For 5 days campers hike, climb, wade & swim “our place”: the 5 ecoregions of the Nonotuck biome. These activities aren’t just “fun”—they’re designed to increase camper’s perceptual abilities, stimulate their critical thinking skills, inspire their creative imaginations, and counteract “nature deficit disorder.” Through active physical and mental engagement with “our place,” they gain a deep & lasting appreciation of it—and themselves.

We go from site to site—mountains, forests, brooks, industrial brownfields, you name it—enjoying an adventurous, inquiry-based investigation of how our biome is a bio-home (the home of diverse forms of life). Each day we visit new places, and meet new creatures; campers read resource maps, locate & explore rare ecologies, identify native & non-native species, understand watersheds, rivers, wetlands, public water supplies, and how different soils grow different trees.

Every day, campers enlarge their scientific and cultural “background knowledge” and apply the knowledge as they interpret or “read” the landscapes we visit. The ability to “read a landscape” is the first important step a person takes towards what Aldo Leopold called “thinking like a mountain.”

Depending on their age level, and what the weather is like on any particular day, campers also visit farms, power plants & museums, read & tell stories about nature and culture, take pictures & write in their campbooks or field journals. After a week, they know why Nonotuck—our place—is unlike any other place in the USA. They also know some of the best places to take you hiking, swimming and picnicking!

We’ll have these groups (1 instructor, 1 ass’t instructor & 6 campers) on these M-F dates; click link for specific info about the differing programs for each age group:

Grades 1-3: June 11-15; June 25-29

Grades 4-6: June 18-22; July 9-13

Grades 7-8: July 16-20; July 23-27

Grades 9-10: July 30-August 3; August 6-10

Dr. William R. Peck School: August 13-17

We will meet at Forbes Library in Northampton for pick-up and drop-off. Campers will be transported to outdoor learning sites in the Biocitizen van. They’ll bring lunches, suitable clothing and exploration gear.

Our Place was great for my homebody son. When not playing soccer, my 13 year-old likes to stick to the familiar, but Kurt brought him somewhere new everyday. They learned about where we live by reading, talking, observing and literally diving in—they swam in rivers, hiked in beautiful places, and met new people. Now our son has led the rest of the family on a few adventures. Thanks to Our Place for getting us off the couch to enjoy this beautiful valley!
-Ann Lewis

Put this on your ‘where should my kids go to summer camp’ list. Lucien (& our friend Sam Jackson) adored this camp heart-&-souled by Kurt Heidinger.
-Sarah Buttenweiser

“I hear from my two boys that Biocitizen camp for kids is a great summer adventure: ‘You learn cool stuff but it doesn’t seem like you’re in a classroom…it’s fun.’”
—Tom Martin

The cost of the 5 day camp that runs M-F from 9am-3pm is $300.00.

For more information, please use our contact form (top, on main page) or call 413.527.9092

All sales support our non-profit mission of teaching environmental philosophy.

Biocitizen T shirt

Help support non-profit Biocitizen school programs, and spread the “think outside” message, by wearing our t shirt!

The shirt costs $20.00 + $5.00 shipping.

—white tie-dye-able 100% soft organic cotton
—”biocitizen” on front, dragonfly wings on back
—eco-friendly soy-based ink
—youth medium and large; adult large

biocitizen t-shirt: Adult large Youth medium Youth large

$20.00Price:

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1) Springsources: Hindu, Judaic, Greek and Roman nature mysticism

2) The Transcendental Experience: Emerson’s Nature

3) Living Transcendentally: Thoreau’s Walking

4) Collective Transcendentalism: Whitman’s Song of Myself

5) Transcendentalism in the age of Gaia: Margolis’s What is Life?

Fall session classes are scheduled for Weds. 7-9pm; 12/2, 12/9, 12/16, 1/6 & 1/13

The texts for our first class will be accessed from the web. Suggested editions for the other texts are found by clicking on the book title.

You’ll also receive links to, or hand-outs of, secondary sources so you are introduced to the historical contexts from which these ideas and works emerged. The curriculum is structured recursively so that each class builds upon contexts established on the one before it, so that when we get to What Is Life?, you have the conceptual tools you need to see how Transcendentalism continues to guide our understanding of the human place in the designs of nature. Finally, you’ll be provided with questions and prompts online that will help guide you through the readings, so when we meet you have already started interpreting Transcendental ideas. You are not required, but are strongly encouraged, to keep a journal of your reflections and questions which, if you desire, your instructor will review and comment upon.

Transcendentalism

Learn where Transcendentalism came from, and how it informs our way of perceiving nature. In five easy 2-hour classes!

$80.00Price:

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freedom is the gift of nature
Jefferson

In 1736, the Reverend Jonathan Edwards observed that the Nonotuck bioregion encouraged spiritual and political liberation:

The people of the county in general, I suppose, are as sober, and orderly, and good sort of people, as in any part of New England; and I believe they have been preserved the freest by far, of any part of the country from error and variety of sects and opinions. Our being so far within the land, at a distance from sea-ports, and in a corner of the country, has doubtless been one reason why we have not been so much corrupted with vice, as most other parts.

Edward said the land defined the character of the people he was leading. Geography and geology ensured they would remain morally pure.

He was thinking of the Tom and Holyoke mountains when he stated this environmental philosophy–this idea that “where you are is who you are.” These mountains can not be ignored; they dominate and define the region. Their abrupt inclines have always been striking and, when Edwards was writing, their east to west alignment was singular in North America. He was pointing out that these mountains enabled, inspired and protected his Great Awakening, the first consequential expression of a genuinely “American” theology. Edwards felt free to experiment with his concepts of God, and develop a “new and improved” way to experience divinity–all thanks to where and what Nonotuck was.

The mountains and soils and waters of Nonotuck continue to provide the basis for a bioregional culture unique in the U.S. Other small cities and towns can claim similar attributes, Boulder CO and Arcata CA come to mind, but none are so deeply rooted in the American history of liberation (and none are so close to Vermont!).

After the Revolutionary War, Daniel Shays and his supporters revolted against the Federal government in Northampton. Upon hearing of this while in Paris, Thomas Jefferson wrote:

a little rebellion now and then is a good thing. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

A few decades later, Sojourner Truth joined the utopian communal society called the Northampton Association of Education and Industry. These figures and their stories provide the model for later denizens who continue to develop and display the high-minded liberal y backwoodsy libertarian ethos of Paradise City.

Look closely around Nonotuck, the farm land situated between the coast and the mountains, and you’ll see the biocultural history of land and liberation alive today, a history that links Jonathan Edwards to Rachel Maddow. This one day touring and hiking intensive lets you smell, touch and taste its fading traces and freshest productions. Readings (beforehand) and discussions while en route let you entertain the most interesting thoughts about nature and culture. Letting the season and weather dictate our course, we’ll investigate whatever seems ripe at the moment–the mountains, forests and fields; the downtown streets, markets, stores and cafes; the museums and greens, the architectures, and the not-marked-on-the-map places: wherever Nonotuck’s biocultural history is expressing itself.

Land and Liberation introduces you to a way of reading the environment so it tells you the stories of humanity. Once you perceive how that story is told, you’ll be able to see it anywhere.

Think outside.

“There’s more there than you think.”

Land of Liberation: Fall

A 1-day intensive that investigates the biocultural history of the Nonotuck bioregion.

$80.00Price:

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