Sycamore’s Environmental Education Program Celebrates 20 Years
By Kate Hammel, Communications Director
Our new video “Inspiring a Lifelong Appreciation for Nature” celebrates the 20th anniversary of our Environmental Education program with a look back on the inspiring work of its founders.
Developing a love for nature is the first step toward embracing a lifelong conservation ethic. Sycamore believes that meaningful outdoor experiences are crucial and should be available to everyone. These experiences form the basis of a love of nature and a desire to protect it.
Now in its twentieth year, Sycamore’s Environmental Education program offers a wide range of guided outdoor activities and nature-based learning that complements our commitment to land stewardship. These programs help foster the next generation of land stewards, inviting people of all ages to experience the beauty and wonder of nature and embrace their role in protecting it.
Our program brings lessons, activities, story books, and games to schools and community organizations across southern Indiana, completely free of charge. Guided hikes at our nature preserves and educational workdays give everyone an opportunity to learn from expert naturalists. We also partner with local universities to provide internships and other learning opportunities that supplement classroom education, helping inspire future careers in conservation.
Before I began working at Sycamore, my family’s first experience with our education program was a Little Hikers Wetland Walk at Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve, where my then three-year-old daughter was fascinated by the wonders hidden below the water’s surface. As she cherished each crawdad she learned how to catch in her net, she learned the importance of water quality and formed a deep and lasting bond with the natural world.
Ember and her sister Hope on a Little Hikers adventure this spring. Kate Hammel
My daughters are lucky to be growing up surrounded by Sycamore’s positive and powerful community of nature protectors. Our education program is helping them become little citizen scientists, eager to discover nature’s wonders and help protect the incredible biodiversity surrounding them.
Our summer days have been filled with scientific research projects disguised as play, from assessing the health of the streams we stomp in with nets full of macroinvertebrates, to stinky moth traps made of fermented fruit painted on trees in our backyard. I am grateful to Sycamore for teaching me how to make science fun for my daughters, and helping to inspire a lifelong appreciation for nature in their hearts.
Sycamore’s Environmental Education Program was created twenty years ago in 2005, when an anonymous donor gave $25,000 to launch an Environmental Education Pilot Project. This allowed Sycamore to work with local educators to provide learning opportunities and positive outdoor experiences for people of all ages, using our preserves as outdoor classrooms for science instruction.
This effort aimed to combat what Richard Louv described as “nature deficit disorder” in his book Last Child In the Woods. “Time in nature is not leisure time,” he wrote. “It’s an essential investment in our children’s health (and also, by the way, in our own).” Research continues to show a tremendous benefit to the overall well-being of those who are immersed in outdoor experiences, where they find a place of respite, meditation, and growth.
Our Environmental Education Program’s first Coordinator was Carroll Ritter, a retired science teacher from Paoli High School and dedicated Sycamore board member.
Carrol Ritter (left) with Burris Elementary fourth graders in May 2007.
“The whole mission then was to integrate educational experiences and the joy of nature. This was what Sycamore was all about,” Carroll said. “Not only protecting and preserving and building forever for the land, but building and establishing the love for that land in the next generation. They are the ones that are going to carry us forward.”
“L’il Hikers” was one of the first programs Carroll developed to invite young nature explorers and their families outside, and he loved it intently. “When you are turning over rocks in the creek looking for crawdads,” he said, “or hiking up hillsides groaning at the steepness together, you reach kids very personally.“
The first L’il Hikers program was held at McCormick’s Creek State Park, with 42 people participating. Some carried children in packs, pushed them in strollers, or held hands as they ventured down to the old quarry site near the creek. There, the children looked at stream macroinvertebrates through the program’s new magnifying viewers.
One of Carroll’s favorite places to hold educational events in the early days was at Herbert Hoover’s beautiful property. On a snowy day, the little hikers climbed a steep hill up to a cabin, where hot chocolate and cookies baked by Carroll’s wife Martha rewarded them for their efforts. Outside on the picnic table, Carroll set up a microscope. As the snow fell around them, they captured flakes on a cold slide and quickly put it under the microscope so the kids could marvel at the intricate patterns. “You can imagine how I loved being a part of that,” Carroll said.
Just a few months after Sycamore’s Environmental Education program was launched, Carroll had already reached more than 250 kids. That year, he worked with seven teachers and held eight field trips. Eleven additional trips and talks were offered to adults.
