ORONO, Maine — For more than 30 years, the Brent Halsey Educational Forest in Old Town and Orono has been providing students with the opportunity to learn about the environment.
It is a spin to the traditional indoor classroom setting and gets University of Maine forestry students outside into nature.
“Its great for my college students to be able to volunteer here,” said Dr. Jessica Leahy, a professor at the School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine and the steward of the outdoor forestry classroom.
For the past six years, Leahy has brought dozens of students to volunteer at the outdoor forestry classroom to give them hands-on experience working in trail building and maintenance.
“They live in the Orono community, they are able to give back to the natural resources, volunteer for the Orono Land Trust, and make a great space that children can use to learn about the outdoors,” Leahy said.
It's something Gail White, who works with the Orono Land Trust and helps maintain these trails, said you won't get in a traditional classroom.
“They understand why are you doing this, what's a wet area, what's a dry area, what do you need to do differently in each area," White said.
It's an experience teaching assistant Izzy Kostelnick said she had when she was a student.
“We might be [teaching assistants] for the course but we get our hands just as dirty as the rest of them,” Kostelnick said.
As former students, they see the value in getting hands-on experience while also giving back to the community.
“Being able to give back to those businesses, those land trusts communities that need our help is a really rewarding thing,” Kostelnick said.
Students and school leaders are hopeful their work can help preserve this educational forest for generations of students to come.