Since 2004, our “all outdoors” summer day camps have provided nature adventures for children that build skills and nurture greater awareness and self-confidence.  Using traditional and modern mentoring, our experienced and inspiring instructors guide the children in engaging earth-based activities, awareness games, experiential knowledge of plants and animals, natural craft, and story and song.  Gratitude and reverence for the earth, as well as fostering a vision of community based on mutual respect and acknowledgment are modeled and encouraged.  Campers are grouped (by age) in small “clans” of 8-10 children, who together explore beautiful and magical land bordering the Mohonk Preserve and Shawangunk Ridge.

Program Information for Summer Day Camp

For: Boys and Girls ages 4 to 13 (Three separate camps for ages 4-6, 6-10, 10-13)

Dates: June 28 – July 16 (3 weeks), 4 days each week (M, T, TH, F) – three week option only

Time: 9:30am to 3:30pm for Ravens (ages 10-13) and Kestrels(ages 6-10), 9:45am – 3pm for Screech Owls (ages 4-6)

Location: On pristine and private land bordering the Mohonk Preserve & Shawangunk Ridge in the New Paltz/High Falls area

Cost: $660.  $160 non-refundable deposit due with registration (sibling discounts and some limited scholarships are available – see registration form for details)

Our Screech Owl (age 4-6) and Kestrel Camp (age 6-10) are full.  If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, you must complete an online registration, but do not pay a deposit until you are advised that a space is available.  We have a few more spaces in our Raven Camp (age 10-13), so register soon.

Register Online for Summer Day Camp

Additional Questions and Information

Please email David Brownstein at david (at) wildearthprograms (dot) org or call 845-256-9830 with questions about summer camp and registration.

Our Parent/Tot  half-day Camp is designed for children ages 3-4 who wish to play in the outdoors with parental companionship.  Together, we will explore the wonders of nature within the fascinating world that surrounds us.  A typical day will flow with a natural rhythm, focusing on a common nature-based theme while together creating our own special home in woods.  Nature exploration will be interwoven with crafts, story, song, games, and sharing circle . This program is structured to spark curiosity while also fostering the feelings of comfort and peace that can be found by simply being outdoors.

Program Information for Parent/Tot Camp

For: Boys and Girls ages 3 to 4 accompanied by a parent, grandparent or guardian

Dates: June 29 – July 16, tuesdays and thursdays each week for three weeks

Time: 10:00am to 12:30pm

Location: On pristine and private land bordering the Mohonk Preserve & Shawangunk Ridge in New Paltz.

Cost: $220.  $50 non-refundable deposit due with registration (sibling discounts and some limited scholarships are available – see registration form for details)

Register Online for the Parent/Tot Camp

Additional Questions and Information

Please email David Brownstein at david (at) wildearthprograms (dot) org or call 845-256-9830 with questions about summer camp and registration.

Since 2004, our “all outdoors” summer day camps have provided nature adventures for children that build skills and nurture greater awareness and self-confidence.  So many parents of our summer campers have asked, “Why do the kids get to have all the fun?”  Well, this summer, they don’t.  This year, Wild Earth is so excited to offer adults a day camp experience that is a fun-filled connection to nature and themselves.  Using traditional and modern mentoring, our experienced and inspiring instructors will guide the day in engaging earth-based activities, awareness games, experiential knowledge of plants and animals, natural craft, story and song.  Gratitude and reverence for the earth, as well as fostering a vision of community based on mutual respect and acknowledgment are encouraged.

Program Information for Adult Day Camp

For: Adults of all ages

Dates: July 12 – July 16, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday

Time: 9:45am to 3:00pm

Location: On pristine and private land bordering the Mohonk Preserve & Shawangunk Ridge in the New Paltz/High Falls area

Cost: $220.  $50 non-refundable deposit due with registration

Register Online for Adult Day Camp

Additional Questions and Information

Please email David Brownstein at david (at) wildearthprograms (dot) org or call 845-256-9830 with questions about summer camp and registration.

Come explore the beauty and the bounty of the gardens, fields and woods in this six month comprehensive course.  We will cover a vast amount of information encouraging the daily use of herbs for food, medicine and pleasure.  This course is designed to provide inspiring, practical and thorough “hands on” herbal information that can easily be incorporated into one’s life.

Topics include:

• Herbal Therapeutics
• Wild Plant Identification and Application
• Wild Food Foraging and Culinary Preparations
• Medicine Making
• Herbal Skin Care
• Nutritional Healing… and More

A significant amount of class time will be spent outdoors studying wild and cultivated plants. We will then bring these plants into our kitchen-classroom and transform them into food, medicine and various other preparations.  As part of our learning experience, we will prepare and enjoy a primarily “wild” delicious meal influenced by the plants that are in season.  Everyone will make an abundance of preparations to bring home and begin to create their own medicine chests.  In the last part of each class we will focus on a particular organ system, health topic or special project.

