as usual. Program series are ongoing in eleven different schools, representing students in PreK-6th grade (except no 3rd-graders right now oddly–we’ll get some 3rd graders this winter, though)! We also did some special field trips for other 4th-12th-graders, five different public programs, and two different homeschool programs.

One special part of this quarter was getting to present at Island Readers and Writers’ Dear Teacher conference. Hazel’s workshop, which brought teachers and administrators from as far as New Brunswick and Monhegan Island, focused on the importance of taking students outside to learn. A couple participants summarized the truth about outdoor learning well: “Outdoor ed is accessible and can be modified and tweaked to fit any program!” and “Anything can be taught outside.”

Don’t forget to get outside yourself, even during this darker, colder part of the year. There’s so much to see and do, and you’ll thank yourself for it afterwards, promise!

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • Taught program series at eleven schools!

  • Led a geology program and water cycle program for a local homeschool group.

  • Presented a workshop at Island Readers and Writers’ “Dear Teacher” Conference.

  • Brought several MSAD 37 4th-12th graders up Schoodic Mountain and down Birch Point to build observation and teamwork skills.

  • Guided 3 OWL outings: foraging at Hidden Ponds, learning about mosses, lichens, and algae at Backfield Park and a special all-day forest stewardship program at Machias River Preserve.

  • Led WHRL’s Inspiration & Insight: A Women’s Nature Retreat.

  • Had our 3rd Annual New Year’s Eve Sunset Hike with Crabtree Neck Land Trust.

    Did you see our 2023 Year in Review Infographic? Please check it out on our Facebook page. 

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

This quarter’s community commendation must go to Zabet NeuCollins, who transitioned out of her position at Women for Healthy Rural Living in December. You’ll recognize Zabet from our OWL-Outdoor Women Lead project, which Zabet and MOS dreamed up back in 2020. That program has grown into monthly women’s outings, several skills workshops, like orienteering and canoeing, and an annual girls’ camp, OWLette. She also collaborated with us on other MOS/WHRL projects, like the Summit for a Cause up Katahdin. Not only has Zabet been an exceptionally organized collaborator who was a joy to work with, but also she helped us significantly reduce the barriers that Washington County women and girls face to get outside and connected to this wonderful place.

An OWL participant put it best: “The monthly, free trips that Hazel and Zabet lead reach women who are otherwise overlooked by the outdoor recreation industry, including older women who are just beginning to have space and time for outdoor adventures after a life of supporting their families and careers…it creates a space for building strong relationships across the Downeast community, as much as building confidence in outdoor activities.”

We are really going to miss working with Zabet on WHRL projects! But we wish her best of luck (and maybe even a new MOS collaboration yet to be dreamed of?) at Heart of Ellsworth!

Biomimicry:

Ground cedars and all clubmosses are what scientists call sporophytes. When reproducing, rather than putting out seed-producing structures like fruits or cones, they instead extend club-shaped reproductive structures called strobili from their fronds. The strobili begin green but as they ripen will turn hay-colored and dry out. When hit by wind, rain, or the errant foot, hoof, or wing of a passing animal, spores puff out of the strobili and drift almost weightlessly across the landscape to produce another generation of clubmosses. 

These spores are notably high in fat and indigenous peoples found that they burn rapidly. This characteristic is so significant that in the early days of photography, the spores of clubmosses were used to make a flash of light by setting a small amount ablaze.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

Ice skating is a low-impact activity that exercises almost every major muscle group.
Learn more here.

 

What's Upstream: 

  • Expect many more school programs this winter and spring! Curious about MOS coming to your school? Contact us here.

  • Come to one of our upcoming OWL Outings: birding, learning about winter adaptations, and phenology.

  • Schedule your own MOS experience! There is no better way to get outside this winter than with a guided snowshoeing adventure. 

  • We’re already making plans for summer! Got an idea for a summer camp or other program? Let us know about it!

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #28

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER


ISSUE #28
October 2023

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in.

Summit for a Cause Hikers on Katahdin

Wild & Free Campers on Great Cranberry Island

Peninsula School students with new MOS educator, Haley

Summer Naturalist Series on MDI intertidal workshop

 


Co-Founders' Note:

From teaching women how to canoe to bringing a nature day camp to children who live out on the Cranberry Isles to guiding a group of people up Katahdin, Maine’s tallest mountain, we had an amazing summer! Now, we are settling into the new routines that the school year brings and are enjoying working with both teachers that are new to our programming and veterans of MOS programming for many years.

Students in PreK-6th grade this fall already have compared leaf types, created their own field guides to the species that live around their schools, identified different groups of mushrooms, and built new connections to themselves, each other, and the natural world. We’re so proud of the ways that MOS has grown and helped more students and teachers alike every year deepen their connection to place. Read on to see what else we’ve been up to and learn about our new Naturalist Educator!

"In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught." (Baba Dioum, 1968.)

~Hazel and Joe

Our deepest condolences go out to our Fish Friends community who lost two amazing mentors in September, Charlie Kelley of Ellsworth and Thomas King of Belfast. Their hard work, dedication, and devotion to Maine children and Atlantic salmon through the Fish Friends program were essential to making Fish Friends what it is today. They have impacted hundreds of students, educators, and community members in the years that they have worked with us and we trust that their legacy will live on through everyone fortunate enough to have learned from them. 

Tracks:

  • We welcomed the newest member of the MOS team, Haley Estabrook! Learn about Haley on our Staff page. 

  • Guided several canoeing and hiking experiences for private groups. 

  • Had another great week of Forest Camp with Downeast Coastal Conservancy.

  • Continued our Summer Naturalist Series on Mount Desert Island with The Naturalist’s Notebook. 

  • Taught canoeing skills with Women for Healthy Rural Living. 

  • Had a fun week of Wild & Free camp on Great Cranberry Island with YWCA MDI. 

  • Adventured with OWL (Outdoor Women Lead) Outing Club for Women on the Orange River in Whiting and at the Hollingsworth Trail in Steuben. 

  • Concluded Summer School outdoor programming at Trenton Elementary School. 

  • Hiked Katahdin with our 2023 Summit for a Cause participants who raised money for Incredible Edible Milbridge. 

  • Led a hike all about moss with Downeast Coastal Conservancy.

  • Began school programming at 9 schools so far, with many more programs to come! 

  • Continued monthly Grasshoppers Outdoor School programming for local homeschool families focused on skull ID and animal habitats

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Photo from Ella Lewis Elementary School, Fall 2022--click on the photo to see the beautiful FBC campaign video!

This month our Community Commendations go to Frenchman Bay Conservancy in support of “A Watershed Moment for Frenchman Bay: From the Forest to the Sea,” their 3-year comprehensive campaign to seize urgent opportunities to protect land and water in the Union River and Frenchman Bay watersheds east to the Hancock County line.

“There are major threats facing Downeast Maine, from climate change to sprawling development and loss of public shoreline access for harvesters. These changes threaten to fundamentally alter our region’s identity,” says Aaron Dority, FBC Executive Director. “But together, there are still valuable stretches of undeveloped land and unspoiled shorelines that we can protect — landscapes that will return the favor by trapping planet-warming carbon, maintaining our clean water, safeguarding our fisheries, and defending us against the impacts of floods and storms.”

The campaign will raise the  funds to protect 10,000 new acres of valuable land, enhance stewardship of our preserves to maximize benefits to nature and people, and expand outdoor education in our local public schools and outdoor opportunities for all. 

To learn more and to donate please visit their website. 

Photo Credit: Frank Schulenburg

Biomimicry:

Northern harriers have been spending the summer breeding season across most of northern North America, from Alaska to Nova Scotia. Right now, they’re migrating to their winter haunts as far south as northern South America. As opposed to some migrating birds who migrate in large groups, like broad-winged hawks, harriers migrate alone over a long period of time, hunting along the way.

So the next time you’re outside, you could be especially vigilant in open marshes, meadows, or other treeless places for a low-soaring harrier hunting for food to help fuel its long journey south this fall. Harriers remind us how important open, biodiverse spaces are to help them meet their needs throughout their large range.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
“The positive effects of blue spaces on mental health include improved mood, feelings of relaxation, reduced stress and anxiety levels, and increased creativity. Seascapes and the sound of waves crashing against the shoreline have been linked to these impacts.” Learn more in this article.

 

Photo Credit: Navitour

What's Upstream: 

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #27

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER


ISSUE #27
JULY 2023

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in.

From Ellsworth to Jonesport, students young and older explored nature through field trips, hikes, OWLette camp, and schoolyard observations this quarter!

 


Co-Founders' Note:

“In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties!” — Mehmet Murat ildan

Spending so much of our lives outdoors has us especially in tune with the weather and seasonal patterns. We didn’t need the newspaper to tell us June was the rainiest here in over 25 years–we noticed! Along with the literal fog that marked the last month, the whole past quarter has been a blur of programming–our busiest yet. But through the fog, we must remember to rest and reflect so we can see those beauties within! We reached about 500 students in the last quarter ranging from 5-80-year-olds! Each person spent time outside in a huge range of weather looking closely at the beauty of nature and asking questions about it. What could be better?

As one OWLette camper said on a particularly foggy day hiking along the coast, “If we only went hiking on sunny days, we wouldn’t be able to see these amazing spider webs and trees covered in beautiful water droplets!”

Now when the sunshine comes, we’ll appreciate it all the more, won’t we? 

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • Finished regular school year programming at 14 different schools this year!

  • Completed our first Fish Friends season as team coordinators for the Maine Council of the Atlantic Salmon Federation with about 86 participating schools across the state. 

