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Maine Land Conservation Conference > 2021 Maine Land Conservation Conference Archive > Workshop Descriptions – Week 3

Workshop Descriptions – Week 3

Nature-Based Education

For webinar links, visit the special conference page and enter the password from your registration confirmation email.

Week 1: March 15–19 | 2: March 29–April 2 | 3: April 12–16 | 4: April 26–30

Tuesday, April 13

4:00-5:15pm – Building Relationships with your Local Schools

For land trusts, there are several benefits to providing programs and resources to your local schools. Encouraging place-based outdoor education helps connect children in your community with nature, plants the seed for a lifelong desire to protect nature and helps you reach beyond preaching to the choir. This workshop will highlight three examples of ways land trusts can build relationships with and support and serve elementary schools. The workshop will start with the basics about what you should know about starting a relationship with a school and will give you concrete tips for making your school collaboration a success. 

Presenters: Cindy Casey, 1st grade teacher at Edgecomb Eddy School; Tracey Hall, Boothbay Region Land Trust, Julia McLeod, Harpswell Heritage Land Trust; and Carey Truebe, Cathance River Education Alliance

Links shared during the webinar

Thursday, April 15

9:00-10:15am – Conserving Land for Kids

As Maine land trusts work to better serve and engage communities, our unique strengths can offer solutions to connecting students and outdoor learning.  Maine land trusts have conserved lands specifically to engage area youth, and they have adapted existing preserves for youth engagement.  In both of these cases, however, there can at times be tension between longstanding practices, our mission statements, increasing use, and new more inclusive values.  Join us for a virtual panel of case studies and discussion about conserving land for Maine’s school children.

Presenters: Lee Dassler, Executive Director, Western Foothills Land Trust; Drew Dumsch, President, The Ecology School; Becky Kolak, Program Director, Kennebec Estuary Land Trust; and Eric Topper, Director of Education, Maine Audubon