Program Information

Dates: One Saturday every month, May thru October 2010 (May 8, June 5, July 10, Aug 7, Sept 11 & Oct 16)

Time: Saturdays, 10:00AM to 4:00 PM

Location: The lovely hamlet of Lyonsville, Stone Ridge, NY

Cost: $595, includes material fee, $150 deposit due with registration, final balance due by April 1 (Note: All payments are non-refundable and non-transferable for this program).

Register Online Now

Dina Falconi, is a practicing herbalist with a strong focus on food activism and nutritional healing. She produces Falcon Formulations natural bodycare products and Earthly Extracts medicinal tinctures. She is a founding member of the Northeast Herbal Association, a chapter leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation & on the board of Slow Food-Hudson Valley. An avid gardener and wildcrafter, Dina is passionate aboutpermaculture and has completed the Permaculture Design Certificate course 2 1/5 times. She is author of Earthy Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Everybody.

Still have a question?  Please call Dina Falconi at 845-687-8938 with questions about the content of this program, or contact David Brownstein at info (at) wildearthprograms (dot) org or call 845-256-9830 with questions about registration.

Got Two Feet?  You Are So Out of Here!

Calling all teen girls to hit the trail together as we go on 3 overnight backpacking adventures in the glorious Catskills and Adirondacks. On each trek, for two days and a night the trail will be our guide as we visit vistas and explore new horizons. Step lightly on the trails, build your strength, get to know the backcountry, and finally chill out at base camp with trail food, hot chocolate, laughter and stories.

Also included are 3 trekking “Clinics.” We will learn backcountry skills, wilderness first aid, share gear, learn how to pack uber-light and live simply out of your backpack. Each trekking adventure will be preceded by a specific Clinic. Clinics will be held at Tweefontein Farm, home of Esperanza, Ashley, and friends.

Lead by Wild Earth Women Instructors – Esperanza Gonzalez, Ashley Suprenant, Becca Nelson, Amy Little, Paula Kucera

Winter treks will be to a warm cabin or yurt.  Level of difficulty: Easy to Moderate, Level of Challenge: Awesome!

Program Information

Who: Teen Girls ages 13-15

Dates: 3 daytime Clinics and 3 Overnight Trekking Adventures (10 days)

11/15: 12-4:30 Clinic: Welcome and backpacking basics

12/5-12/6: Overnight Trek in the Catskills (warm shelter)

12/20: 1-4:30 Clinic: Winter Backpacking, and Snowshoeing, Solstice Celebration

1/9-1/10: Overnight Trek in the Adirondacks (warm shelter)

3/13: Clinic: Wilderness First Aid* (back-up date: 3/27)

4/30-5/2 Overnight Trek (2 nights)

Cost: $375 plus $25 facilities fee

*Wilderness First Aid Clinic does not include the cost of individual certification

Click here to Register

Please call Paula Kucera at 845-256-0469 or Amy Little at 845-255-0822  with questions about the content of this program.  Call David Brownstein at 845-256-9830 or email at david (at) wildearthprograms (dot) org with questions about registration.

A Learning Journey in Earth-Based Education & Self-Empowerment for Inspired & Aspiring Adult Leaders

“What is my gift to this world?”

“How do I shape my voice?”

“What is the nature of the fire that burns inside of me?”

“This gift, this voice, this fire that I carry; How may I share this ‘all of me’ with the world so that the world sees me and returns my gifts anew?”

These questions are the bright stones we carry.  They speak to us in a language warm and persistent.  We hold and turn them, feeling their weight, and we ponder their promise of a life well lived.  These questions are the guiding lights of our awakening spirit.

We invite you to journey with us through the year as we explore these teachings through a deeper connection with the land, the elements, and in a circle of community.  Wild Earth is offering a monthly 24 hour immersion experience for a core group of dedicated wilderness instructors: young adults whose gifts we recognize and whose voice we support.  This gathering is designed to activate our survival strategies, our sensory awareness and our knowledge of place, and to strengthen our connection to Self while exploring the raw stuff for the creation of culture anew.  It is an adventure by design that will empathically deepen our abilities as mentors and broaden the mentoring strategies available to us in our work with youth.  Included will be specific skill development opportunities with local specialists, explorations of life-stage journeys (medicine wheel), creative design of ceremony, sacred fire practices, talking circles and much more.