One of the first schools to participate was Needmore Elementary near Bedford, where Carroll worked with students to plant a native prairie at their school and build an outdoor classroom where they could learn surrounded in the beauty of nature.
Needmore Elementary in Bedford was the first school to partner with Sycamore’s Environmental Education program, planting a beautiful native prairie for outdoor learning.
The founding of our education program in 2005 coincided with a new project to build a boardwalk trail through recovering wetlands at Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve in Monroe County. The project was spearheaded by John Gallman with the help of over 200 volunteers. Carroll made immediate use of the new trail for the education program, bringing students to observe restoration in action and learn science in the heart of a thriving wetland.
They brought binoculars, tape measures for measuring trees, tree ID guides, and even writing notebooks, because Carroll would take them out to the swamp deck where the red-headed woodpeckers like to hang out. There, they would sit in silence and listen, and students were encouraged to write about their feelings. When the boardwalk trail was completed in 2007, it was named the Beanblossom Bottoms Environmental Education Trail, inviting everyone to come learn outside.
Carroll also organized field trips to Touch the Earth Natural Area near Columbus, where a dedicated group of community volunteers built and maintained a nature trail that was being used as an outdoor classroom.
At Tangeman Woods nearby, elementary students came by busloads to explore the Outdoor Lab Trail, originally established by the Bartholomew County Soil and Water Conservation District in the 1970s and still used for outdoor education today. Sycamore helped set up learning stations along the trail, where visiting students from local schools identified birds and trees, looked for salamanders under logs, and participated in listening sessions where they were encouraged to be quiet and use their ears to discover the world around them. When Sycamore acquired Tangeman Woods in 2007 thanks to the Irwin-Sweeney-Miller Foundation, we carried the legacy of the Outdoor Lab Trail forward by ensuring its permanent protection.
One of Carroll’s most memorable field trips was in the spring of 2007. Students from Burris Elementary in Mitchell learned about trees, followed a path to a bluff, sat on a mossy overlook above a creek, scrambled up to a spring alcove, and observed quietly at a hidden wildlife pond. But Carroll said the amazing thing about this trip was being caught in a thunderstorm deep in the forest, and how the children loved the excitement. Despite being drenched, they thought it was the best field trip ever.
Students at Burris Elementary after being caught in a thunderstorm during a hike with Sycamore’s Environmental Education program in 2007. Carroll Ritter
In our education program’s first three years, Sycamore raised over $150,000 to provide outdoor education, motivating donors like the Raymond Foundation to help connect more people to nature. “We realize that our mission to preserve and protect land will require influencing the next generation,” Carroll wrote in The Twig. “Consequently, we are investing not only in the present but also in the future. We hope the impact of this will be long lasting for these young people, who will be the future caretakers and stewards of our country’s resources.”
By 2008, the program had grown to reach over 3,000 children a year. Teachers from eighteen schools were working with Sycamore to get their students outside. Carroll designed nature games like log crossing and rabbit and fox chases. These games were as much fun as they were instructional. He also created moments for being still in nature, observing and internalizing it. He held nature poetry contests and photo contests, and offered photography workshops that had kids kneeling down in the creek to shoot pictures of rocks and trees. By getting close to nature with a camera, they noticed more, and their photos gave them an opportunity to go back and look again.
In Ellettsville, Sycamore partnered with Edgewood Intermediate School to plant a native prairie and create an outdoor classroom. Their efforts earned them the Outdoor Lab of the Year award in 2008 from the Indiana State Tree Farm Committee. Carroll also partnered with Judy Morran’s fifth grade class to create a nature trail through wetland woods at the nearby Well Site Nature Preserve. Students presented to the town council to secure permission, learning about civic engagement alongside hands-on land stewardship, helping build bridges and boardwalks that benefit their community.
Carroll’s programs helped participants build trust in themselves and make a positive impact. At Well Site Nature Preserve, Edgewood students built trails and bridges to benefit their community. Carroll Ritter
One of the students who helped with the project, Ellen Bergan, would grow up to intern and eventually work at Sycamore, and credited Sycamore’s education program as inspiration for pursuing a PhD to research dendrochronology, the study of tree rings.