  • Held our second Orienteering Course with Women for Healthy Rural Living. 

  • Led a family-friendly Spring Observations hike with Blue Hill Public Library and Downeast Audubon. 

  • OWL-Outdoor Women Lead outings occurred at Tunk Mountain near Franklin, Tide Mill Creek in Jonesboro, and Klondike Mountain in Lubec. 

  • Grasshoppers Outdoor School students learned about what to do if they get lost or hurt in the wilderness, vernal pools, stream ecology, and edible evergreens. 

  • Guided three customized experiences for private groups large and small. 

  • Spoke on WERU’s Talk of the Towns: Take it Outside, Maine educators teaching out of doors episode. 

  • Began our Summer Naturalist Series on Mount Desert Island with The Naturalist’s Notebook and learned about birds and bugs!

  • Led a workshop for life science teachers at Woodlawn Museum. 

  • Had another amazing year at OWLette Camp with 15 girls ages 11-14 with Women for Healthy Rural Living. 

  • Enjoyed a great fundraising event at Fogtown Brewing Company for our OWL Outing Club. 

  • Started Summer School outdoor programming at Trenton Elementary School. 

  • Received applications for a new Naturalist Educator to join our team!

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Claire leading a field trip at Branch Lake Public Forest in Ellsworth. 

We bid a fond farewell to a dear member of the Maine Outdoor School team over the past year, Naturalist Educator and Certified Interpretive Guide Claire Adams.

Claire joined us last August and enriched us with her extensive background in conservation and environmental education, impeccable organizational skills, and absolutely delicious baked goods. Before she bid us adieu, she even took the extra time to organize and label our teaching supplies better and created a digital folder of outdoor lesson plans and activities organized by subject and age group that will serve us for years to come. Claire has been a fabulous teammate and educator, and we were very fortunate to have her for the 2022-23 school year.

“Claire was great! The content and the way in which she taught it meshed well with the learning styles of my students. She was very patient with an active group of students. She communicated very well with me as we worked around various scheduling conflicts. I think she excelled in review of content taught previously, while connecting it to other parts of the program.” -elementary school teacher Claire worked with this year

Claire is relocating to New Hampshire this summer, and we wish her great success on this and all her future endeavors!

Biomimicry:

Special edition written by Lamoine 6th-graders! Here’s hoping you enjoy some summer traveling adventures like salmon do.

Have you ever wondered what is in the Maine rivers? Well there is an endangered species of salmon swimming around. That species is the north Atlantic salmon. Something that is interesting about them is that they are considered anadromous because they lay their eggs in fresh water, travel to the ocean to mature, and travel back to the same river to lay eggs and DIE!!! This species is so amazing because not a lot of other animals can survive such a big journey as this amazing fish!

A female salmon can deposit up to 4,000 to 10,000 eggs with only 1 percent surviving to the next generation. Salmon can jump up to two meters to cross obstacles in the rivers which is the same height some olympic athletes can jump. Salmon often travel 50 kilometers. This is equivalent  to running a marathon every day!! The only remaining wild populations of U.S. Atlantic salmon are found in a few rivers in Maine.


This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here and enjoy the full episode that Lamoine 6th-graders wrote and performed about salmon here and one on ospreys here.


This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
“Children today can recognize 1,000 corporate logos but as few as 10 plants native to their area. This imbalance is not surprising when kids spend as many as seven hours a day in front of screens and less than 10 minutes on average outside in unstructured play.” 

 

Maine Outdoor School is leading three summer camps this summer where participants will learn how to identify at least 10 native species! 


Learn more about this study here.

 

What's Upstream: 

  • Look forward to 8 more sessions of our Summer Naturalist Series on Mount Desert Island featuring topics including fungi, flowers, and seeds. 

  • Join our two upcoming canoeing outings (⅞ and 7/15) with Women for Healthy Rural Living. 

  • Register now for our upcoming Wild & Free camp on Great Cranberry Island with YWCA MDI. 

  • Support our Summit for a Cause participants hiking Katahdin with us in August. 

  • Join our hike all about moss with Downeast Coastal Conservancy in August (info to come) 

  • Take your canoeing skills to the next level with an overnight canoe trip on Tunk Lake while raising money for a good cause

    For more info and to register for all the above visit our Events page.



ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #26

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER


ISSUE #26
APRIL 2023

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in.

OWL Outing Group for Women participants identify tracks in Machias

Ellsworth 6th-graders play a photosynthesis relay game in the snow

WABI-TV 5 visits a program in Hancock

Lamoine 5th-graders snowshoe on a field trip to a Frenchman Bay Conservancy preserve


Co-Founders' Note:

What a winter it was! It felt like spring in February and winter in March. Between what felt like zillions of school programs and stormy weather-related rescheduling situations, it flew by. We almost missed MOS's birthday month, in fact! We've been in business since April 2016 and welcome your support to keep things going and growing.

We have been feeling especially grateful to the partners we work with that make regular outdoor learning in public schools accessible, like Frenchman Bay Conservancy, Crabtree Neck Land Trust, and YWCA-MDI this winter in particular. And we’re so grateful for the teachers that partner with us to bring their students outside and make connections to outdoor school experiences both in and outside of the classroom. Chris McGuire, a grade 4&5 teacher at Beech Hill School in Otis shared with us last month,

“My students love being outside and learning about the world they live in. Knowledge has been the biggest takeaway for my class, as the learning they are doing is outside the classroom. They can see real lichen on rocks, real tracks in the snow, and real signs of erosion, or glacial erratics. This type of learning is sticking with them as a real experience in their lives”

Learn more about what’s going on at MOS below and thank you!

~Hazel and Joe

Don't forget to schedule your spring field trips!

Contact us now.

*Scheduling availability is limited.*

Tracks:

  • Maine Outdoor School was covered by WABI, the Ellsworth American, the Bangor Daily News, and the Mount Desert Islander all in just the last three months! See MOS in the News for more info.
     

  • OWL-Outdoor Women Lead outings occurred at Day Ridges Preserve in Gouldsboro, Machias River Preserve, and Hamilton Cove in Lubec with Women for Healthy Rural Living learning about landscape history clues, tracking, and winter adaptations.
     

  • No Fools in Nature, April Fools Day hike for all ages with Crabtree Neck Land Trust at their Ball Field Preserve.
     

  • Regular school programming at Ella Lewis Elementary School in Steuben, Mountain View School in Sullivan, Jonesport Elementary School, Trenton Elementary School, Cave Hill School in Eastbrook, Hancock Grammar School (K-5th grade!), Beech Hill School in Otis, Longfellow School on Great Cranberry Island, Ellsworth Elementary Middle School, Lamoine Consolidated School, Airline Community School in Aurora and Peninsula School in Prospect Harbor. (wow!)
     

  • Grasshoppers Outdoor School, a group of mostly homeschool families, continued to meet monthly and learned about winter tree ID, snow and the subnivean zone, and fire-making and shelter-building. For information about how to join and other interesting activities this group gets up to, check out the Facebook Group for the Independent Downeast Educational Alliance (IDEA). 
     

  • We confirmed the participants of this year’s Summit for a Cause, who will raise money for Incredible Edible Milbridge and hike Katahdin in August! 

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

OWL Outing participants (including Zabet NeuCollins, Assistant Director at WHRL, bottom left) hiking at Hamilton Cove in Lubec in March 2023

This quarter’s community commendation goes to Women for Healthy Rural Living (WHRL)! This powerhouse of an organization has partnered with Maine Outdoor School since 2019. MOS’ collaboration with WHRL has allowed us to significantly increase our collaborative Outdoor Women Lead (OWL) Outings to monthly as of last year, as well as offer skill-building workshops, film virtual programming, and guide the Summit for a Cause hike up Katahdin. 

There are many opportunities to join and support Women for Healthy Rural Living, including sponsoring the hikers and artists in WHRL’s Summit for a Cause and Art with a Heart fundraisers (including Hazel!), attending their many events including our upcoming OWL outings and orienteering workshop with MOS, or volunteering with them! We are fortunate to have WHRL as a partnering organization, neighbor, and overall community resource. 

Photo courtesy of Hazel Stark

Biomimicry:

The pessimists among us slander this time of year by calling it “muffler season.” The winter salt-caused rust matched with the often absurdly frost-heaved rural roads and drivers that drive with a certain level of chutzpah tend to dislodge various automotive parts and scatter them about playfully on the roadside. These frost heaves are caused by poorly drained substrate underneath sections of our roadways. On a warm day, the frozen soil will melt and liquid water will fill these poorly drained areas. Come a cold spell or a particularly cold night, the liquid water freezes, expands, and pushes the road surface up, making a frost heave. 

Now, the optimists among us can generally be found grinning from ear to ear at these freezes and thaws from the vantage point of a beaten-up old chair next to a wood-fired maple sugaring arch. They have no care for such disparaging names like “muffler season” and prefer to call this time of year maple sugaring season. From late February through the beginning of April, those same freeze and thaw cycles send our local hardwoods into overdrive in their preparation for spring. When the weather warms, pressure develops in the maple trees as they draw water from the soil. This positive pressure causes that sap to flow out of any wounds, be it from winter ice damage, a squirrel nibbling on a twig, or a maple sugarer putting a tap into the trunk. 

So the spring weather patterns that plague rural New England motorists also happen to be the same that are the boon to maple syrup production. 


This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
Sleeping outside helps your melatonin levels and natural time-cycle realign, allowing for a more restful sleep!

Learn more here.

