Just as the Abenaki were the original stewards of the mountains, streams, ponds, and foothills that now make up Proctor’s campus, we are merely the current caretakers of this magnificent 2,500 acres of land that we call home. It is a responsibility we embrace with intentionality, ensuring that the careful and responsible management of this land sits at the core of every decision we make and is passed on to our students.
The land Proctor stewards stretches from the top of the Proctor Ski Area, across the Blackwater River valley, up the southern slopes of Ragged Mountain, and beyond to Hopkins Pond and Elbow Pond to the east. Whether traversing the trail to Balanced Rock, crossing the swinging bridge, or finding solace at the Mud Pond shelter, when we spend time in the woods, we connect with a sense of place far deeper than any indoor structure can provide.
Proctor’s deep commitment to environmental stewardship is not new; it is woven into the fabric of the school’s history. Since Proctor’s earliest years, a dedicated group of educators have fostered meaningful engagement with the land. This legacy includes Roland Burbank launching the Cabin Club in the 1930s, Bob Wilson pioneering a woodland management plan and trail construction throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and David Pilla serving as the school’s first Woodlands Manager for four decades, and former forestry teacher Laura Ostrowsky helping launch Proctor’s research forest.
Today, faculty members Alan McIntyre, Lynne Bartlett, and Jeffrey Prado sit at the heart of our environmental stewardship efforts, bringing students along for the journey with them each day through their teaching and leadership of our Woods Team activity. For our students, the land serves as the ultimate classroom. Its biodiversity offers a perfect laboratory for the natural sciences, with courses like Conservation Ecology providing a hands-on exploration of research techniques and ecological principles. Likewise, Woods Team affords the opportunity for students to connect with the land as a resource, managing trails, splitting firewood, learning to operate the woodmizer, and supporting the maple sugaring operation each year. What began in the 1940s as a Campus Improvement Squad, Woods Team has evolved into a powerful educational opportunity for the whole community.
Science Department Chair and our friendly environmental advocate, Alan McIntyre, notes, “The Woods Team continues to deepen its understanding that we are all connected. Each year, the students come to see that forests are extensions of our community. They recognize the tangible link between tree and product within the first day of splitting cordwood—it’s satisfying work, stacking firewood that will fuel gatherings, heat saunas, and boil amber-colored maple syrup.” Alan adds, “The sweeter connection emerged off the paths when we added the goal of collecting data from 30 Forest Research Plots this season. Students were hesitant at first. Tramping through the woods to take measurements wasn’t exactly their jam—or so they thought. Before long, our Wednesday research days became a highlight. I began hearing, ‘I’m not gonna lie, I like walking in the woods to measure the tree plots,’ and ‘Hey, can we do another plot? It’s so nice out here,’ and my favorite: ‘Low-key, this place is chill.’”
Woods Team’s weekly plot studies build on the initiative Laura Ostrowsky started in 2018. The research itself is not hard - the group simply measures the diameter of all trees above breast height within a five-meter plot to assess growth rate. However, as Alan notes, “I’ve realized the data isn’t the real product. The connection is. We know relationships matter. Connecting to trees, to the forest as a living entity, can widen our circle of inclusion and compassion. Lately, students have been asking, ‘How much are the trees changing?’ ‘What will happen to all the ash trees?’ and ‘Will beech bark disease kill off the beeches?’ Their curiosity and concern lead us to question our actions and seek solutions because we are beginning to see, clearly, that the trees, the forest, and the students are all connected.”
Conservation Ecology teacher and Woods Team leader Lynne Bartlett adds, “Much of the work the students do on woods team has remained unchanged for thirty plus years. Students are still splitting and stacking firewood, they are taking apart and rebuilding bridges in our woodlands, they are prepping the sugar house for an upcoming sugaring season and they are blowing off steam by having ax throwing competitions at the end of the week. It’s the time of day I most look forward to.”
Science Faculty and Woods Team extraordinaire, Jeffrey Prado shares, “One of the most exciting things for me about Woods Team is that students get to interact with our woodlands from seed to saw. In addition to revisiting forest research plots and splitting firewood for future sugaring seasons as Alan notes, students have milled usable lumber from logs harvested across the street at the Ski Hill this past spring. Our woodmizer bandsaw mill now has a permanent home near the Woodlands Office and in future terms we hope to produce some high quality hardwood lumber for use in the woodshop. We have now started our final project as a team to build two benches from the lumber we have milled. Those benches will live at the cabin fire pit to welcome the next group of 9th graders on the PSAT hike and anyone else who ventures up the hill above campus.” Jeffrey adds, “This group of dedicated students has gained practical skills every single day this term. They have gotten the opportunity to mess around in the woods with their friends. They have completed meaningful work with their hands. Most importantly, they have worked together as a team to accomplish difficult things. I am grateful this afternoon activity continues to thrive at Proctor and I am already looking forward to being a part of it again next Fall Term.”
We believe we have an institutional responsibility to teach our students to become stewards and Woods Team is perhaps our most effective way of doing this work. The next time you are on campus, take a walk through the woodlands and then swing by the forestry building, grab an axe, and split a few pieces of wood. You might find a connection that will fuel you just like our Woods Team members have found this fall.
Learn more about Proctor's environmental stewardship efforts HERE!
- Environmental Stewardship
- Woodlands