ISSUE #21
The Outdoor Insider
MAINE OUTDOOR SCHOOL'S QUARTERLY E-NEWSLETTER
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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:
Hosted Summits & Stories with Milbridge Public Library on Pigeon Hill
Featured as number one in a Townsquare Media article on Maine Guide Outfits
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.
Hosted a New Year’s Eve sunset hike with Crabtree Neck Land Trust.
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