 

What's Upstream: 

  • Registration is open for two of our free summer day camps! OWLette Camp with Women for Healthy Rural Living for girls 11-14, June 16-19th in Milbridge, and Forest Camp with Downeast Coastal Conservancy for campers ages 10-13, July 17-20th in Machias. Registration info for all our programs is also available on our Events page.
     

  • There are more opportunities to learn and adventure with OWL (Outdoor Women Lead) Outing Group for Women, including nature journaling, using community science resources, and a very special mother/daughter hike in honor of Mother’s Day. 

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #25

The Outdoor Insider

Maine Outdoor School's Quarterly E-Newsletter

Issue #25
January 2023

Archive Block
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The Outdoor Insider Archive
 

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in.

 

Narraguagus High School students at the summit of Tunk Mountain

Airline School students on a field trip to Frenchman Bay Conservancy’s Mariaville Falls

Jonesport Elementary School 2nd Grader brainstorming questions to investigate in the woods

OWL Outing Club for Women participants discover different organisms at Ingersoll Point Preserve

Co-Founders' Note:

As the days get longer and brighter once again, our programs at local schools pick up steam now that the holiday vacations are out of the way. We love doing year-round programming and, especially this time of year, getting children and adults alike outdoors to soak in the beauty and fun of winter in Maine. We had our biggest, most impactful year yet with even more to come. Check out our 2022 highlights along with the goings-on of the last quarter.

~Hazel and Joe

There are many ways to support Maine Outdoor School!
Donations of funds and goods help make our programs possible. 

Tracks:

  • Had a fantastic fall full of programs at Ella Lewis (Steuben), Airline (Aurora), Jonesport, Hancock, Lamoine, Trenton, Cave Hill (Eastbrook), and Mountain View (Sullivan) schools. 
     

  • Led Gifted and Talented program full day field trips with students from MSAD 37, including hiking up Tunk Mountain.
     

  • Continued our Grasshoppers Outdoor School monthly program with local homeschoolers.
     

  • Got Hancock County 4-H families outside after dark to learn some constellations and experience some adaptations of nocturnal animals.
     

  • Collaborated with Women for Healthy Rural Living (WHRL) to host an Orienteering Workshop and continued monthly Outdoor Women Lead (OWL) Outings.

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Photo Courtesy of Blue Hill Consolidated School

As any fan of MOS knows, we’re all about creative collaborations that get more people learning outdoors. Our latest creative collaboration is thanks to the Maine Council of the Atlantic Salmon Federation (MCASF) which has turned the coordination of their Fish Friends program over to our team. Fish Friends is the program that brings Atlantic salmon eggs into classrooms across the state for students to raise them until they develop into fry, then return them to their native rivers–Hazel even participated in this program when she was an 8th-grader!

Through Fish Friends, MCASF aims to both educate future generations on the importance of wild Atlantic salmon and fisheries conservation, as well as provide a unique and fun learning experience. MCASF is one of 6 regional councils associated with the international Atlantic Salmon Federation and they are dedicated to the conservation, protection and restoration of wild Atlantic salmon and their environment. Thanks to MCASF for working with us to get more Maine students engaged with and learning from the wonders that exist in our backyards!

Photo courtesy of Hazel Stark

Biomimicry:

With fewer fungi on the forest floor, and even well into winter when the forest floor becomes covered in snow, you can always look for polypores. One polypore that is especially easy to identify and find, and really shines when adorned with a cap of snow, is the birch polypore.

Birch polypores have been used medicinally by people indigenous to the areas where it is also native for thousands of years. It has been prized not only for its strengthening and wound healing properties, but also for being antibacterial and antiparasitic. Most notably, birch polypores have been used to treat a variety of cancers.

So the next time you’re outside, you could try to find and identify some birch polypores on a dead or dying birch tree near you and reflect on the long importance this fungus has had for people around the world. 


This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
“Similar to putting ice on an injury, cold weather can reduce inflammation and pain.”

Learn more in this article. 

 

What's Upstream: 

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #24

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

Issue #24
October 2022

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in. Visit our website to learn more.

Our new educator, Claire, starts programming at Hancock Grammar School

Campers explore the Machias River Preserve during Forest Camp with Downeast Coastal Conservancy

Summit for a Cause back at the lodge after their successful trek up Katahdin

Women of OWL outing club paddle the Narraguagus River

Co-Founders' Note:

This school year is off to such a fantastic start thanks to the addition of our new Naturalist Educator, Claire Adams! This gives us the capacity to lead more programs and guided trips for folks like you. Growing MOS to a team of four is such an exciting milestone, giving us more capacity to each do what we do best–but even better.

Read on to learn about what we were up to this summer, including the unbelievably successful first ever Summit for a Cause hike up Katahdin, which was a special highlight.
 

~Hazel and Joe

“We were incredibly impressed with our experiences this summer with Maine Outdoor School! Watching our students dig in the dirt, interact with their environment, work together, and be proud of what they learned was a true pleasure as an educator. The games and lessons were relevant to our students and brought out the innocence and fun of outdoor exploration!” -Biddeford Schools Teacher, July 2022

Tracks:

  • Welcomed our newest staff member, naturalist educator and certified interpretive guide, Claire Adams! Learn more about Claire on our staff page here.

  • Hosted Forest Camp at the Machias River Preserve with Downeast Coastal Conservancy.

  • Spent a half day down in Biddeford as part of their summer school program.

  • Taught a summer program series at Trenton Elementary.

  • Guided an expedition up Katahdin for WHRL’s Summit for a Cause.

  • Co-hosted a Gateway Milbridge fundraising concert with WHRL.

  • Led a program for homeschooling families (children ages 2-12) about the differences between insects and arachnids.

  • Hiked the Bold Coast and paddled Narraguagus with the O.W.L outing club.

  • Started school programs at Airline Community School in Aurora, Trenton Elementary School, Hancock Grammar School and Ella Lewis School in Steuben with lots of other schools scheduled to start soon.

Check out the “MOS in the News” page on our website to see where else we’ve shown up in the press!

 

Community Commendations:

This quarter, our Community Commendation goes out to all our 2022 Summit for a Cause participants! These adventurers not only reached the summit of Katahdin with MOS’ own Hazel Stark and Women for Healthy Rural Living’s (WHRL's) Zabet NeuCollins, but they also exceeded the fundraising goal by a longshot to support the Elaine Hill Memorial Nursing Scholarship.

These hikers truly embody the ideals of leadership, determination, and community-mindedness and are an inspiration to us all. Congratulations on such an amazing accomplishment!

The Elaine Hill Memorial Nursing Scholarship Fund provides financial assistance to residents of Washington and Hancock County who are pursuing a post-secondary nursing education. For more information, please visit WHRL’s website.

Biomimicry:

Photo courtesy of Jocelyn Anderson

Though it can feel like this is the season of leaving, with the migration away from here of the hummingbirds, warblers, and summer people marking the season, it is also a season of arriving. The harbinger of this arrival season is the larger flocks of dark-eyed juncos.

If you are someone who likes nerding out about evolution, juncos are the species for you. There is wild variability among junco appearance depending on their region. In all, there are six subspecies of dark-eyed juncos specific to different regions across North America, and their ranges even overlap in some areas so can be found hanging out in the same flocks. But the key characteristics that unite them (besides their DNA of course), are their stout pink bills and their white outer tail feathers.

So the next time you’re outside, you can endeavor to identify a junco. This time of year, they’re easy to notice as they are flocking up in large groups in a driveway or hedge near you. Don’t let the migration away from here of so many other species get you down; there are others coming to enjoy the lesser-known bounties of winter on their way.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

“Exposure to nature can help relieve depression and anxiety, and even help heal trauma.”

Learn more in this article.

 

What's Upstream: 

  • Even more school programming will be starting, most of which is in partnership with Frenchman Bay Conservancy. Be sure to schedule your winter and spring programming ASAP before those months fill up.

  • We’ll be supporting Downeast Nature Tours with some Bar Harbor cruise ship bus tours later this month.

  • An orienteering basics course will be offered in collaboration with WHRL covering skills such as how to use a compass, take bearings, and triangulate your location. (Please note there is currently a waitlist.)

  • Opportunities to join the Outdoor Women Lead (OWL) outing group for stargazing, learning about unique organisms, and winter plant identification.

  • Our annual New Moon Special comes up this fall, so keep an eye out and give the gift of a customized outdoor experience to the naturalist (or aspiring naturalist) in your life.

    ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

    VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #23

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

Issue #23
July 2022

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in. Visit our website to learn more.

OWLette campers learning how to use binoculars while staying out of the rain

Summits and Stories with the Milbridge Public Library was a hit on Pigeon Hill

OWL Outing Group harvested rose petals for a special OWL fundraising drink Fogtown Brewing made

a group shot on the last day of OWLette camp

Co-Founders' Note:

As the fireweed blooms, so does MOS! We’ve had a fantastic spring and the summer is off to an even better start. The most exciting news is that we are hiring a full time Outdoor School Naturalist Educator to help us increase our capacity to deliver more public school programs across Downeast Maine starting this fall. Applications were due 7/10 and we're reviewing them now. If you missed the deadline and are still interested, get in touch with us. 

One especially exciting piece of our recent growth is an expanded partnership with Frenchman Bay Conservancy, which has committed to providing outdoor school program series with us in their 10 local schools during the 2022-23 school year. If you work at one of these schools roughly between Steuben, Aurora, and Trenton and you want in, please get in touch with rain@maineoutdoorschool.org.

