On a beautiful fall day with 70 degree temperatures, Maine Audubon educators took our conservation program, Stream Explorers, to Sanford Middle School. The week before our visit, we went into the classroom and practiced using the nets and identifying macroinvertebrates. By sampling the stream and …
Environmental Education
Behind the scenes with the Portland Youth Corps
Portland Youth Corps is a collaboration between Portland Parks and Recreation, Maine Audubon, and Portland Parks Conservancy. Its mission is to promote personal and professional growth through community service, environmental stewardship, and hands-on conservation opportunities within Portland’s …
Scenes from Summer Camp!
Summer camps returned to Gilsland Farm this summer in a big way, as we ran more weekly sessions, brought back preschool camps, and moved programming almost exclusively outdoors! And after 8 weeks of camp, 78 mystery animals, 128 nature journals, and too many turkey sightings to count, we wanted to …
Guest blog post: Stream Explorers Opens Doors
“The door will be opened to those who are bold enough to knock.” (Tony Gaskins) My name is Aroha Walsh, and the Stream Explorers has done many things in the past few months that inspire me to be a better person. The Stream Explorers program aims to test the pollution in streams by looking at …
Bringing Nature Home with the Portland Youth Corps
Our Bringing Nature Home staff had the pleasure of working with Portland Youth Corps and Portland Trails recently on restoration landscape practices! Portland Youth Corps members assisted with the removal of invasive plants along the Portland Arts and Technology High School Trail in the Portland …
Raising Salmon, Raising Awareness
Some kids learn how to raise cows or grow potatoes. This spring, 500 students in all 10 of Portland’s public elementary schools had hands-on experience raising endangered Atlantic Salmon! It’s all part of an educational salmon rearing program called Fish Friends, which aims to educate school …
Biddeford Youth Wins Maine Junior Duck Stamp for Second Year in a Row
For the second year in a row, a talented young artist from Biddeford has edged out other young artists from across the state to win the Maine Junior Duck Stamp art contest. Ariah Lowell, 13, impressed the judges in a field of extremely talented artists with her oil painting of a Wood Duck in flight …
Make Your BIG NIGHT Last a Week!
Things are starting to spring, and even sing! Our minds often start thinking of spring as birds return to Maine. However, the arrival of Red-winged Blackbirds and Woodcocks are also phenological indicators of something completely different – BIG NIGHT!!! Maine’s incredible reptiles and amphibians, …
Judging Complete for 2022 Junior Duck Stamp Challenge
With more drama than March Madness, the number of tie-breakers today brought the tension high as judges struggled to choose winners from a highly competitive crowd. Forget the NCAA; this is the Maine Junior Duck Stamp Challenge! Five judges gathered at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm center in …