White Pine Programs is a nonprofit educational organization located in Southern Maine. Our organization was founded in 1999; you can read our origin story here.
Our nature-based education programs vary from weekly, full day experiences to outdoor learning at schools to hour-long walks in the woods. We served approximately 3,000 people in 2021 from more than 50 different communities. Our location uniquely positions us to reach people from Boston, Massachusetts to Manchester, New Hampshire, to Portland, Maine.
Because we believe that a connection to nature develops differently for everyone, we offer accessible programs that incorporate birding, nature skills and nature study in addition to hiking and camping. At the center of all our programs are core nature connection practices such as gratitude, acknowledgement of the land and its original stewards, song, play and nature exploration. Our intention is always to establish a safe and inclusive environment whereby participants are free to be curious, vulnerable and whole-hearted.
Our mission is to create shared outdoor experiences that awaken curiosity, build personal resilience, and cultivate caring relationships with self, community, and the natural world. It is our vision to help create and facilitate an inter-generational community that restores empathy and compassion and leads a broad-based movement toward a thriving, sustainable environment for all.
Our core values include:
- Compassionate caretaking of the Earth and of ourselves
- Collaboration with participants, land owners, land trusts and community agencies
- Innovative resilience whereby we encourage the pushing of “edges” in a safe space to build confidence and grit
- Respect of each other, the Earth, our communities, our elders and of indigenous people and practices
- Awareness of our surroundings, of ourselves
- Inclusion and accessibility as guideposts in our programming, our behavior and our culture
- Curiosity and passion as driving forces behind human behavior and lifelong learning
- Integrity to ourselves, our environment and our community.
Want to learn more? Enjoy our short video, found below. For more videos, visit our Vimeo page.