Meanwhile, the school year went out with a bang with outdoor programs happening right up through the last week of school. During the 2021-22 school year, MOS led custom, standards-aligned outdoor programming at 11 schools, reaching over 700 students, many through program series (with students and their teachers getting outside regularly). Check out the specifics from this past spring in the Tracks section below.

We couldn’t do this without your support! With gratitude for all you MOS cheerleaders out there.
 

~Hazel and Joe

“It was so amazing to have MOS work with my classes this year! It is so amazing to see how quickly and fully Hazel connects with students and engages their curiosity around deep topics. I was amazed by how much students who often have a hard time in the traditional classroom setting thrived when their strengths could be showcased outside, which is truly a testament to MOS' amazing work!” -Meg Charest, Narraguagus Jr/Sr High School 7th/8th grade English Language Arts teacher, June 2022

Want outdoor school programming with us during the 22-23 school year?
Email Rain and let her know what you're looking for.

Tracks:

  • Taught a Fly-tying Workshop at Eastport Arts Center and guided a fly fishing outing

  • Led a Community Science program, showing participants how to use and contribute to community science projects, and another Summits & Stories program with Milbridge Public Library

  • Had several OWL-Outdoor Women Lead outings including starting a nature journal and identifying spring plants, birds, and other wildlife 

  • Facilitated 3 nature-based corporate teambuilding events with Visit.org 

  • Led three days of programming for Outdoors Week at Sedgwick Elementary School (read the Ellsworth American article here)

  • Finished the 2021-22 school year with programs at Lamoine, Hancock, Peninsula (Gouldsboro), Trenton, Milbridge, Harrington, and a field trip for Cornerspring Montessori School (Belfast)

  • Led our second OWLette camp for 12 girls between the ages of 11 and 16 with Women for Healthy Rural Living (WHRL)

  • Celebrated our Outdoor Women Lead (OWL) collaboration with Women for Healthy Rural Living at Fogtown Brewing Company. A portion of the proceeds from this event went to OWL programs.

Check out the “MOS in the News” page on our website to see where else we’ve shown up in the press!

 

Community Commendations:

For the second summer in a row, we managed to land another amazing volunteer to support with OWLette camp! This year, we had Sara Williams join us every day and she was fantastic.

She shared her knowledge about local ecology, and seabirds in particular, and her experience as a wildlife biologist. She had positive and contagious enthusiasm matched with an incredible sense of caring for each camper. Her presence made OWLette camp extra impactful for those girls this year and we are so grateful!

Biomimicry:

Photo courtesy of Dominic Sherony

I was used to seeing nighthawk flocks flying high in the sky making a short, buzzy call reminiscent of a woodcock’s “peent”, but this one was alone and very low and not making that sound. Could this relatively small bird make such a spooky, big noise? Listen to the full 5-minute episode to hear their spooky booming sound.

Nighthawk populations in the US have declined by nearly 50% since the mid-1960s, threatened largely by nesting habitat loss and the use of pesticides that have decreased the availability of their insect food. Nighthawks are a helpful reminder of the food chain—that whatever we may want to do to reduce the biting bugs that may bug us reduces the chances for survival of the other species that rely on those same bugs.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

“Children who play freely outdoors on a daily basis for prolonged periods of time have better gross and fine motor skills, core strength, stability and flexibility, endurance, vision, and attention spans.”

Learn more in this article.

 

What's Upstream: 

We have been supporting Downeast Coastal Conservancy with an evaluation project assessing their community's needs and interests in both structure and quantity of environmental education programming. The results will be used by DCC staff to create a long-term strategy to provide responsive, consistent programs that help them meet their mission: “Downeast Coastal Conservancy conserves essential ecological habitats, engages the local community, and fosters an environment where wildlife and people thrive in coastal Washington County, Maine.” You can help by filling out this survey to share your thoughts about outdoor education in coastal Washington County.

Issue #22

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #22
APRIL 2022

 

Most people know that getting outside is healthy and fun, but struggle with meaningfully bringing nature’s benefits into their personal lives, classrooms, or organizations. That’s where we come in.

OWL Outing Group for Women hiking the Boot Head Preserve

Jonesport 2nd graders on a field trip

Otter tracks and beaver chew discovered by Milbridge Pre-K students

Hazel guiding a hike with the Naturalist’s Notebook in Seal Harbor

Co-Founders' Note:

As outdoors-people, the weather influences nearly every moment of our days. This winter was uniquely crazy weatherwise, keeping us on our toes, but despite temperatures ranging from -20 to 60F, pouring rain, raging winds, dumping snow, and slippery ice and mud, our outdoor programming plate was full! Sure, we had to reschedule some things due to snow days and extreme wind chill, but what better way is there to learn about how wildlife deals with the challenging conditions of winter than to deal with those conditions ourselves?

In addition to our continued (and increasing) school programs across Hancock and Washington Counties, we were pleased to expand our partnerships with both Crabtree Neck Land Trust at Hancock Grammar School and Women for Healthy Rural Living with our Outdoor Women Lead (OWL) program and a unique nursing scholarship fundraising event Hazel will be guiding on Mt. Katahdin this summer. The OWL Outing Group for Women has monthly outings in 2022 and we’ve already had 22 women join us, several of whom came to each of our 3 outings so far.

This winter definitely exuded a sense of, “if outdoor learning during the toughest season of the year has been so popular and beneficial, we can’t wait for spring and summer!” Be sure to check out our Events page (which is positively brimming right now) to find out about how you can join us outside. ALSO, we just completed a big website update thanks to Rain Perez, our amazing Communications and Marketing Assistant. It’s slimmed down and easier to navigate. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Thanks to you, our dedicated supporters and cheerleaders, as we continue along this rewarding entrepreneurial journey.

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • Birding, animal signs, and winter plant identification OWL outings. 

  • Winter Adaptations program with the Naturalist’s Notebook. 

  • Received applicants for WHRL’s “Love a Nurse” Elaine Hill Memorial Nursing Scholarship fundraiser for ten participants to join Registered Maine Guide and MOS co-founder, Hazel Stark, up Mount Katahdin in August. 

  • Lots of school programs! Began programming again at Milbridge Elementary School and Hancock Grammar School with new programs at Lamoine and Peninsula Schools. Continued programming with Trenton Elementary and Narraguagus 7th & 8th grade. Concluded program series with DW Merritt 2nd & 4th grade, Jonesport 2nd grade, and Mountain View 5th grade. 

  • Led a virtual corporate teambuilding event to get professionals connecting with nature with Visit.org

  • Just this week: featured in an article in the Ellsworth American.

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Hazel talking through winter adaptations of local birds and mammals

This quarter’s community commendation goes to The Naturalist’s Notebook in Seal Harbor!

The Naturalist’s Notebook is a one-of-a-kind exploratorium shop merging science, art, and nature. Covering a vast variety of topics, their space is an interactive wonderland sure to fascinate visitors of all ages. The best part is your adventure does not end there! They sell all the supplies you need to continue your scientific exploration.

MOS had an amazing time collaborating with Jordan Chalfant from The Naturalist’s Notebook on our Winter Adaptations program this February where we combined a short hike with viewing specimens at the store to learn more about our local wildlife and how they deal with winter. We look forward to future collaborations and feel fortunate that they provide resources for aspiring naturalists in our community.

Biomimicry:

You know that first workday after daylight savings time in March when your alarm going off feels like the rudest thing you could ever imagine? And then you are rewarded with sunlight later in the day, but at the expense of losing some dark, leisurely evening time. Bedtime arrives all of a sudden but you’re not tired, though you know you really should force yourself to sleep to get your body in sync with the clock. Fortunately, the human species is not alone in this rude awakening this time of year. Maine’s hibernators are waking up and there’s not even a cup of coffee and hot breakfast within reach.

Regardless of what the alarm clock says indoors, that internal clock on hibernators is buzzing now too. With warmer days, longer daylight hours, and the likelihood of more food becoming available now compared to when they hunkered down in the fall, a set of chemical reactions in their brains is telling them to wake up.

The process of waking up from hibernation isn’t fast, and while you might groggily wander around until you’re able to settle down with a hot cup of caffeine, hibernating mammals emerging from their winter homes, or hibernacula, aren’t even rewarded with an easy-to-find breakfast. This is why it is so important to be aware of the emergence of these hungry, groggy mammals this time of year. If you haven’t already, now’s the time to take down your birdfeeders, secure your trash, and make sure your dog food is stowed away. While it might seem nice in theory to leave food out for wildlife, getting them accustomed to humans as a source of food is much more dangerous for them, and us.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

Resilience Tip:
“Giving our children a naturalist’s education can be a powerful way to help develop science and language skills, as well as provide them with a deeper connection to the world around them.”
(Learn more in this article.)

What's Upstream: 

  • Join our OWL outings across Washington County and start a nature journal, identify spring plants, birds, and a variety of other wildlife.

  • Register now for our two FREE summer day camps! OWLette Camp for girls in Milbridge June 27th - 30 and Forest Camp (which already has a waitlist) with Downeast Coastal Conservancy in Machias from July 18th - 21st.

  • Enjoy another Summits & Stories hike up Pigeon Hill with Milbridge Public Library on Saturday June 4th.

  • More school programs in Trenton, Hancock, Gouldsboro, Milbridge, Harrington, and–new this year–Sedgwick and Lamoine!

  • Include us in your summer plans! Want an unforgettable memory with visiting family? A unique adventure to celebrate a birthday, graduation, or engagement? Book your guided experience here.

