A state-run summer camp is underway in Woodbury, where up to 60 kids a week experience a hands-on, outdoor learning environment.
There’s no air conditioning, cell phones, computers or internet at Buck Lake Camp, one of the two Green Mountain Conservation Camps operated by the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. And Sam Fielder, an 18-year-old junior counselor from Calais, likes it that way.
“It’s great to be away from technology and away from AC, even though it’s really hot this week in particular,” Fielder said, as she took a break from a lakeside class with a dozen campers. “I really like coming here and playing in the mud, for example, during this class — aquatic ecology — and being around campers that are intrigued and ready to learn.”
"I really like coming here and playing in the mud, for example, during this class — aquatic ecology — and being around campers that are intrigued and ready to learn." — Junior Counselor Sam Fielder
Camp Director Amanda Preston said Buck Lake’s mission is to connect kids with the outdoors.
“Just an appreciation and awareness for Vermont’s natural resources — fish, wildlife and otherwise,” Preston said. “I would say if we can get them engaged with the natural world, we’ve done our job.”
In addition to the conservation camp at Buck Lake, there's also Camp Kehoe on Lake Bomoseen in Castleton.
Tuition for either location is $250 per week, and about half the campers get some form of financial assistance through sponsorships from local organizations.
"I would say if we can get them engaged with the natural world, we’ve done our job." — Camp Director Amanda Preston
The camps are focused on outdoor education, and activities and classes include canoeing, basic aquatic biology, hunter safety, archery and fly-tying.
And while the camp is helping to educate the next generation of hunters and anglers, Vermont Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Louis Porter said the goal is broader than that.
“Ultimately, we’re an environmental agency and our mission is to get people involved in the outdoors as a way to make sure they’ll steward them and keep them,” Porter said. “If we recruit some hunters, anglers and trappers that’s all the better, because they fund a lot of our conservation work. … But there are people here who will become avid hunters and there are people who will probably never hunt in their lives, but got at least the background and experience in it here.”
Disclosure: Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife is a VPR underwriter.
