MISSION AND VISION
Nighthawk Naturalist School's mission is to connect people to nature, place and past through immersive outdoor educational programs.
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We strive to make education, wilderness skills, and nature connection accessible to the public through immersive, multi-age educational programming. We encourage community through education among our students and our staff. Connection to the natural world is at the core of everything we teach. We seek to provide a higher standard of nature education that provides holistic ecological literacy. We believe that learning and practicing hard wilderness skills with community provides an immersive experience that has the ability to inspire and transform people. Our experienced team is committed to environmental education, science, wilderness skills, and well-rounded knowledge of global human history.
HISTORY
We are an LLC partnership, Veteran and Woman-owned business. We formed in the fall of 2019, as a group of seasoned wilderness and ecological science educators and nature school administrators who seek to share their passion for this important set of knowledge and skills in a different way. ​
We started our project by offering small adult wilderness survival classes prior to the Historical 2020 COVID-19 shutdown. We relaunched programs for kids and adults beginning September 2020! Our programs are currently run on public land, under Special Use Permits, and sometimes on Private Land.
FRIENDS IN OUTDOOR EDUCATION
We believe that work in environmental ed, outdoor ed, and nature connection is best performed on a small business or small nonprofit scale. We also believe that this work should exist in partnership with other organizations, rather than in competition. The best way to make real change is by having a variety and multitude of small organizations in many places, in order to meet the world--in all its diversity of thought and interest--where it is at. In accordance with this, here are some friends and recommended education organizations in this field:
RAVEN'S ROOTS NATURALIST SCHOOL
Education in Permaculture, Ethnobotany, Naturalist and Survival Skills. Learn more about them and their programs here.
Twisp, WA
THOMAS J ELPEL
Elpel is a writer and naturalist whose works we highly recommend. Visit his web portal here.
Hollowtop Web Portal
JUNIPER FLATS OUTDOOR ED
Outdoor classroom hosting schools of wilderness medicine, outdoor adventure, and traditional skills including Nighthawk Naturalist School, NOLS, and more jflatsoutdoors.com
Bend, OR
The People's Apothecary
Herbal Products and Courses in Bend, Oregon. https://thepeoplesapothecary.net/
Bend, OR
Donate Here
Help us buy new shelters, build new infrastructure and acquire more land partners in 2024-25!
Running an outdoor school in the high desert is getting more and more challenging every year with climate change. Not to mention the long, cold and windy Central Oregon winters.
We want to make our programs better and more comfortable with new infrastructure without needing to increase program tuition.
Donate or share today!
Any funds in excess of our investment will go towards subsidizing tuition for veterans, tribe members and families who need that.
Donations are not tax deductible.