At Fayetteville Elementary in Lawrence County, Carroll helped all 500 kindergarten through 5th grade students resurrect a 25-year-old nature trail at their school. The trail highlighted a huge rotting log and a hollow beech tree, perfect for decomposition studies. They created a woodland amphitheater for learning outside. And they planted a native prairie that would be the site of Sycamore’s first controlled burn a few years later, demonstrating the value of good fire in partnership with the volunteer fire department. Students even witnessed the release of a hawk rehabilitated by the Indiana Wildlife Center, which brought many in the school to tears. The school was named Outdoor Lab of the Year in 2010.
At Salem High School, Carroll designed a 60-acre outdoor lab with teacher John Calhoun and his science club. A huge prairie was planted with thousands of native plants and a new public greenway was created linking downtown to the school. Interpretive signage was provided by the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. The school also planted a landmark American chestnut restoration plot in partnership with Jim McKenna at Purdue University and the American Chestnut Foundation. One hundred chestnut trees were planted and monitored by the science club, providing valuable scientific data by comparing the growth of American, Chinese, and hybrid species. This incredible multi-partner project earned them the Outdoor Lab of the Year award in 2014.
At Salem High School, Carroll helped students plant and monitor a landmark chestnut restoration plot in partnership with Purdue University and the American Chestnut Foundation. Carroll Ritter
Carroll also partnered with local universities to give lectures on environmental education, arrange outdoor learning opportunities at Sycamore preserves, and help college classes get involved in land stewardship and trail building.
Carroll left Sycamore in 2014 after 12 years of service as Environmental Education Coordinator and board member. Under his leadership, the program won awards for outstanding quality and affected tens of thousands of students of all ages.
In 2014, a private donor stepped up to make our education program a sustainable part of our organization for the long term. This donor generously offered to fund a full-time educator for two years and pledged $250,000 more as a match toward building an endowment. This pledge required Sycamore to raise an additional $250,000 to match the gift over the following two years. Sycamore established the Monarch Environmental Education Endowment Fund through the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County. The goal was to raise a $1 million endowment for the program, which would fund a permanent, full-time position in perpetuity.
Shane Gibson was hired in 2015 as Sycamore’s first full-time Environmental Education Director. He continued using hands-on science activities and play to build students’ confidence in nature. His aim was to create a community of people who value the environment and generously and collectively work to make the world a better place.
Shane Gibson, Sycamore’s Environmental Education Director from 2015 to 2022, with Unionville Elementary School students in 2019.
Shane’s first program was with young adults from Community Transitions, a program for students with disabilities aged 18 to 22 that provides support in making the transition from school to adult lives. Shane took the group fishing. Then they cleaned what they caught and cooked it together, helping them feel empowered and confident in nature. Community Transitions still joins Sycamore once a month during the school year to go on outdoor adventures.
Shane expanded Sycamore’s education network by partnering with the Indiana University School of Education to teach graduate students lessons they could use to teach elementary science outdoors. He partnered with eight elementary school teachers in Bloomington to give the graduate students opportunities to teach hands-on lessons outdoors.
In 2016, Shane created Sycamore’s “Native Plant Project” to involve students in growing native plants for habitat restoration, helping them turn their schools into living laboratories for biodiversity. He began by visiting classrooms to help students plant native seeds in trays. He visited again as the plants matured, helping students transplant their seedlings outside or take them home.
By 2017, we were nearing our goal of raising $1 million for the endowment, thanks to generous donors who helped to ensure that educational programming provided by Sycamore will forever be free, in much the same way our land acquisitions will forever be protected. Inspired by their generosity, Shane developed a new program to bring philanthropy into the classroom, creating our Classroom Membership program to give students a way to contribute meaningfully to protect land forever.
Shane used a clever art project to send a powerful message. On a bare piece of cardboard, each student created a habitat and connected them together. Placed beside a map of our Beanblossom Creek Conservation Area, their connected parcels showed how individual efforts add up to landscape-scale conservation.
Mary Welz stepped into the role of Education Director in 2022, inspired to help everyone protect biodiversity. She enhanced our stewardship education programming, empowering participants of all ages to restore habitat not only on our nature preserves, but also at home and in their communities, where they can be a stepping stone for pollinators to move across a fragmented landscape. She built new partnerships to amplify Sycamore’s impact, and helped create educational opportunities for neighboring landowners, helping them restore habitat on their land near our nature preserves. And she invited people of all ages and abilities to join her on Sycamore’s 30 miles of trails for guided hikes with expert naturalists in a safe and welcoming environment.