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #21

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #21
JANUARY 2022

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

Narraguagus high schoolers on a field trip

Jonesport 2nd grader making discoveries with a magnifying glass

Practicing spelling and tree identification at once

Hancock Kindergarteners on a hiking and birding field trip

Co-Founders' Note:

Looking back on past January editions of The Outdoor Insider, we realized that we consistently reflected, “last year was MOS’s busiest year yet!” At the risk of sounding like a nuthatch, that is true again this year–but this time 2021 saw growth reflected by orders of magnitude. We hope you’ll dig into some of our 2021 “quick stats” in the graphic below.

One particular highlight from 2021 is the amount of community partners we collaborated with. At the conclusion of 2020, we had set a goal of forging at least one new partnership in 2021. Instead, we began new partnerships with 6 non-profit organizations, delivered programming at 2 new schools, and maintained or expanded past partnerships with 17 other schools and organizations. As a result of all this growth and opportunity, we were able to hire Rain Perez as our Communications and Marketing Assistant to allow Hazel to have more time for providing outdoor programming.

2021 illustrated the importance of collaboration and teamwork that is core not only to our mission and the resilience of the communities we live in but also to the resilience of the forest. Trees wouldn’t be able to exchange information and nutrients with each other without mycorrhizae and we wouldn’t have been able to pass the threshold of our 5th year in business (which only about half of small businesses do) without YOU!

Thanks for believing in us and in the critical importance of spending time outdoors to learn, adventure, play, and grow!

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • Joined author Tom Wessels’ discussion of his new book "New England's Roadside Ecology." Hosted by Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor via Zoom.

  • Weekly school programs, field trips and short programs with Washington and Hancock County students in 8 different schools and grades.

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

Community Commendations:

Participants at CNLT's New Year's Eve Hike

This quarter’s community commendation goes to MOS community partner, Crabtree Neck Land Trust (CNLT)!

CNLT's mission is to preserve land on and near the Crabtree Neck peninsula in Hancock, Maine in order to benefit the quality of life of both the natural world and the Hancock community. Their “small but mighty” organization works toward this mission through the dedicated efforts of a fantastic board of directors, team of volunteers, and community support.

MOS has been fortunate to collaborate with CNLT on our public New Year's Eve Sunset Hike at Old Pond Railway Trail and on a series of outdoor education electives with Hancock Grammar School starting this month. We look forward to more programs with CNLT in 2022, and more opportunities for folks to discover, adventure, and enjoy their six public preserves.

Our deepest condolences go out to the Milbridge Elementary School community who lost their principal Maria White in December. Ms. White was a committed supporter of our outdoor programming at Milbridge Elementary School since 2017.

During a newsletter interview a few years ago, Maria shared some advice we could all benefit from remembering: "People need someone sometimes to listen and vent to. If you can help them to solve a problem, great; but if you can’t help them solve a problem, listen and acknowledge that and be honest that you don’t always know the answers."

Biomimicry:

While I usually think of evergreens as a feature of the north, there are actually far more evergreens in tropical areas where even the broadleaf trees can be evergreen. Being deciduous, or losing your leaves every fall, is an adaptation to the cold, dry, dark winter season of the north. Why keep your big, broad leaves if there isn’t enough sunshine to photosynthesize very well and you risk freezing or dehydrating? But there is a cost to that strategy; dropping all your leaves robs you of nutrients which will need to be replenished from nutrient-rich soils in the spring, which takes a lot of energy. So, we find deciduous trees in the north in areas with more nutrient-rich soils and evergreens in areas of nutrient-poor soils where that annual infusion of extra nutrients is unlikely. Since evergreens are equipped to function pretty steadily throughout the year without those extra nutrients in the spring, it’s just the right spot for them.

Are you more like a deciduous plant that goes dormant this time of year and relies on an infusion of energy in the spring or are you like an evergreen that adapts to keep a pretty steady pace throughout the whole year? The next time you’re outside, you could try to find an evergreen like a fir tree or a deciduous tree like an oak and see which one you can relate to more this time of year.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:

Looking for a New Year’s resolution? Just 5 hours outdoors a month will improve your overall happiness! That is less than an hour and a half a week.
(Learn more in this video.)

 

What's Upstream: 

OWL Outing Group for Women (in partnership with WHRL) hikes planned for this winter in Steuben, Machias, and Lubec.

  • DW Merritt 2nd and 4th grade and Mountain View 5th grade program series concluding this month.

  • Programming at Trenton Elementary School and Jonesport 2nd grade continues.

  • New Hancock Grammar School programs begin: electives for middle schoolers and a program series for two 1st grade classes in partnership with Crabtree Neck Land Trust.

  • Regular programming begins at Lamoine and Peninsula schools in partnership with Downeast Audubon.

  • More programming to come at Harrington Elementary and Narraguagus Jr/Sr High School.

  • Winter Adaptations walk with the Naturalist’s Notebook in Seal Harbor on 2/12.

  • OWLette camp for girls happening again in late June–stay tuned for details

ALL MOS PROGRAMS ARE FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE AND SUIT EXPLORERS OF ANY AGE. 

VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR IDEAS OR CONTACT US TO SCHEDULE YOUR UNIQUE EXPERIENCE.

ISSUE #20

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #20
OCTOBER 2021

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

OWL Outing Club for Women at the summit of Tunk Mountain

Our new sign at our office

A paddling adventure for Whale Camp teens on the Orange River

Discovery of a grasshopper during a Family Nature Club outing

Co-Founders' Note:

This fall marks the sixth fall of offering programming in MOS’s history and for the first time our program schedule is just about fully booked; we have already started booking programs to occur this winter and spring. Compared to a year ago at this time, we are leading more than triple the number of custom, standards-aligned outdoor programming at public schools right now.

Meanwhile, we are building a house. We apparently don’t shy away from taking on big, intimidating projects. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from starting a business in Downeast Maine and building a house, it’s that big projects take time. Some steps feel excruciatingly slow and can fill you with worry, but celebrating the milestones, no matter how small, is key. Another lesson is to know when you need to ask for help and to prioritize collaboration opportunities at every step.

This summer, with so many programs scheduled for the foreseeable future, we recognized MOS needed help with the growing stack of to-do’s that were becoming a bit overwhelming. So we hired Rain Perez (learn about her here) to be our first ever Communications and Marketing Assistant--a major milestone! Her work is allowing us to focus more on MOS programs and long-term strategy--so you have her to thank for putting together this very e-newsletter.

Here’s to big projects and milestones and gratitude for having a team and so many collaborators who have made all these dreams come true!

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • Led three Family Nature Club outings with Downeast Coastal Conservancy in Steuben, Lubec and Machias.

  • Held two OWL (Outdoor Women Lead) Outing Club for Women outings at Tunk Mountain and Catherine Mountain.

  • Hosted our second OWLette free girls’ summer camp with Women for Healthy Rural Living, featured on both News Center Maine and ABC 7

  • Took a group from Bowdoin College’s Upward Bound program to the intertidal zone of Mowry Beach in Lubec.

  • Collaborated with Mano en Mano and led a hike in Steuben for their Migrant Education Program.

  • Guided hikes and paddling adventures for over 25 visitors to the area

  • Co-Founder and Co-CEO Hazel Stark appeared as a panelist on Maine Calling discussing Foraging.

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

 

Community Commendations:

OWLette volunteer Jackie Boothby making leaf rubbings alongside campers

This quarter’s community commendation goes to our August OWLette volunteer, Jackie Boothby! When Jackie expressed interest in volunteering, we knew that her lifetime of experience as a naturalist would be a huge asset to OWLette and we were fortunate that she was with us every day of the August program. The knowledge and personal experience she shared with our campers was especially helpful when learning to use binoculars, identifying birds, and even asking engaging and thought provoking questions.

Because Jackie is the living embodiment of OWLette’s ideals, she served as the perfect role model and leader for our girls. We look forward to Jackie's involvement in future programs and having more adventures together.

 

Biomimicry:

Growing along the sprawling branches of this shrub that can grow up to fifteen feet tall are small flowers with thin, crinkly petals reminiscent of one-inch strips of yellow tinsel arranged haphazardly around a center point—as if a spider were frozen mid-gallop, legs splayed in every direction in an effort to move fast despite an excess of legs. Its blooming time coinciding with Halloween and its spider-like yellow flowers make “witch hazel” an appropriate name for this unique plant.

Today, the plant is processed and distilled in large quantities for bottling and sale, but a poultice of the leaves and bark or even a wash applied externally to certain skin rashes or infections can have a similar effect with little processing. Witch hazel’s tightening and toning qualities in the form of a wash or salve can even help with varicose veins. The branches of this unique and useful plant have also been used to make bows and dowsing rods, to help find water, or, rumor has it, missing children. Despite this plant’s unusual flowering time and, to some eyes, its creepy appearance, witch hazel sure has a lot to offer the human world.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
One of the most effective activities to reinvigorate the brain is to spend time in nature.
(Learn more in this article.)

 

What's Upstream: 

Join us for Summits & Stories on Pigeon Hill with Milbridge Public Library Saturday, October 16th.

We are also looking forward to our weekly school programs at DW Merritt Elementary with grades 2 and 4, 2nd-graders at Jonesport Elementary, two Kindergarten classes at Hancock Grammar School, two 5th grade classes at Mountain View School, plus some field trips and short programs for some other Downeast Maine students.
Thanks to Frenchman Bay Conservancy for their continued partnership supporting outdoor programming at Mountain View School and new programs at Hancock Grammar, which Crabtree Neck Land Trust is also supporting.

If you would like to book winter and spring school programming, it is first come first served scheduling so please reach out soon.


Stay tuned to our Events page to learn of other opportunities. You can also check out our public events calendar. Also be on the lookout for our new sign in front of our new office, coming soon!

