maine outdoor school: An interview with founders hazel stark and Joe Horn

May 2, 2019

Written by Stephen Ondich

The Maine Outdoor School, based in Milbridge, Maine was established by Hazel Stark and Joe Horn in 2016. Both Naturalist Educators, Hazel and Joe worked at a variety of outdoor education organizations in California, Maine, New Hampshire and Wyoming. Then, they went to went to graduate school to gain the business skills needed to start and outdoor school of their own in Maine.

Now they share their love of immersive outdoor education with students throughout Washington and Hancock Counties. Their programs are extremely popular with Down East schools. Additionally, the school’s geographic reach is growing steadily.

Hazel and Joe sat down to answer a few questions about their school, life experiences and resilience education Down East.

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Maine Outdoor School

Location

The Maine Outdoor School is 44.8 miles from Acadia National Park.

The Maine Outdoor School is Acadia Adjacent.↵

Hazel Stark and Joe Horn see the forest through the trees. Also, they understand the importance of connecting students with their own local environment. However, they are also proof that naturalist education programs can (and should) have a viable business model.

“MOS’s entire business model is an educational tool that demonstrates that business can be a source of profound good in the world.” – Joe Horn

MOS Operations

Maineterrain: How do you and Joe split up responsibilities at Maine Outdoor School?

Hazel is typically in charge of leading most of the school programs and does MOS bookkeeping and social media. Joe focuses on developing new programs, projects, and partnerships in collaboration with organizations along with budgeting. Additionally, we share most of these responsibilities as well!

Teaching Down East Children

Maineterrain: Kids growing up Down East have a connection to the land that most urban or suburban kids around the US do not. What kinds of things do you show local students at MOS that make them say “Oh wow!”

Honestly, most things we do results in lots of wow moments–be it finding tracks, scat, identifying maple trees, wildflowers, insects, or in games that explore population dynamics! Each kid is interested in something a little different and you never know what might spark an interest.

The truth of the matter is that people, urban or rural, almost regardless of how much outdoor experience they have, generally don’t see the natural world as a collection of individual species. It’s all mostly a brown and green blur.

A great example of this is the number of kids we teach who come from a long line of hunters. Often, when they see any track they assume it’s from a deer. However, it could in fact be a dog, squirrel, snowshoe hare, or honestly just a clump of snow that fell out of a tree. It’s only once we introduce them to the animals, tracks, plants, and birds as individuals that they start realizing how amazing and dynamic it all is outside.

That creates a lot of wow moments!

Connecting with Public Schools

Maineterrain: Which elementary schools do you work with on a regular basis and how did you get started with them?

We work with a number of schools on a regular basis, each with a slightly different scope. Currently, the most regular schools we work with are Beals, Harrington, Milbridge, and Jonesport Elementary.

In Harrington, we have a regular annual outdoor school day with the whole school on their campus nature trail that directly ties into the curriculum in each class. In Beals, we generally provide a hiking-based field trip for them each fall and spring. Also, in Milbridge and Jonesport, we have teamed up with the Cobscook Community Learning Center’s Transforming Rural Experiences in Education (TREE) program to provide weekly outdoor experiences. Again, this is tied to classroom curricula of select grades at those schools.

We started working with these schools after conducting a pre-program evaluation to assess what the community wanted to see for educational opportunities in the area. Accordingly, we learned that having more outdoor learning opportunities in elementary schools was a big goal in the area. Thus, we started meeting with principals, teachers, and partner organizations to figure out ways MOS could help make that happen.

We aim to work in direct response to what people want. As a result, all our programs are customized to specifically meet the goals and needs of each group. Accordingly, we’ve rarely taught the same exact lesson twice!

Washington County and Beyond

Maineterrain: Have you worked with schools outside of Washington County? If not, is that a goal of MOS?

Yes, we have worked with schools outside of Washington County. In fact, a neighboring school district in Hancock County contracted us last year to provide a series of 8-week after school programs in each of their four elementary schools.

Additionally, through a collaborative project with the Downeast Salmon Federation, we have been providing a series of 30 fly-tying workshops to schools, businesses, and other organizations across Washington and Hancock Counties.

We based MOS in Washington County because, personally, we love it here. However, professionally, because we did not see as many outdoor education opportunities for people in this especially rural part of the state. Thus, we wanted to help fill that gap. It is a goal of ours to continue to help providing those outdoor learning opportunities in the region.