In 2023, Mary created a Milkweed in Milk Jugs workshop series, using recycled milk jugs to help classrooms and community organizations grow plant plugs from native seed. Students at Marlin Elementary held a plant sale with the plants they grew, donating the proceeds to support Sycamore’s work.
Students at Marlin Elementary School held a plant sale with plants they grew in Mary’s Milkweed in Milk Jugs workshops. They sold them for $0.50 each and raised $30 to support Sycamore. Juli Fischer
Mary helped students of all ages enhance their outdoor spaces with native plantings and remove harmful invasive species. At Templeton Elementary School in Bloomington, over 200 students helped to plant a total of twenty native trees to replace invasive Callery pears removed from their campus.
Today, Saige Sentell continues our program’s legacy, offering high-quality classroom education, field trips, educational workdays, and inclusive guided hikes with expert naturalists. In her first year as Education Director, she has held over 150 programs to share the wonders of nature and help everyone get involved in protecting it. Her programs connect participants to citizen science opportunities that contribute valuable data to help advance conservation. Moths Nights teach participants how to attract moths and record species diversity on iNaturalist. Birding hikes with local experts show participants how to use eBird to contribute to global bird conservation. Seed collection events teach participants how to ethically collect native seed for habitat restoration, and bat box and bluebird box building workshops help add habitat to backyards.
This summer, Saige partnered with bat biologists to offer an incredible education opportunity. Participants helped set up mist nets and acoustic detection tools at Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve, witnessing scientific monitoring that guides our conservation priorities. Over 50 bats were carefully weighed, measured, and identified by bat biologists before being released. This event confirmed state endangered Indiana bats still use Beanblossom Bottoms for summer roosting habitat. As each bat was released, participants gasped in awe, waving goodbye as the silhouettes disappeared into the night sky. Everyone can get involved in citizen science through Sycamore’s programs.
Following in the footsteps of previous education directors, Saige shared the Web of Life activity with fourth graders at Templeton Elementary in September 2025. Kate Hammel
My family attended Little Hikers Moth Night at Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve this summer, bringing our well-worn bug nets and bug houses to gather around illuminated sheets and trees painted with moth bait. My daughters huddled with other tiny citizen scientists, passing around giant water beetles and fish flies like treasures. L’il Hikers was one of the first programs created twenty years ago by Carroll Ritter. It is still going strong today, getting little hikers like mine outdoors and immersed in the study of large and small wonders.
Sycamore believes that if we work together, we have the power to change the natural history of southern Indiana. Thanks to our combined efforts, over 11,700 acres have already been protected forever. The next generation of land stewards is already lining up to join our ranks to help protect southern Indiana’s natural heritage. And my daughters are proudly taking their places alongside us, making sure they are close enough to hold any bugs we find along the way.
I’m grateful to Sycamore for inspiring a lifelong appreciation of nature in their hearts, and teaching them that they have a place in conservation. Our Environmental Education Program cultivates a lifelong love of nature that motivates people to care. We are building a strong community of caretakers for this land, who understand that nature needs us and we all have the power to help.
An education program reunion! Former Environmental Education Coordinator Carroll Ritter (2005-2014), former Environmental Education Director Shane Gibson (2015-2022), former Education Director Mary Welz (2022-2024), and former Executive Director John Lawrence reunited at our 2025 Annual Celebration on October 4th. Taji Gibson
Thank you!
These generous Environmental Education Program donors helped to ensure that educational programming provided by Sycamore will forever be free, in much the same way our land acquisitions will forever be protected.
Raymond Foundation
Sam Shine Foundation
CenterPoint Energy Foundation
Kathleen and Steve* Weller
Wylie Foundation
Anonymous
George and Cathy Korinek
Carl H. Ziegler*
Sandy Lynch and Jack Shelton, in memory of Bill and Cookie Lynch
Efroymson Family Fund
Brabson Family Foundation
Scott and Ruth Sanders
Anonymous
Namaste Foundation
Dr. Robert* and Judy Decker Wargel*
Kathleen and Fred Henney
Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County
Anonymous
Del and Letty Newkirk
Duke Energy Foundation
Jack and Sylvia* King
Stephen Higgs and Alice Reed
Virginia Metzger
Any many other generous individual donors.
This story was featured in the Fall 2025 issue of The Twig, “The Citizen Science Issue.” Read more at sycamorelandtrust.org/twig.