All MOS programs are fully customizable and suit learners of any age. Visit our website or contact us to learn more.

ISSUE #19

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #19
JULY 2021

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

Harrington 5th-grader creates a video about lobsters

Women taking a break during the Women's Bike Ride

Upward Bound participant takes in the Bold Coast

OWLette camp participants

Co-Founders' Note:

Big, bold MOS developments occurred this quarter! We were busier than ever with school programs and many community programs and guided experiences for folks on the weekends too. Re-reading the Tracks section below leaves us wondering how we did all that!

On top of all that fantastic programming, we moved offices! We are now located at 87 Main Street in Milbridge in an office within the Women for Healthy Rural Living (WHRL) building across from Milbridge Commons Wellness Park. This is a really positive move as it places us in a more public-facing and convenient downtown location, and it is also a treat to be even closer to the fantastic WHRL team, which continues to be an important MOS partner, specifically through our collaborative OWL-Outdoor Women Lead project.

A great test of the much faster internet in this new office was Hazel attending a 16-hour Racial Equity Institute training via Zoom, which helped bolster our understanding of racism in its institutional and structural forms--critical background information as MOS continues to strive towards equity in all aspects of our organization.

We are so proud of the ways we made an impact this quarter and more confident than ever that our work will continue to make a difference into the future. Please read on to learn more and thank you for your support and interest!

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • Facilitated a virtual Gifted & Talented program resulting in a student creating this great video about lobsters

  • Taught a flurry of outdoor, standards-aligned school programs for all PreK-8th-graders in Trenton, Beals, Harrington, and Edmunds; 5th-graders in Sullivan; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 6th-graders in Milbridge; 5th-graders in Jonesport; and 3rd-8th-graders in Lubec (wow!)

  • Got Washington County families outside and learning from nature as part of our Family Nature Club with Downeast Coastal Conservancy (more outings coming up!)

  • Facilitated two virtual corporate teambuilding experiences focused on nature connection with corporate professionals across the country

  • Led professional development opportunities for Maine teachers learning to align nature-based activities to standards and build outdoor classroom spaces

  • Designed and led a lesson plan and training for Downeast Coastal Conservancy staff looking to enhance their school program offerings

  • Guided a travel writer on a hike who later featured MOS in her blog

  • Got women hiking and biking together as part of the OWL-Outdoor Women Lead Outing Club for Women with Women for Healthy Rural Living and the Bicycle Coalition of Maine (more outings coming up!)

  • Led our first ever OWLette summer day camp for girls with WHRL focused on building outdoor, naturalist, and gardening skills (see the News Center Maine highlight here)

  • Created citizen/community science kits now available to check out from the Milbridge Public Library and led a birding hike for citizen science month in partnership with the library

  • Led two hikes and nature observation activities for Washington County teens participating in Bowdoin College’s Upward Bound program

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

 

Milbridge 2nd-grader making a seed ball to spread native wildflower seeds!

Community Commendations:

This quarter’s Community Commendation goes out to Patricia Hayes of Narraguagus Pottery in Cherryfield! When Milbridge Elementary School students wanted to do an end-of-year project focused on helping local plants, we thought that making seed balls would do the trick, but we needed some clay to do the job and Patricia donated some clay to the cause!

Combining native wildflower seeds (provided by Wild Seed Project), potting soil, and clay allowed students to make seed balls they could throw around their yards to encourage native plants to grow (click here for instructions to do this on your own!) They had a blast and made a difference. Thanks for your key support on that project, Patricia!

 

Biomimicry:

On a beautiful sunny morning last summer in a rare moment of calm in the relatively early days of the pandemic, I found myself alone and staring out the window with my camera nearby. I turned to the simple flowers of buttercup for inspiration and was in awe of the contrast between their yellow flowers and the nearby purple blossoms of red clover. I was reminded of that exact color combination that appears between goldenrods and New England asters in late summer. Yellow and purple are reciprocal colors—not only attractive to the human eye, but attractive to more pollinators than either color would attract alone. Friends helping friends.

While there is a lot going on out there and in our lives, there is so much to learn from a field of yellow buttercups and red clovers contributing to the success of the plant community, not just a single species, with their complementary contributions.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
Getting kids outside for 40 extra minutes a day drops rates of myopia (improving vision).
(Read more in this podcast transcript)

 

What's Upstream: 

We’re getting ready to schedule school programs again this fall while we continue to provide guided hikes, paddling experiences, and nature exploration through:


Stay tuned to our Events page to learn of other opportunities. You can also check out our public events calendar. Also be on the lookout for our new sign in front of our new office, coming soon!

All MOS programs are fully customizable and suit learners of any age. Visit our website or contact us to learn more.

ISSUE #18

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #18
APRIL 2021

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

1st-grader learning how to snowshoe

A future outdoor school teacher?

A northern flicker feather discovered by a student

Knitting kits ready to send to participants of the virtual Downeast Roots Festival Series workshop

Co-Founders' Note:

This past year has been such a whirlwind that we nearly forgot that it’s Maine Outdoor School’s 5th birthday! We incorporated MOS in April 2016, just a few months after Hazel completed her graduate program and only a few weeks before Joe finished his. We delivered our first MOS programming just three months later.

Making it to this 5 year marker is a huge victory, not only due to the COVID-19 pandemic punctuating the past year, but also because under “normal” conditions only about half of small businesses last five years. It has never been an easy journey--we have both had to balance other jobs to make ends meet, for example--but our success illustrates the hunger for outdoor learning and connection to nature that we have been able to provide.

Over 15 Maine schools in Hancock and Washington Counties have experienced our custom, standards-aligned outdoor programming. This has been possible through the passion and budget-balancing expertise of committed principals, generous parent-teacher organizations, and the partnership of more than 5 local non-profit organizations who value the importance of outdoor education in their communities. Locals and visitors alike have enjoyed guided hikes and paddling adventures and learned how to fly fish, snowshoe, and even knit and tie flies. We have taught teachers and land trust staff how to incorporate outdoor education into their work and inspired college students about our entrepreneurial journey.

We are so rewarded by this work and beyond grateful for the support and commitment that you, our community of followers and cheerleaders near and far, have shown us. Without you, we could never have gotten to this exciting 5 year milestone. Thank you!

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • We provided custom, standards-aligned programming in 3 schools

  • We taught people how to knit as part of the Downeast Roots Festival Series

  • We got people out snowshoeing with the Milbridge Public Library

  • We guided locals and visitors on educational hikes

  • We presented a webinar about phenology and spring signs for Downeast Coastal Conservancy and Downeast Lakes Land Trust

  • We showed up in the news a lot--on a TV station and several newspapers!

 

Community Commendations:

This quarter’s community commendation goes to reporter Alyssa Thurlow at WABI-TV 5 News! Alyssa had reached out to us late last summer wanting to learn about the outdoor classroom we built at Milbridge Elementary School and did a fantastic feature on that project.

This winter, she wanted to do a piece on how outdoor school works during the cold temperatures and snow of winter so she joined us for a program at Mountain View School. What was going to be a short feature turned into a detailed 2-part feature about outdoor classrooms across Maine. Thanks to Alyssa for doing such a great job at highlighting this important growing trend in education!

 

Biomimicry:

Turkey vultures are one of the many essential workers of our ecosystems. They manage waste by never hunting prey—they exclusively scavenge from animals that died from some other cause. Their featherless heads help keep them clean when feeding from a carcass and they excrete liquid uric acid onto their legs which also helps keep the bacteria down. Good hygiene may not come to mind when considering these scavengers, but these rather gruesome hygiene strategies help reduce the spread of disease.

The pandemic isn’t over yet, so we should all endeavor to be like the turkey vulture: maintain good hygiene and be essential to someone by safely connecting with someone (and reducing your waste, as always)!

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
Teaching kids outside helps them thrive.
(Learn more here.)

 

What's Upstream: 

We will be moving to a new office location in Milbridge this spring, so if you notice our sign disappear from our current spot, don't worry! Stay tuned for details about our new spot. Meanwhile...

Programs in Milbridge, Harrington, and Mountain View Schools will continue this spring. We’ll also work with students from Lubec, Edmunds, Beals, Jonesport, and Trenton. Teachers from the Blue Hill area will learn about aligning nature-based activities to standards thanks to our connection with Blue Hill Heritage Trust and teachers from southern Maine and Aroostook and Washington Counties will learn about outdoor classroom strategies thanks to our connection with Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

Not a student or teacher in any of those places? We have some options for you, too! Visit our Events page for more information about the below offerings.

  • Get involved in Community (AKA citizen) Science with the Milbridge Public Library on 4/25

  • Join the OWL Outing Club for Women on an outing near Milbridge this spring or summer

  • Explore and learn while hiking with your family in our Family Nature Club with Downeast Coastal Conservancy from Steuben to Lubec

  • Sign up a girl for a free summer day camp in Milbridge: OWLette (details coming soon)

  • Book a guided hiking, canoeing, or fly fishing adventure with us (click here)

All MOS programs are fully customizable and suit learners of any age. Visit our website or contact us to learn more.

