Introducing Little Mountain Forest School

My Introduction to the Little Mountain Forest School and Its Undergirding Philosophy

 

On October 30, 2024, at the invitation of Beth Barry and Sarah Callaway, co-founders and directors, I enjoyed an orientation visit to the Little Mountain Forest School. I chatted individually with Sarah and Beth as staff-led breakout groups of the 23 students went through hands-on instruction and exploration near the Overlook at Monte Sano State Park. Having written exhaustively about the continuous cycle of life and carbon in forests, I listened with glee to the youngsters talking about decomposition. What could be a better learning laboratory than a 90-year-old hardwood forest?

Albert Einstein would have endorsed the notion of an outdoor school, having observed:

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

The LMFS philosophy is apparent and in concert’s with Einstein’s.

[Image from the LMFS website]

 

I am a lifetime advocate of outdoor recreation, education, and learning…for people of all ages. Environmental education, including my undergraduate forestry studies, is a contact sport, requiring hands-on, dirty-kneed examination and experience. As President of Antioch University New England, I had the pleasure of knowing and learning from Dr. David Sobel, a renowned American educator and academic, responsible for developing the philosophy of place-based education. He has written extensively on the topic in books and numerous articles. He was a Core Faculty member and Director of Certificate Programs at AUNE. I experienced David conducting a workshop for teachers along the windy shore of Lake Champlain in Vermont. He is a master of his craft. Beth and Sarah arranged for David to visit with them as they launched LMFS. They’ve learned from the best

A few quotes from David evidence that his wisdom is germane and timeless:

You can’t bounce off the walls if there are no walls: outdoor schools make kids happier—and smarter.

We tiptoed the tops of beaver dams, hopped hummocks, went wading, looked at spring flowers, tried to catch a snake, got lost and found. How fine it was to move at a meandery, child’s pace.

What’s important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it and feel comfortable in it, before being asked to heal its wounds.

[Image from the LMFS website]

 

Richard Louv is a journalist and author of ten books, including Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, The Nature Principle, and Vitamin N. Translated into twenty languages, his books have helped launch an international movement to connect children, families, and communities to nature. LMFS exemplifies the tenets of Louv’s philosophy of engaging children in Nature. Richard’s quotes are priceless and his advice more applicable now than ever before:

We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense.

Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our chidlren’s health (and also, by the way, in our own).

Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities.

Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.

Reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.

Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.

[Image from the LMFS website]

 

The Nature of My Visit

 

This portion of the photo essay will present more like one of my routine woods-wanderings. Keep in mind that I offer it within the context of LMFS, an entity new to me, yet deeply rooted in a philosophy and practice that I have promoted and embraced intellectually for years. I accepted Sarah and Beth’s invitation to serve on the LMFS Board after our morning interactions. Watch for subsequent photo essays as I engage more deeply.

Allow me to introduce my on-site wanderings within the forest where LMFS conducted its morning learning adventures on October 30. Before my 9:15 AM “appointment,” I visited with an old friend, an ancient hollow chestnut oak sentry standing just south of the Overlook along the trail that runs along the plateau edge. The view at left below looks north to the Overlook parking area. The gaping hollow faces the trail.

 

I recorded this short video of the tree. Listen carefully to background audio of autumn breezes and happy LMFS students!

 

The hollow offers a line of sight through the tree. Eventually, physics will topple this State Park denizen. An arborist rule of thumb is that a tree is at precarious risk of falling when the diameter of wood rind is less than one-third the diameter of the tree. I will not be surprised if on some future visit, I find the chestnut oak shattered, its carcas blocking the path, decomposing, recycling its essence into the soil.

 

The autumn-yellow leaves of a sasafras waved in the breeze above the students as they discussed decomposition. How apt!

 

Six decades ago, when I was their age, I relished my informal learning outdoors with Mom and Dad fishing, hiking, picnicing, and camping. I did not suffer Nature Defecit Disorder or Vitamin D Defieciency, thank God!

 

Far too many children today aren’t as fortunate as I. It has made all the difference for me, fundamentally shaping my life and charting my career. I am grateful now for the chance to make difference for tomorrow by serving the LMFS Board.

 

Nature is rich with objects and opportunities for learning. Tree form oddities and curioisities fascinate me, and I believe would likewise have intrigued Albert Einstein:

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence.

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.

People like you and me never grow old. We never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

 

Rather than dig deeply into the many objects spiriting my own curiosity, I will end with photographs of plants, trees, leaves, and other objects that could stimulate learning and inspire curiosity for LMFS students.

Wintergreen barberry, an evergreen shrub with sharp thorns.

 

Carolina buckthorn.

 

The long arm of an oak waving to the students heading into the forest north of the area where they had gathered to explore decomposition.

 

My 57-second video titled Combatting Nature Deficit Disorder at Little Mountain Forest School atop Monte Sano!

 

A red oak, tortured and swollen with a fungal infection, a primary agent of decomposition.

 

A chestnut oak, hollowed by decay, backlighted by fall foliage.

 

Exquisite crown shape, perhaps particularly interesting on this day before halloween.

 

I am a champion of curioisity as a catalyst for learning. Allow me to close with additional Einstein quotes:

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

My all time favorite conservationist, Aldo Leopold, expressed similar sentiment:

Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth?

I pledge fidelity to the wisdom of Sobel, Louv, Leopold, and Einstein in my Board service to LMFS!

 

Thoughts and Reflections

 

I offer these observations:

• Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. (Albert Einstein)
• You can’t bounce off the walls if there are no walls: outdoor schools make kids happier—and smarter. (David Sobel)
• Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. The disorder can be detected in individuals, families, and communities. (Richard Louv)

Inhale and absorb Nature’s elixir. May Nature Inspire, Inform, and Reward you!

If only more of us viewed our precious environment through the filters I employ. If only my mission and vision could be multiplied untold orders of magnitude:

Mission: Employ writing and speaking to educate, inspire, and enable readers and listeners to understand, appreciate, and enjoy Nature… and accept and practice Earth Stewardship.

Vision:

• People of all ages will pay greater attention to and engage more regularly with Nature… and will accept and practice informed and responsible Earth Stewardship.
• They will see their relationship to our natural world with new eyes… and will understand more clearly their Earth home.

Tagline/Motto: Steve (Great Blue Heron) encourages and seeks a better tomorrow through Nature-Inspired Living!

 

Steve’s Four Books

 

I wrote my books Nature Based Leadership (2016), Nature-Inspired Learning and Leading (2017), Weaned Seals and Snowy Summits: Stories of Passion for Place and Everyday Nature (2019; co-authored with Dr. Jennifer Wilhoit), and Dutton Land & Cattle: A Land Legacy Story (2023) to encourage all citizens to recognize and appreciate that every lesson for living, learning, serving, and leading is either written indelibly in or is powerfully inspired by Nature. All four of my books present compilations of personal experiences expressing my deep passion for Nature. All four books offer observations and reflections on my relationship with the natural world… and the broader implications for society. Order any from your local indie bookstore, or find them on IndieBound or other online sources such as Amazon and LifeRich.

I began writing books and Posts for several reasons:

• I love hiking and exploring Nature
• I see images I want to (and do) capture with my trusty iPhone camera
• I enjoy explaining those images — an educator at heart
• I don’t play golf!
• I do love writing — it’s the hobby I never needed when my career consumed me
• Judy suggested my writing is in large measure my legacy to our two kids, our five grandkids, and all the unborn generations beyond
• And finally, perhaps my books and Blogs could reach beyond family and touch a few other lives… sow some seeds for the future