Schiller Coastal Studies Center (SCSC) is folded into the wooded shoreline on the west side of Orr’s Island. The property – formerly a farm, now a center for interdisciplinary research and education – is comprised of field, forest and marine habitats. Locals may be most familiar with the network of trails that loop the length of the 118-acre property, encircling the variety of habitats, connecting people more deeply to a sense of place.

Run by Bowdoin College, under the direction of Holly Parker, SCSC is committed to
building local partnerships to identify and explore challenges facing not only the marine environment, but also the people whose livelihoods depend on its health. One such partnership has developed between SCSC and HHLT.

When Brandon Hall joined the staff at HHLT last spring as the new Programs Director, he had a significant programming gap to bridge. HHLT’s ever-popular Nature Day Camp had been put on hiatus for a year because of some overall organizational shifts. Accustomed to the summer programs HHLT has provided for community youth, families were eager to find other ways to get outdoors.

Together, Brandon and Holly developed a family drop-in series of programs to be held at SCSC.

“We had stations for tidepooling and other summer camp-like activities,” Brandon says. “But because we were holding the events at the marine lab, we had the help of SCSC’s summer students and the lab’s touch tanks.”

“We have a lot happening here,” Holly remarks, “but outreach to kids and families is something that’s logistically harder for us to take on. Partnering with HHLT helps us reach younger kids and get them excited about this environment. And our summer students really love to help with programs like these.”

The first of the four collaborations was held over Fourth of July weekend and was attended by over 70 people.

“We’ve had tidepooling events at other places, like Pott’s Point, but we really can’t accommodate the same number of people at some of our other sites,” Brandon explains.

Annually, HHLT hosts speakers on topics relating to the local environment and natural history. Similarly, Holly noted that SCSC hosted their first speaker series this summer and look forward to more. Together, the two organizations are planning to bring a variety of presenters to Harpswell in the coming years.

In addition to partnering with HHLT, maintaining their hiking trails, and conducting marine research, SCSC has offered meeting space to other local non-profits as a way of familiarizing people with the work they do and making deeper community connections.

Each fall, SCSC holds a Coastal Studies Semester for Bowdoin students that includes an interdisciplinary course load that looks closely at changes in the coastal environment in an age of climate change.

“We utilize all ways of seeing and knowing to explore these changes and how they impact local communities,” Holly explains. “Our curriculum this fall includes classes on Maine writers and the environment, ocean acidification, the benthic ecosystem and interviewing fishing and farming families.”

Like HHLT, the mission of SCSC is not solely science-focused. Bowdoin students have spent time there taking art and language classes as well as a music elective that sampled birdsong.

In addition to partnering with SCSC, HHLT has worked closely with the Harpswell Recreation Department to host the Harpswell Hiking Challenge each year in June.

“Katie (Neal, the Rec Director) reached out to me about extending the hiking challenge. We came up with a Harpswell Hiking Club where visitors to our preserves can punch a preserve punch card, showing where they’ve hiked,” Brandon says.

The hiking club is intended to be self-paced and non-competitive. When the punch card is full, the cardholder can turn it in for a Harpswell Hiking Club patch. Though the trails at SCSC aren’t maintained by either the Town or HHLT, they’re one of the preserves included on the punch card.

“In order to be good stewards of a place, people first have to have a connection to it,” Holly says. “Building partnerships that create this sense of connection is an important piece of what we do.”