ISSUE #17

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #17
JANUARY 2021

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

Learning from needle ice with Mountain View 7th/8th-graders

A guided hike for some newlyweds

A guided canoe trip for a family

Soap made at a Downeast Roots Festival Series workshop

Co-Founders' Note:

Of all the years we’ve said, “Happy New Year,” this one sure feels the most meaningful! 2020 was hard for all of us in so many different ways and we are ready for that feeling of “reset” that a new year brings. However, despite the challenges of the pandemic in 2020, MOS continued to connect people with the outdoors through:

  • Standards-aligned, outdoor program series at Milbridge Elementary School, Jonesport Elementary School, Mountain View School in Sullivan, and Lubec Consolidated School

  • Building a permanent outdoor classroom at Milbridge Elementary School

  • Professional development opportunities for adults through a guest lecture at College of the Atlantic; webinars with Blue Hill Heritage Trust, Frenchman Bay Conservancy, and Community Learning for ME; a restorative practices training with Healthy Acadia; and a teacher training in Lubec

  • Community programming, including hikes, soapmaking, and winter family activities

  • Virtual programming on backyard outdoor activities, naturalist skills, and school science subjects

  • New or expanded partnerships with TREE (Transforming Rural Experience in Education), Frenchman Bay Conservancy, Women for Healthy Rural Living, Lubec Consolidated School, Healthy Acadia, and the Milbridge Public Library

  • Family-friendly guided hikes, paddling, and fly-fishing experiences

We had interactive face-to-face time (whether in person or via Zoom) with about 400 people plus thousands more who viewed our educational videos online (over 6,000 from our OWL series alone)--an impressive reach considering the challenges of the pandemic.

“MOS has been a blessing before and during the pandemic and I’m sure it will be after the pandemic too. It created an opportunity for my students to have educational experiences outside with trained educators. They are learning things I truly don’t believe I could have done without MOS.” -Ally Loukas, Milbridge 1st Grade teacher, December 2020 (see more testimonials here)

In 2021, we will continue to facilitate COVID-responsive, nature-based learning experiences for schools, community members, and visiting families thanks to your support. May you find peace and comfort in the outdoors in what we hope is a brighter year for us all.
 

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • Started new program series with classes at Mountain View School, Milbridge Elementary School, and Lubec Consolidated School

  • Continued to get great use out of Milbridge’s outdoor classroom and new chalkboard

  • Led 3 Summits & Stories hikes with the Milbridge Public Library

  • Continued providing guided hikes and paddling experiences to visitors

  • Taught community members how to make soap

  • Were highlighted in the Portland Press Herald in an article about outdoor podcasts

  • Concluded the OWL: Outdoor Women Lead 2020 virtual program series

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

 

Hazel guiding the photographer’s family on an educational hike

Community Commendations:

This quarter’s Community Commendation goes to CEI’s Women’s Business Center! They sent professional photographers out to a variety of Maine businesses to be able to promote these businesses through high quality photos of Maine female entrepreneurs in action. They selected Maine Outdoor School as one of those businesses! You’ll start to notice some impressive new photos of Hazel in action on our website, starting with our new-and-improved Guiding page. Thanks to the WBC for lining up photographer Bridges Aderhold to provide us with such amazing photos!

 

Biomimicry:

The plant that probably gets the most attention from our students in the fall is burdock. These tough plants have round seed heads that do an amazing job of sticking to mammal fur and clothing. It’s a great adaptation for distributing their seeds far and wide (and annoying sheep farmers and pet owners). Burdock might also be our favorite example of biomimicry: Velcro was invented and designed to mimic the grippy qualities of burdock.

Burdock reminds us that there’s always more than one way to solve a problem. If you can’t fly, walk, and if you can’t walk, then perhaps you can hitch a ride with others! Sometimes getting things done just takes a little creativity and often a bit of help from others.

 

Resilience Tip:
To stay safe and comfortable outdoors in the winter, “make sure the hands, head, heart and feet are covered.”
(Learn more about being prepared for winter outdoors here.)

 

What's Upstream: 

This winter, we will continue to provide regular outdoor school programming at Milbridge Elementary School and are wrapping up our series at Mountain View School. And, snow conditions permitting, stay tuned for some snowshoeing opportunities this winter! Meanwhile, we are making plans for spring and summer outdoor community programming with Women for Healthy Rural Living and Downeast Coastal Conservancy.

As always, we welcome your program ideas and wishes! If we can help you get outdoor programming into your local school, provide your family with an educational outdoor adventure, or provide professional development opportunities in outdoor education, please reach out to us.

All MOS programs are fully customizable and suit learners of any age. Visit our website or contact us to learn more.

ISSUE #16

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #16
OCTOBER 2020

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

New video from the OWL series

An interview with WABI-TV5 about Milbridge's outdoor classroom

Youth participants of a summer restorative practices program

Lubec teacher training

Co-Founders' Note:

In our July edition of The Outdoor Insider, we were in the midst of an eerily quiet time here at MOS and were feeling worried about what the rest of the summer and early fall would bring. But sending out that e-newsletter almost felt like waving a magic wand! Afterwards, many donations rolled in from so many of you and we suddenly had our greatest uptick in program interest in our four-year history of programming! Thank you! Check out the Tracks section below to learn about our work from July-September.

The most noteworthy aspect of the last few months has been an amazing number of calls from the press--locally and nationally. As schools were considering how to safely reopen this fall, people all over the world were considering with fresh eyes the benefits of outdoor school. But many started to wonder how it would be possible in colder climates, like Maine. So we started getting calls from many major news agencies to learn how it’s possible. We were featured in US News & World Report, the Bangor Daily News, and WABI-TV 5, to name a few. Check out the MOS in the News page to read and watch this great coverage.

The school year is off to a busy (if not a little crazy for everyone) start, but we are so pleased to be able to continue offering outdoor programming--which is proving to be more necessary now than ever. The impact and challenges from Covid-19 are nowhere near over, but the more we support each other, the easier it will be.
 

~Hazel and Joe

Tracks:

  • We created a video about observation games with Frenchman Bay Conservancy

  • We led teacher trainings for Lubec Consolidated School and started regular programming there and at Milbridge Elementary School

  • We presented “Phenology Projects to Meet Standards and Support Well-being” webinar for the 1 Plan: 3 Falls conference and a webinar about outdoor education with Frenchman Bay Conservancy

  • Youth explored their relationships with nature and the community through our restorative practices program with Healthy Acadia and they wrote an article about it.

  • The outdoor classroom we built at Milbridge Elementary School with the support of TREE and Unity College was featured on WABI-TV5 News and we were featured in a US News & World Report article

  • Led 3 “Snowshoe Trails” hikes and started our “Summits & Stories” series with the Milbridge Public Library

Check out the “MOS in the News” page to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

 

A mother and daughter making nature observations during a recent Snowshoe Trails hike

Community Commendations:

This quarter’s Community Commendation goes out to the Milbridge Public Library! They have had to keep their doors closed to the public since March due to Covid-19, but have been doing an amazing job of adapting to be able to continue offering library services to the community. Beyond a convenient curbside pickup service, they have gotten creative with offering some outdoor programming with us that helps people get to know library resources while learning and being active outdoors.

Last spring, the library worked with us to make a plan for acquiring snowshoes to lend to the public. They got funding to support the collaboration and purchased the snowshoes this summer. In late summer, we led three hikes on local trails that will be ideal for snowshoeing on later. It was a great outreach opportunity to let people know of this new resource for snowshoes in Milbridge and got people outside and learning with neighbors about the world around them.

Now, we are wrapping up another program series with the library: Summits & Stories. Hike Tunk Mountain and hear two stories along the way this weekend!

 

Biomimicry:

That first crisp, cool breeze that hits us in late August has us scrambling for that favorite soft, warm layer we haven’t needed since early June. Likewise, deer also change from that light and breezy red jacket of a summer evening to a thick and insulating grayish coat for winter.

A deer’s summer coat is much more rusty in color and the hairs themselves are much thinner and shorter. They are losing that cool summer coat now in favor of a much thicker, two-layered winter coat. This grayer winter coat helps them blend into the winter world. The underfur in a deer coat is highly insulative while the outer layer of stiff and hollow guard hairs reduce the impact of wind and precipitation, just like that waterproof and windproof layer on a ski jacket.

So much of winter comfort—and survival for most species—comes down to having the right layers. And as deer show us, now is the time to make sure you have the right layers ready for when the days turn inevitably colder.

This edition of Biomimicry is an adaptation of an episode of The Nature of Phenology, a radio show that Hazel and Joe produce weekly for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to entire past episodes here.

 

Resilience Tip:
A child's stress levels will fall within minutes of seeing green spaces.
(Learn more here.)

 

What's Upstream: 

Our regular programming at Milbridge Elementary School is underway again this year with grades 1 and 5 thanks to our partnership with TREE-Transforming Rural Experience in Education. We have also started regular outdoor programming at Mountain View School thanks to our partnership with Frenchman Bay Conservancy this month. Other school programs are also in the works now that new school routines this fall are a bit clearer for everyone.

Join us to hike Tunk Mountain, bicycle a section of the Downeast Sunrise Trail, and enjoy the Downeast Roots Festival--more information on our Events page.

We’re available to support with creating permanent outdoor classroom spaces at schools or at local parks and preserves, provide outdoor programming in schoolyards, other outdoor settings, or virtually, provide teacher trainings outdoors or virtually, and more. All MOS programs are fully customizable and suit learners of any age. Visit our website or contact us to learn more.

ISSUE #15

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #15
JULY 2020

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

Resilience Tip:
Outdoor learning could be a model for the reopening of schools 
(Learn more here.)

Several of the videos we produced this spring. Access them in the Tracks section below.

Co-Founders' Note:

These last three months have been challenging for all of us, to say the least. Just as we have all had to pivot our personal lives to ensure the health of our communities in the last few months, we at Maine Outdoor School have been pivoting our services to be able to continue providing needed outdoor education opportunities. For example, we transformed many of the in-person programs that were due to occur this spring into virtual options accessible and applicable to anyone with internet access, such as our new OWL-Outdoor Women Lead program series. Check out the Tracks section below for other examples and visit our new Virtual Programming page on our website to access these resources. 

