For many school children, especially those who grow up in urban areas, the natural world is a mystery. They may have no idea where their food comes from. They may have never laid eyes on an expanse of trees or walked in a bubbling brook. The Alice Ferguson Foundation, tucked away right outside of Washington, D.C., gives many of these children their first hands-on experience with nature and the opportunity to learn about their relationships to their food and the land around them.
The Alice Ferguson Foundation sits amidst emergent wetlands and along the longest freshwater living shoreline in the nation. Thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of its staff and educators, the organization has provided transformative environmental education experiences for nearly half a million urban and under-served school children from Washington, D.C., and the nearby suburbs of Maryland and Virginia since 1954.
The 330-acre property is home to the historic Hard Bargain Farm, started by Alice and Henry Ferguson, who pioneered key elements of environmental conservation as we know it today. Today, the campus gives students in grades K through 12 the opportunity to explore the natural world through more than a dozen standards-aligned hands-on science activities.
Transformation Through Nature
Tori Bitner, communications coordinator for the foundation, often trails along as the students hike, pick up stream creatures, and interact with farm animals. She gets to watch as they experience incredible views of the Potomac, something they may be doing for the very first time.
The transformation in these students, she finds, is incredible. “The more time they spend outside, the more they open up,” she says. “Some are fearful at first, but they are also excited. They get a chance to breathe and experience a whole new world outside the four walls of the classroom and the urban environments in which they live.”
These experiences can be not only fun, but life changing. Bitner recalls meeting one woman who visited as a fifth grade student. Today, this woman credits her experiences at the Hard Bargain Farm for putting her on the path to being the executive director of her own nonprofit.
This year, the staff and educators with the Alice Ferguson Foundation will welcome back an increasing number of students in-person after the shutdowns during the pandemic. The team is particularly excited that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources is sponsoring all third graders in the Charles County school system to come for an entire day. “In our school programs, the kids learn how to use binoculars. They engage in gardening activities and challenges to see who can find the most birds,” says Bitner. “It’s a whole day for them to be outside and just be kids!”
The Alice Ferguson Foundation is also looking forward to broadening its STEM-focused program, “Bridging the Watershed.” Every year, thousands of students come from throughout the region to participate in the program, visiting state and national parks with the program’s rangers. One particularly fun activity, Bitner notes, is collecting macro invertebrates from local water sources and learning how to use that information to assess the health of those water sources.
Building for the Future
The Foundation is continuing to build for its future, as well. In December 2022, the Alice Ferguson Foundation unveiled its new education pavilion, which also marked the completion of a decades-long capital improvement project for its Potomac Watershed Study Center. The pavilion will serve as a gathering place for outdoor educational programming that reinforces the Foundation’s commitment to “nature as a classroom.”
This pavilion will not only enrich the experiences of the thousands of students who visit the farm every year, but those attending its summer camps as well. Bitner is excited to announce that those camps have been extended to a full four weeks. “We are hoping to add overnights next year,” she says.
But the Foundation isn’t solely focused on students. The farm is a hub of activity for the public during the spring, summer, and fall. This month, the Alice Ferguson Foundation is holding its 35th Annual Potomac River Cleanup, an event that has been ongoing since the late 1980s. In May, the Foundation will host its annual Spring Fest with a native plant sale followed by a Bees for Beginners program.
Want to get involved? Check out all of the fun happenings at fergusonfoundation.org/events/.
Sustainably,
Bobby Firestein
For our 2023 Ecoprint calendar, Protecting the Natural Beauty of the Chesapeake Bay, we have partnered with 13 different organizations, all dedicated to helping solve the environmental challenges in this important ecological hub. The Alice Ferguson Foundation is our featured partner for the month of April. To get your own 2023 Ecoprint calendar, click the button below.