The Outdoor Insider

MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER

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?

• 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.