We’re happy to travel beyond Washington and Hancock counties if there’s a demand for us!

Connecting Kids with Nature

Maineterrain: Richard Louv wrote “Last Child in the Woods.” He describes a nature deficit disorder in today’s youth that he associates with things like ADD, anxiety, and depression. The connection seems so obvious yet it’s largely being ignored. How do you convince administrators that their students should be spending more time outside?

We have never actually had to convince administrators. In our experience, they completely understand that their students need more outdoor time.

We would be rich if we had a nickle for each time a parent or administrator told us about how when they were kids they played outside all the time and that today’s children just don’t get outside and they need to for an almost endless list of reasons. Usually, the only sticking point for administrators is around finding funding to support these outdoor programs and about finding time in their schedules to incorporate outdoor education when they often feel swamped with standards/mandates and testing.

It would be wonderful if schools were given more funding to support outdoor education. Thus, it’s something we all are trying to figure out, in terms of scheduling. However, we’re always working to role model for schools. Outdoor education can meet a blend of interdisciplinary learning standards at once in a way that indoor classroom time rarely can.

We argue that outdoor education is more efficient in terms of covering content meaningfully than indoor time. Consequently, this helps demonstrate the value of making time for outdoor learning and the value of providing funding to support it.

Working on the East and West Coasts

Maineterrain: One of the biggest differences between California and Maine, in my opinion is that politics are inexorably tied to environmental policy in California. Maine is fiercely protective of its natural resources & environment but policies seem to cross political lines a lot easier. Both you and Joe have spent time in both states. What were your California experiences like?

California and Maine are two very different social, geographic, ecological, and political landscapes. In California, most residents have to opt-in to wilderness experiences via a long drive. In Maine, most people live in much more rural areas with much easier access to nature.

One thing we really liked in California was that outdoor education was quite well incorporated into the public school systems–most 6th graders there spend a week at a residential outdoor school. We’d love to see some version of that supported in Maine–ideally something that supports regular experiences outdoors, not just one immersive experience during the K-12 years.

In California, so much of the economy is tied to agriculture while in Maine we probably have a stronger tie to the natural resource economy (e.g. logging, blueberries, lobstering). We know that the protection of the environment is the protection of our jobs and lifestyles. This gets confused in political conversations, but it means the gap between environmental stewardship and extraction feels a lot smaller here in Maine.

MOS’s focus on the wonders of the outdoors and taking care of it crosses political lines easily here.

Less Tests, More Nature

Maineterrain: If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about public school policy, what would it be?

Less emphasis on high stakes testing, more time outdoors, and more funding to go towards teacher’s wages and opportunities for students. This would retain and foster better teacher talent and give students a more dynamic, place-based, learning environment.

Sewing Seeds for the Maine Outdoor School

Maineterrain: Did you model MOS after another program? If so, which program provided the inspiration?

We drew the majority of our inspiration from Foothill Horizons Outdoor School in Sonora, California. Programatically, the way they integrated standards-based education into outdoor learning was hugely inspirational. Operationally, they way they treat all their employees so well felt revolutionary–living wages, year-round employment, benefits, and 40-hr weeks.

These things are largely absent in outdoor education in the eastern US for all but the administrative level (if that). Foothill’s model was certainly nice from a social equity perspective, but also meant they were retaining and grooming an incredibly skilled workforce of outdoor education professionals to take their programming to the next level. It’s just a good business practice to encourage a fair work-life balance and fair compensation.

A Surprise on the Trail

Maineterrain: What is the most unexpected thing you’ve run into on an MOS outdoor expedition?

Last spring at Harrington Elementary a group of students that were looking for animal scat and tracks on their nature trail stumbled upon a newborn fawn. It was bedded down waiting for its mama to come back. The students were super respectful and gave the little fawn its space.

Joe called the game warden to report it and they suggested Joe check back on it the next day because often the mother deer will collect up their young after sunset. Sure enough it was gone by the next morning.

The fact that there are learning opportunities like this that go unnoticed not 100 feet from the front door of schools speaks to the learning opportunities that outdoor education can provide if only we took advantage of those teachable moments more.

MOS Complements Public School Programs

Maineterrain: Generally, speaking are public schools receptive to your mission? What kind of resistance do you encounter?

