Rewilding Westchester: One Child at a Time

By Eric Stone – Founder and Director of The Rewilding School

Westchester can appear to be the balancing point between rural upstate and the most

developed landscape in the world, NYC. People flock here to access the employment

opportunities and culture of the city, as well as the vast canopy of trees and network of green

spaces that help provide moments of peace.

However, as you dive into the history of this area, you learn not only about how the area has

shifted out of balance but of all the effort to restore our area’s ecology. From scientists

restoring oysters in the Hudson River, to home gardeners turning lawns into native plant

habitats; Westchester is lucky to have a real movement to leave the land better than we found

it – and one I have been honored to help contribute to with The Rewilding School.

Rewilding is a concept based in ecological restoration. To rewild a landscape, you take steps to

restore the plant and animal life that helped that ecosystem thrive. To rewild a place, you must

restore people’s relationship with the land. Children are as much a part of a natural landscape

as the deer and dogwoods are. When I ask adults who love the outdoors how they found that

love, it always starts with some variation of “When I was a kid…” and continues with “We would

just play outside for hours.” Now, kids playing outside can be viewed as a threatened species,

with the restoration of childhood a conservation priority.

Rewilding a child starts simply: kids need to feel safe outdoors. At The Rewilding School, our

teachers share what you have to be aware of to be safe, such as ticks, poison ivy, and stinging

insects. All of these risks can be mitigated with proper knowledge and awareness, including

what they look like, what kind of habitat they are more present in, and how to safely remove

these risks from your body.

After safety comes fun. Following a flow of the day can bring us to the water’s edge for fishing,

into the deep woods to build shelters, to the berry patch to fill baskets and bellies, or to a

sandbank to follow some animal tracks. Lunch is spent eating by a campfire and roasting apples

for dessert. The kids stay off the iPad, move with high-energy games, form clay bowls, sew

leather bags and weave vine baskets with their hands, and learn what it means to have a

relationship with the land.

We wrap up a day with a reflection. Kids share what they learned, what they didn’t like, and

what they want to do again. This keeps us adults looped in to what is most present in their

minds and help us craft the next day accordingly.

We’ve been doing this for nearly 10 years and with thousands of kids. Many of the kids who

started with us as students now work with us as teachers. Our work is not some great

innovation in education; we are just doing what kids have done for generations: playing

outside. Now the kids just need a little help to get there and we’re happy to give them that

push and support.