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Collaboration and Adaptability: The Tickets To Getting All Maine Students Into Outdoor Education Programs
NATURE LEARNING
Photo credit: The Ecology School
In 2010, Drew Dumsch, President and CEO of the Ecology School, took the first steps toward an ambitious goal of ensuring every student in Maine had the chance to go to outdoor school. These programs are multi-day, interactive trips that teach students the fundamentals of environmental science in coordination with school curricula and state education standards.
Dumsch knew that reaching this objective would require more resources than the Ecology School alone could provide, so he partnered with the University of Maine’s 4-H Camps and Learning Centers and the Chewonki Foundation to form what was initially called the Environmental Living and Learning for Maine Students (ELLMS) program.
Over the years, the program blossomed into a widespread collaborative of outdoor school providers. Yet, despite more organizations joining the collective, far too many students throughout the state still lacked access to outdoor programming — so Dumsch and his partners took their efforts to the next level.
Eight outdoor education organizations — U Maine’s 4-H Learning Centers, the Ecology School, the Chewonki Foundation, the Schoodic Institute, Kieve Wavus Education, Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership, Cobscook Institute, and Maine Local Living School — combined forces to transform ELLMS into the Maine Outdoor School for All network, an immersive learning initiative for students in grades four through eight.
When Things Look Grim, Turn to Your Partners
In early 2025, the network came together to petition bill LD895, which would lock in state support for its goals. In many ways, the bill was a rousing success. A number of Maine-based nonprofits backed the bill, and it ultimately garnered support on both sides of the political aisle. “Senator Rick Bennett sponsored it, and we had more than 100 cosponsors. It was probably one of the most popular bills of the 132nd legislature,” says Dumsch.
Indeed, the bill passed with bipartisan support in May 2025. “Part of our goal was to try to transcend politics,” Dumsch says. “Getting kids outside shouldn’t be a Republican or Democrat thing, especially in Maine where the environment, farming, marine resources, and forestry are huge parts of who we are.”
Collaboration Gets Things Done
The downside? The bill passed with only $500 in funding — a massive difference from the $1.5 million the collective needed to run a pilot project for half a grade level of students. Ever adaptable, Dumsch and his partners turned to private funding sources to make up as much of the difference as possible.
The Onion Foundation, the Betterment Fund, the Horizon Foundation, the Leonard C. & Mildred F. Ferguson Foundation, and the Quimby Family Foundation each made grants adding up to $450,000 to pilot the Maine Outdoor School for All program to 1,000 students.
But much work is needed to reach the initiative’s original goal. Dumsch and his partners have already launched a campaign to raise $1 million for the 2025-2026 school year, and they hope to scale that work to $6 million and eventually reach 14,000 students throughout Maine.
“I’m a glass-half-full person at all times,” says Dumsch. “You have to prioritize and show collective impact, and we’re doing that. I think another million [dollars] is feasible.”
A Precedent for Success
When every day offers another dose of casual cruelty, programs like this focus on compassion, with kids and teachers living and learning outside together.”
— Drew Dumsch, President and CEO of the Ecology School
Part of Dumsch’s optimism for a statewide, fully funded program is due to the fact that models for this kind of initiative already exist. Oregon, Washington, and Minnesota have all passed bills to establish experiential outdoor learning programs.
While those programs are largely backed primarily by state dollars, they’re programmatically similar to Maine’s initiative. Students supplement what they’re learning in their science classrooms with hands-on, interactive engagement with natural habitats and environmental processes. They develop communication, collaboration, and leadership skills, and come to understand the importance of environmental stewardship.
The programs bring entire classes or even grade levels on nature-learning trips, enabling everyone to experience outdoor learning, not just those who opt in to out-of-school programs.
Piloting the Outdoor School for All in Sanford
In September 2025, the Ecology School led seventh-grade students from Sanford Middle School on a three-day excursion near the Saco River. “Diana Allen is a seventh-grade teacher at Sanford, and she was on the Nature-Based Education Consortium’s Climate, Education, and Advocacy group with me,” says Dumsch. “She recently won the state science teacher of the year award, so the minute we got funding, I knew Sanford would be the first place to focus on.”
During the retreat, students visited various ecological sites, learning about natural processes, food waste, and waste management. Students were excited to experience their lessons outdoors alongside their friends, and teachers walked away feeling as if they knew their students more deeply. The shared experience strengthened not only students’ knowledge, but also their relationships with their teachers and each other.
For Dumsch, it all comes down to connectedness: “What we’re trying to do is give kids at those pivotal ages joyful, amazing, inspirational experiences that can set them up to understand how conservation, food systems, and climate action are connected.”
Leaders from the eight collaborating organizations have met every month for the past 15 years to keep the foundational program running in Maine. And with the passing of LD895, they have even more motivation and resources to grow the Maine Outdoor School for All program statewide.
The Quest for Outdoor School for All Continues
When Dumsch first started partnering with other organizations to support the Maine Outdoor School for All program, he was met with some skepticism from Ecology School staff. When resources are limited, why share them with competitors?
But Dumsch saw things in a different light: “You have to have a growth mindset. Only 15-20% of kids in Maine are getting this type of experience now. What about the other 80%? Organizations like Chewonki aren’t our competitors. They’re our colleagues.”
And it’s true. Without collaboration — in terms of the network offering high-quality outdoor programs and a number of foundations awarding grants to launch the initiative — the Maine Outdoor School for All bill likely never would’ve passed. It’s this abundance mindset that fuels the program and makes Maine’s nature-based learning field so fruitful.
Moving forward, the collective is focused on securing more private grants and lobbying for state funding. It’s an uphill quest, but one already in motion. “We’ve got the ball rolling, the engine running,” says Dumsch. “Now, we just need more fuel.”