Public schools have been hugely supportive of our mission. We very intentionally did not include politically charged language from our mission statement and our marketing materials. This immediately sidesteps any political assumptions folks might have, and offers common ground for us to work together to get their students learning outside.

We ultimately have the same goals for our students, even if our approach towards meeting those goals is sometimes different.

A Long Term Plan for MOS

Maineterrain: Do you have vision for where MOS will be in 10 years? If so, what does it look like?

We see MOS being a valuable partner with all schools and many nonprofits throughout DownEast Maine. Also, we intend to have our own site to provide regular outdoor programs for our youngest community members.

Keeping It Local

Maineterrain: If travel budget (within Maine) was no object, where would you like to take a group to and what would you do?

At the heart of our mission is connecting folks to their place–their own backyards. There has been a lot of research that far flung wilderness adventures can often leave participants with a sense that their home place is not special, important, or beautiful. This is a tragic outcome. On the other hand, if folks already have a strong sense of place in their home area, traveling experiences can be greatly enriching because they already come into those experiences with a foundation of understanding and love for their place.

So if money were no object, we would make MOS even more mobile than it already is. We want to break down barriers to getting students deeply engaged in the beautiful world that exists outside of their homes and schools.

We would get ourselves a comfortable van so that we could take a MOS team to the schools across Maine to get them outside in their communities. Additionally, we would love to have a minibus so that if transporting students is a barrier for the schools, we could transport them ourselves to a nearby nature preserve or park to explore.

Our goal is to develop a sense of place, appreciation, and stewardship for the world around us. That starts at home.

Evaluating the Results

Maineterrain: Describe the end of a successful program. How do you know when things went well?

At the end of each program we do a wrap-up activity to help students reflect on their experiences. This time also gives us a good pulse on program outcomes. We know it was a successful program when each student has an authentic and personal thing they take away from the lesson, had a good time, and stayed safe. Also, we do pre and post-assessments for our longer program series so we can analyze any specific changes in knowledge as a result of our program.

2019 MOS Activities

Maineterrain: What do you have new coming up for Summer/Fall 2019?

This summer we will be doing a series of two, three-day day camps with a local land trust, the Frenchman Bay Conservancy, for middle school students. Participants will rotate through a number of their preserves and get to know the assets and ecosystems of the region. We can also provide guided nature walks and hikes to the general public, which we hope to lean into more this summer.

For this next school year we have a number of new irons in the fire. We have several grant applications out with several local organizations that we already have a solid working relationship with. These new programs all have the goal of deepening the impact and reach of programs with those schools.

Connecting With Maine Outdoor School

Maineterrain: If out-of-area schools want to reach you, what is the best way to contact MOS?

Our Facebook page (@maineoutdoorschool), our website (www.maineoutdoorschool.org), a phone call (207.358.0412 ), or email (joseph@maineoutdoorschool.org) all work.

We love to come up with creative ways that we can work with people.

July 2019: Our Family Hikes with MOS

Our family finally scheduled our own Maine Outdoor School adventure! In July of 2019, we arranged a 2 hour guided hike of the Hollingsworth Trail in Petit Manan Wildife Refuge in Stueben. Hazel taught us about the varied ecosystems as we hiked the loop toward the ocean and back. It was a great experience. We look forward to another outdoor excursion with them soon.

Hazel Stark leading family on hike through Hollingsworth Trail in Steuben — Hazel Stark of Maine Outdoor School leading our hike.

Family Hiking though Petit Manan Wildife Refuge in Steuben, Maine — And we’re off!

Posing with Hazel Stark of Maine Outdoor School in parking lot of Hollingsworth Trail in Petit Manan Wildlife Refuge — Thank you for a great hike, Hazel!

Read Steve O.'s review of Maine Outdoor School on Yelp

This Post Has 8 Comments

Heidi
2 May 2019

The MOS sounds like an amazing program. The local kids are lucky to have access to this kind of program. Maybe I missed this in your article but I am wondering how I can get more information on the summer day camps? Thanks!
1. Stephen
  2 May 2019
  
  Hi Heidi. I agree. I will send Hazel your contact info.
2. Hazel Stark
  7 May 2019
  
  Hi Heidi! Feel free to reach out to us and check for day camp updates on our website, maineoutdoorschool.org. More info about registration coming soon!
  1. Heidi
    7 May 2019
    
    Thanks for the info Hazel. We’ll be sure to check it out. Looking forward to seeing you this Summer.
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