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.