Since 1976, the Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) of Nassau County, New York, has utilized a 1600 acre site at Caumsett State Park for its Outdoor and Environmental Education Program. Once the estate of Marshall Field III, the center retains many historic buildings and provides a unique combination of natural habitats: fields,…

Nissequogue River State Park is one of the last large tracts of undeveloped land on Long Island (NY) and is a refuge for organisms displaced by the rapid and extensive growth of suburbia. A reconstructed 120 year old barn and stable house the Outdoor Learning Laboratory which consists of interpretive displays (bird and mammal identification,…

The clean and plentiful waters of the Connetquot basin's ponds, streams and marshlands have nurtured an extraordinarily rich ecosystem which has always been prized by both Native Americans and subsequent immigrants to this country. Since 1973, 3,476 acres have been preserved as Connetquot River State Park. To aid elementary and secondary teachers…

Sunken Meadow State Park provides a year round three-fold ecosystem (marine beach, salt marsh, and wooded upland) of 1,266 acres for Suffolk County (NY) teachers and students to use as a site for outdoor education activities. While teachers can rely on the support of the Outdoor Learning Laboratories' staff for aid in emergencies, for clarifying…

The Indian Youth Leadership Program and the Indian Youth Leadership Camp (IYLC) were created in 1981 in response to the need to develop specific skills in Indian youth who will assume leadership positions in the future at the family, school, community, tribal, and national level. Patterned after the National Youth Leadership Camp, the IYLC emerged…