EarthWalk – Fairbanks
at Matsinger Forest
EarthWalk learning is a fully immersive experience with the land (ALL outdoors!) and with a small community group of learners. Our year-round programs for children, teens, adults, and elders embrace these principles:
- Learning together with Nature
- Practicing outdoor living skills
- Building caring communities, and
- Nurturing land stewardship
EarthWalk has been inspiring and growing caring communities rooted in nature since 2005.
Matsinger Forest Location: 3072 Thaddeus Stevens Road at the Danville-Peacham town-line. Public Parking. Restroom facility (open May – Nov).
EarthWalk-Fairbanks Site: a short walk into the forest with a rustic shelter and seating area.
Some EarthWalk Learning Activities are: making crafts, foraging wild edibles, listening to birds, sharing gratitude, shelter-building, making a fire, carving a spoon, wading in the brook, nature journaling, basket-weaving, exploring wetlands, singing songs, cooking over the fire, making cordage, finding medicinal plants, wildlife tracking, sharing nature stories, bow-drill fire-making, helping others, stewardship projects, storytelling & more!
Youth Camps & Forest School
With Nature as the primary teacher, and with the support of skillful and caring mentors and elders, children can learn to feel comfortable, joyful and at home in the forest, meadows, and along the waterways. EarthWalk mentors honor each child as a unique learner and valued community member, meeting each individual where they are, so they feel excited to learn and make strong connections with each other and the land.
Trust Walk
sit spot
making fire
Forest School
EarthWalk forest circle
campers in home-made hut
campers in cedar bog
adventurers in cedar woods
Summer Camps
Mon – Fri
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
For children and teens ages 6-15
- $300/child (members)
- $350/child (non-members)
- $20/child sibling discount
Forest Stewards Camp (ages 13-15)
June 16-20
Campers will come together with peers and mentors, to gain confidence, and grow leadership skills to share with others, while also learning to be Forest Stewards. Campers can grow their naturalist knowledge (birds, mammals, plants, trees and more), and outdoor skills, such as foraging, fire-building, and cooking. An important part of camp will be learning tool-use and safety, to: build foot-bridges, benches and steward the trails. And we will play awesome games and have lots of fun! *Stewards’ Campers will be eligible for a potential service-role as an M.I.T. (Mentor-In-Training) for Summer Camps. Please express your interest on the registration form! Thank you.
Forest Explorers Camp (ages 6-10)
June 23-27 OR July 7-11
Campers can tap into their innate curiosity and wonder, as we explore the forest, learn new skills, all while building relationships with the wild ones who share the forest with us. We will play fun games, share stories, sing songs, make forest crafts, build a shelter, make fire without matches & cook wild snacks and do some wood-carving projects. Let’s explore, have some fun, learn skills and make new friends!
Forest Adventures (ages 8-12)
July 21-25 and/or July 28 – August 1
Campers will have many adventures in the forest, including: playing stealth games, exploring and deepening their naturalist knowledge of the land. Campers can hone their outdoor skills, such as fire-by-friction, shelter-building, wood-carving, and using hand-tools for camp stewardship projects. Let’s take care of each other and the land, while having some wild forest adventures together! Forest Adventures is recommended for campers who have experienced EarthWalk, or similar camps.
Forest School
Thursdays
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Each session is limited to 12 students ages 8-12.
- SPRING Session 2025: May 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 & June 5 & 12
- $455/student (members)
- $490/student (non-members)
- $20/child sibling discount
Forest School (ages 8-12)
Join us through the seasons for a weekly outdoor learning adventure in Matsinger Forest.
To apply, please fill out an online application for each student. We will review all applications and get back to you within a week.
The Forest School application includes important questions because we value nurturing and supportive relationships, and we believe in growing a caring community together. We want to take steps to make sure the Forest School is a good fit for your child. Thank you for your understanding!
Registration is complete once payment has been recieved or a payment plan has been approved. Full payment is required before the start of the program.
Spring
Come experience learning together with the land during the awakening of Springtime in Matsinger Forest! Spring is an exciting time to be tuning into our senses, listening for the birds’ return, following tracks, foraging, making crafts, singing songs and sharing nature stories. We will play lots of games, practice outdoor skills, and work on stewardship projects. Let’s come together each week and learn how we can take care of one another and the land!
Winter
Come experience learning together with the land in deep Winter! Let’s learn about our wild neighbors by following the tracks and signs they leave behind. We will do lots of exploring and discovering, as well as building quinzee snow shelters, practicing bow-drill fire-making, and cooking snacks over the fire. Let’s make crafts and carve utensils and tools; sing songs and share stories, and we always make time to play epic games! Learn to be warm and dry outside during the coldest and wettest time of year—-and have a lot of fun at EarthWalk-Fairbanks Forest School!
Workshops
1:00 – 4:00 PM at Matsinger Forest
For adults, elders, teachers, and teens
Fee: $25/member $30/non-member (includes instruction and materials)
Each workshop is limited to 15 people.
Join Ange Gibbons and guests, for this series of EarthWalk-Fairbanks workshops, learning together with the land through the seasons. Let’s expand our naturalist knowledge; share outdoor skills; make crafts, grow our community and learn to steward the land.
April 19: Making a Bark basket
Let’s harvest White Pine bark & Spruce roots to make a small & beautiful basket.
May 10: Spoon Carving FULL
Let’s create, shape, and whittle—start to finish, from a fallen tree—a wonderful, simple, and useful wooden spoon.
June 7: Spring Foraging
Let’s enjoy Springtime by exploring, and learning more about Matsinger Forest; while harvesting a few local wild edible and medicinal plants.
17. Theresa all smiles!
25. Group of happy basket-makers!
EarthWalk – Fairbanks
at Matsinger Forest
EarthWalk has been inspiring and growing caring communities rooted in nature since 2005. For more than 15 years, from the Plainfield location adjacent to Goddard College, EarthWalk Vermont, offered transformative education programs, annually serving over 300 families in Central Vermont. Since EarthWalk Vermont ended their programs in 2021, founder, Angella Gibbons, has continued EarthWalk’s vision of mentoring all ages, to care for one another and the earth, building strong resilient nature-connected communities in Central Vermont. In January 2024, Angella formed EarthWalk L3C, where she is excited to be offering nature and community programs through land partnerships with families, libraries, schools and now a new EarthWalk partnership with the Fairbanks Museum at Matsinger Forest.
Matsinger Forest Location: 3072 Thaddeus Stevens Road at the Danville-Peacham town-line. Public Parking. Restroom facility (open May-Nov).
EarthWalk-Fairbanks Site: a short walk into the forest with a rustic shelter and seating area.
Angella Gibbons
EarthWalk-Fairbanks Director
Angella (Ange) Gibbons, M. Ed. is a seasoned Nature Educator, Community-Builder, Consultant, Tracker, Naturalist and founder of EarthWalk. She has been mentoring, guiding and teaching children, teens and adults to care for one another and the earth for over 35 years. Recipient of the 2021 Zetterstrom Environmental Award given by Green Mountain Power, Ange is well-known across the state for her contributions to nature education and environmental stewardship. Ange and EarthWalk are featured in the book Greening Vermont: A Search for a Sustainable State, which documents the history of the Vermont Environmental Movement. She is a certified Level 3 Tracker with CyberTracker International, and has certification in Wilderness First Aid and CPR. Ange lives with her husband Dennis on a small sun-powered homestead in Marshfield, where they tend the land with their vegetable and herb gardens, chickens and bees.