#WeOutside program introduces new Mainers to nature

For young refugees navigating the asylum system in Maine, nature is a respite from experiencing life at emergency homeless shelters and detention centers.

#WeOutside is a partnership program between the Maine Association for New Americans and the accredited Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust, focusing on helping young asylum seekers explore the beautiful nature of Maine.

Early trips in the summer of 2023 involved teaching teenagers about canoeing, birding, hiking, and the Wabanaki culture and their relationship to the land.

“Everyone was signing up, so I wanted to sign up as well. Then I heard that they wanted to teach us some things, like paddling, hiking in the forest, and I liked it a lot. I feel alive,” camp-goer Esther Raul of Angola told the Maine Public News outlet at the time.

Given the interest in the #WeOutside summer program, it was later extended into the fall and winter months. The Maine Appalachian Trail Land Trust brought a new cohort of teenagers into the Maine outdoors this winter.

A January trip brought the teens to Inland Woods + Trails winter trail network in Bethel for Nordic skiing and fat-tire biking (as well as a spontaneous snowball fight).

Additional trips involved ice fishing at Range Pond State Park; cross-country skiing with Loon Echo Land Trust at Five Fields Farm; a downhill ski day with lessons at Mt. Abram; and a cross-country ski and snowshoe visit to Roberts Farm, where Western Foothills Land Trust is building a new experiential learning facility and garden.

This article originally appeared in Saving Land, Spring 2025 (Vol. 44 No. 2).