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.