For us, being able to spend time in nature this spring has been critical to our wellbeing. We are so privileged to live in a place where we have easy access to the outdoors, especially since just 20 minutes in a green space is enough to improve mental health. We made a pledge with Rethink Outside this spring because, like them,  we believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy time outdoors. We must bring the well-documented benefits of connections to the outdoors to everyone, regardless of geographic location, race, or economic status.

Spring is usually our busiest time of year, yet it couldn’t be this year due to Covid-19 and we lost some needed revenue as a result. If you believe in our work and helping us make our programs accessible, we invite you to donate here. Thank you for your support.
 

~Hazel and Joe

 

Tracks:

Please note that all videos listed below, while made for a particular student group or partner organization, were also designed to be useful to the public. We invite you to watch and share these videos--use them to inspire some outdoor fun and learning in your own backyard or local park or trail!

Check out the “MOS in the News” page on our website to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

 

Community Commendations:

This quarter’s community commendation goes to Zabet NeuCollins, Assistant Director of WHRL-Women for Healthy Rural Living, which recognizes the health benefits of spending time outdoors. Zabet gracefully pivoted with us to transform the Outdoor Women Lead (OWL) series into a virtual series, complete with videos and blog posts specific to female-identifying individuals. She has worked hard to edit the videos we film, start a Facebook group, and launch an impressive webpage to make this series accessible while physical distancing guidelines are in place. If you’re interested in developing your outdoor and naturalist skills or have questions about spending time outdoors as a female, check out the OWL webpage.

 

Photo by James St. John.

Biomimicry:

Photo by James St. John.

We’ve been hearing the trill of the gray tree frog a lot lately (listen here). These frogs range in size from just over an inch to as much as 2.5 inches. For such a small, elusive frog, their call is anything but elusive. The call of the gray tree frog is one of the loudest calls of all North American frogs. Individuals in a gray tree frog chorus will increase the rate of their calling to up to 1400 calls per hour! This routine uses a lot of energy; in fact, it uses more energy than just about any other activity of a cold-blooded animal. This singing is worth it, though, as the reproductive success of males is directly related to the number of nights they sing in a chorus and the females apparently like the fast calls the best.

Gray tree frogs remind us that even the smallest, hidden things can make the biggest impact, especially if they collaborate.

This Biomimicry feature is an excerpt from the weekly radio show Hazel and Joe produce for WERU-FM. You can read or listen to complete episodes here.

 

What's Upstream: 

This summer, with the support of Cobscook TREE and Milbridge Elementary School, we will be building and installing an outdoor chalkboard to complement the outdoor classroom space we built with Milbridge 6th-graders and Unity College volunteers in February.

We are once again able to offer in-person guided experiences, such as guided hikes and paddling adventures, following the latest Maine CDC guidelines. If you’d like to learn more about the outdoors in Downeast Maine, explore a new trail, or experience some nature observation games and activities with your kids, please get in touch with us with your goals and our Registered Maine Guides will customize a guided experience for you this summer.

New this summer: virtual tutoring via Zoom. A lot of learning is lost over the summer on a normal year! We are pleased to be able to support children in grades 5 and up with brushing up on science, language arts, or getting a head start on that college essay. Contact us FMI.

The OWL series will continue through the summer. Upcoming female-focused blog posts include:

  • Meeting your needs where there are no toilets (7/13)

  • Making “Scents” in the Outdoors: Hygiene Tips (8/10)

  • Outdoor Safety (9/14)

Additionally, upcoming OWL videos include:

  • Camping 101 (7/27)

  • Plant Identification (8/24)

  • Basic Canoe Skills (9/28)

We have always known about the many mental, physical, and academic benefits of outdoor school, but now we can add one more benefit: the ability to easily abide by Covid-19 physical distancing guidelines while learning. We are hopeful that we will be able to continue regular programming in local schools this fall, but there are still a lot of Covid-19-related unknowns in terms of school budgets and the budgets of our partnering organizations that have helped make our programs accessible to schools. If you want to ensure that a local school can access our programming, you can make a donation to us and let us know whether there’s a particular school you’d like it to go towards.

All MOS programs are fully customizable and suit learners of any age. Visit our website or contact us to learn more.

ISSUE #14

The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

ISSUE #14
APRIL 2020

 

Maine Outdoor School exists because we believe that personal and community resilience 
in rural Maine is essential to the resilience of society as a whole. We believe that resilient,
flourishing communities are rooted in the careful study of our history and natural surroundings
by lifelong learners of all ages, backgrounds, and occupations.

Outdoor classroom project

Winter Family Carnival

Trails Tuesday field trip to Taft Point Preserve

Jonesport Forest Friday

Co-Founders' Note:

We're sure your inbox has been overwhelmed with cancellations, updates, and contingency plans from a huge suite of organizations regarding responses to Covid-19 - ours sure have been! While we will give you a brief update about how Covid-19 is affecting MOS, the bulk of this quarter’s edition of The Outdoor Insider is dedicated, as always, to updating you about our recent work and providing inspiration from nature.

MOS’s Covid-19 update: All our in-person programs from March 16th until further notice have been postponed to ensure the safety of our community. This disruption has put a significant financial damper on MOS, as April and May have historically been, and were going to be, our busiest months of the year. We are working with each of our clients to determine the best way to make up for lost time and develop virtually-accessible programming options. While we are confident that MOS will weather this storm, we would appreciate any and all donations that can help us through these trying times.

Even though we’ve been unable to provide in-person outdoor programming to groups, we have been thinking about creative alternatives. For example, Hazel wrote an article for the Bangor Daily News: “6 educational outdoor family activities to try during the pandemic.” This article aims to inspire additions to teachers’ remote learning packets, families homeschooling, and anyone else (adults included) looking for ideas of what to do outdoors during this time. A couple educational videos are coming up, too, so stay tuned.

We invite your ideas about other creative solutions to remote/virtual outdoor education: Virtual nature tutoring? Virtual guiding through your own backyard? Our inboxes, if not our doors, are open!
 

~Hazel and Joe

 

Tracks:

  • We led an outdoor classroom-building project at Milbridge Elementary School with many partners

    1. We supported Milbridge Public Library in applying to a grant, which they were awarded, to fund lending snowshoes to the community

    2. We led family-friendly outdoor activities at the Winter Family Carnival with Maine Seacoast Mission and other local groups

    3. We launched Trails Tuesdays with Frenchman Bay Conservancy at Mountain View School in Sullivan, which occurred every other week

    4. We continued our weekly Thursday Forays in Milbridge and Forest Fridays in Jonesport thanks to Cobscook TREE

    5. Hazel read The Lorax to Milbridge 4th-graders on Dr. Seuss’ birthday

    6. Hazel gave a talk about hiking to all of Jonesport Elementary School to support in their WinterKids competition (they got the Silver medal!)

    7. Hazel delivered a guest lecture in a Maine Land Conservation and Management class at College of the Atlantic  

    Check out the “MOS in the News” page on our website to see where we’ve shown up in the press!

 

Community Commendations:

If there’s one theme that has risen to the surface during these challenging times, it’s that supporting one another makes the impossible possible and feels good all around. Unity College is a prime example of a supportive partner, so they are our community commendation for this past quarter. When Professor Beth Arnold heard that we had been brainstorming ways to build an outdoor classroom at Milbridge Elementary School, her class with helpful leadership by Mary Seelig, sprang into action. They shared tools, supplies, muscle, and activities with us and the Milbridge 6th grade class. Thanks for your support Unity College! Many hands make quick, light work.

 

Biomimicry:

I have been thinking a lot about chipmunks lately. There’s a chipmunk burrow just outside my window, so I get to observe them frequently. On the warmest mid-March days, when the morning sun hits the wooden planks adjacent to this burrow entrance, a chipmunk will emerge and sit motionless, head towards the sun. Our first truly warm spring days inspire the same behavior in me, as all I want to do is be outside and absorb our first warm rays of sun of the year, so I feel a sort of kinship with this chipmunk neighbor of mine.

Chipmunks also provide some tips for dealing with challenging times, which for a chipmunk, is winter. Their cheek pouches can expand to be three times the size of their heads and can store all kinds of wild foods, which these omnivores can easily carry to an underground cache for later consumption out of sight of potential predators. They do a lot of caching in the fall so they have a full pantry for the winter. While they do experience a deep sleep in the winter, they wake up every now and then to graze in the pantry of their underground burrows. They will even occasionally emerge from their burrows on warm winter days in search of fresher food.

So during these challenging times, we should all strive to be like a chipmunk in the winter: stock up on our basic needs to last us as long as possible, minimize how much we venture out of our homes to go to the store, get plenty of rest, and be sure to get outside and enjoy the sunshine when and where it is safe to do so.

 

Resilience Tip:
Spending just 20 minutes in green spaces outdoors is one of the fastest ways to improve your health and happiness. (Learn more here.)

 

What's Upstream: 

When drafting up this e-newsletter before Covid-19 hit close to home, I was excited to share a plethora of upcoming programs! Our family hikes with Frenchman Bay Conservancy, OWL: Outdoor Women Lead program series with WHRL (Women for Healthy Rural Living--formerly the Women's Health Resource Library), regular school programs, and field trips are all postponed until further notice.

Please stay tuned through our social media and website for updates as our programs are either rescheduled or adapted into virtual features.

To stay in touch with us and receive more frequent updates, follow us on social media (links below).