We offer this in service to the vision of a powerfully creative and connected community of young adults willing to risk being fully engaged in the art of giving and receiving Life.  We hope you will join us.

Program Information

Age: 18 years old +

Experience: Instructing (or assisting) in a Wild Earth, Track & Sign or equivalent nature based learning program.

Dates: 11/7, 12/12, 1/2, 2/20, 3/20, 4/24 & 5/15

Time: 10am – 12 noon the following day.

Location: New Paltz / High Falls, NY area.  Exact location to be announced

Cost: $175 for the year-long journey.  You will also be asked to bring food to share for the overnight experience.

SORRY!  THIS PROGRAM IS FULL AND NO LONGER OPEN TO REGISTRATION.

Please call Charles Purvis at 845-626-2474 with questions about the content of this program.  Call David Brownstein at 845-256-9830 or email at david (at) wildearthprograms (dot) org with questions about registration.

Wild Earth instructors desire to share their time and form closer relationships with youth in the community.   Small groups (formed by parents or by age and interest) of 3-4 children and their instructor will meet after-school (weekly or bi-weekly), during the school day (for home school families), or on alternate weekends throughout the season to explore natural mysteries, build and strengthen wilderness and native craft skills, form and deepen relationships, and connect with self in the woods of the beautiful Shawangunk Ridge and its surrounding rivers and valleys.

Program Information

Eligible Age: 6-12 years old

Experience: No previous experience necessary

Dates: Customized to your desires and arranged with your instructor

Time: Two, three or four-hour meetings

Cost: $25 for 2 hours, $35 for 3 hours, $45 for four hours (per child)

Location: To be arranged with instructors

Instructors: Several interested Instructors (all age 22-28).  See below!

Support: Each instructor will be supported by a mentor/advisor and a teen assistant (when available).

Please contact (david@wildearthprograms.org) david (at) wildearthprograms (dot) org for help in coordinating appropriate groups, or contact individual instructors for more detailed program information or to schedule dates.

*Please note that these small group, learning journeys, while supported by Wild Earth, are not administered or insured by Wild Earth.

Interested Instructors and their Visions:

Endless Exploration with Esperanza

Join Esperanza in the forest that surrounds her beautiful herb farm for magic-filled adventuring and fun.  Every Tuesday afternoon 3-5 children will be dropped off at Tweefontein Herb Farm to embark on an exploration of ourselves and the land through the seasons.  Esperanza and a teen instructor will be offering a safe space to explore the land while offering the flexibility for the children to set the rhythm of the afternoon, guided by their passions and needs. Using the natural world as our inspiration, we will sing, share stories, develop skills, create art, and feel the joy of living closely to the earth. Once the springtime rolls around, there will be many opportunities for the children to be involved with the farm (planting, harvesting, drying, and creating finely crafted herbal products). I look forward to hearing from you and being a part of your children’s lives.  Please contact Esperanza Gonzalez  at (hummingbirdhope@gmail.com) hummingbirdhope (at) gmail (dot) com or call 516- 578-2235.

The Gift That Nature Gives with Yeshua Long

This journey will be a chance for your child to be creative, learning the importance of expressing our gifts.  In a small group of 3-4, there will be many opportunities to create and build nourishing relationships.  We will listen and create the songs and stories of the wild while discovering what gifts lie hidden within.  Projects include; natural art, wildcrafting – tea and salve making, fire building, meditation and more.  Your child will join Yeshua biweekly or as desired on a tour of the landscape and be introduced to the backyard in a gentle, friendly, and nurturing way.  Contact Yeshua Long at  (earthheartson@gmail.com) earthheartson (at) gmail (dot) com or call 845-687-3492.

Young Naturalist’s Journey: Opening the Mystery with Thomas Meli

Nature offers us some of the most beautiful gifts we can imagine.  It opens up beautiful worlds of fun, creativity, and knowledge which are best explored in an open but safe and supportive environment.  We will take an incredible journey into nature through games, skills, the arts, and playful wanders, and through this experience our own gifts and talents shine.  While each day will be spontaneous and “student-centered,” possible activities include: Primitive Skills & Wood Craft; Animal Tracking; Bird Language; Creative Self-Expression (Writing, Drawing, Music); Lost-proofing; Basic Herbalism, Plant Activities & Health.  Our lives are forever deepened and enriched by participating in nature, and in building a relationship to it, we find innumerable gateways into those beautiful aspects of ourselves.  Join Thomas on this incredible journey, both outward and within.  Contact Thomas Meli at (tpmeli@gmail.com) tpmeli (at) gmail (dot) com or call 516-850-8187