Our Campus

For over 30 years, we have run programs of all kind from our campus nestled just a short 15 minute drive from the capital city of Augusta. We are grateful for the ability to share an empowering suite of skills at a location that is both accessible and beautiful. Whether you are here for an evening course or an 8-week immersion, you will have year-round and easy access to potable drinking water, a kitchen space to prepare food, overnight camping spots, and a composting toilet system.

Split by Church Hill Rd., our campus extends westward toward the Kennebec river valley and eastward to the adjacent 996 acre Alonzo H. Garcelon Wildlife Management Area. All told, we have 49.8 acres that serves as our ‘teaching laboratory’, dedicated first and foremost to the caretaking and stewardship of a rich local ecology. When we aren’t sharing skills, foraging seasonal food larders, or taking care of the campus, we need only the slightest excuse to go tracking deep within the Wildlife Management Area, or swimming at Spectacle Pond!

Spectacle Pond; nestled in the nearby Wildlife Management Area

Getting to the school is relatively straightforward, since our roads are paved and well plowed in the winter. For written directions to the school, scroll to the bottom of this page; if you’re navigating by GPS or otherwise, use the following address to find us: 716 Church Hill Rd. Augusta, ME 04330

As you arrive, keep your eyes peeled for our small school sign on the side of Church Hill Rd. Our driveway is paved, although our unpaved parking area can pose occasional challenges for smaller or lower vehicles during our spring mud season.

At first glance our campus may not look like anything out of the ordinary, but there is good reason not to judge a book solely by its cover! To the left of the driveway sits the home of Mike and his family, which of course is best treated with respect for the sake of their privacy.

The Winter Classroom

To the right of the driveway you will see our gambrel-roofed Winter Classroom, unmistakeable with the school’s acorn emblem on the road-facing side. As the name suggests, we regularly use this space for teaching in the colder times of year, or during inclement weather. It is furnished with a wood stove that does a great job heating water for tea and rewarming frozen hands after tracking in the snow. For winter courses, students are often welcome to bring their own gear and sleep by the heat of the stove (3-4 folks can fit easily on the ground floor).

A bustling & lively apothecary

Our apothecary is on the ground floor of the same building as our Winter Classroom. It is primarily a space for preserving, processing and storing wildcrafted foods and medicines. Equipped with electric dehydrators, a 4 burner stove & oven, refrigerator, cast iron cookware, and seasonal water systems (running water in the warm seasons, and cisterns for the winter), this space also gives students the capability to cook meals and store perishable food items indoors while staying on campus for our weekend or 5- day courses.

Our composting outhouse

Just behind our winter classroom sits our wheelchair accessible composting toilet. It is fitted with 2 stalls, which are both stocked with the usual amenities you’ll need. The unheated stalls tend to make for an exciting experience (to say the least) when we get winter temperatures well below 0°F! We also have a small outhouse available to use on the furthest eastern side of our campus, where we teach much of our Earth-Living and Foundations of Survival courses.

The path up to our east campus in autumn

We encourage our students who are comfortable with camping to use our tent sites on campus during their stay. Camping can be a great way to save some money and relax after busy class days, without having to worry about the extra hassle of checking into a hotel or going out for food.

Our campsites are right next to our primary facilities, offering easy access to the composting toilet and apothecary; a fire pit located near the campsites also offers a community hangout space for students to cook around the fire and relax in the evenings. For folks who would like to be more secluded, we have plenty of space on our east campus (bordering a large wildlife refuge) for lightweight camping. The walk out is around 300 yards on a seasonally wet trail, and is usually best suited to folks who are comfortable in the backcountry.

• Take I-95 into Augusta to Exit 113 (Route 3).
• Turn East onto Route 3 (A right turn if you were Northbound on I-95) and take for 1.7 miles (crossing the Kennebec river), where you will reach a large intersection with Riverside Drive.
• Get into the left turn lane, and turn left onto Riverside Drive (US HWY 201).
• After 3 miles on Riverside Drive, take a right turn onto Stevens Road (it is easy drive past this accidentally, so pay attention for the green road sign!)
• Take the Stevens Road until it ends in 1 mile at a T-intersection; turn right onto Church Hill Rd.
• After a short .2 miles on Church Hill Rd., slow down and turn right into our driveway that sits right in front of our small roadside sign.