Overview
Environmental Explorers is The Nature Conservancy's longest-running youth program at Mashomack Preserve, and the kind of program that regularly enrolls the children of its own alumni — about as strong an endorsement as a parent can ask for. Mashomack sits on Shelter Island and is considered one of the richest habitats in the Northeast: 2,350 acres, eleven miles of coastline, interlacing tidal creeks, mature oak woodlands, salt marshes, and freshwater wetlands. Environmental Explorers runs as a day program for kids ages 8–12. Two sessions are offered each summer.
The days are built around active fieldwork on the preserve. Kids hike the trails, paddle the protected waters, hand-seine at Bass Creek, and wade the shoreline — examining what they find as they go. Past activities have included fish identification (porgies pulled up close enough to study), close looks at caterpillars and spiders, bird observation along the salt marshes, and the creation of short conservation videos. The intellectual frame, which the lead educator cites often, is borrowed from David Attenborough: no one will protect what they don't care about.
Who It's For
The kid who'd rather be outside. The one who'd happily spend a whole morning crouched at the edge of a tidal creek waiting to see what comes by. Environmental Explorers rewards patience, observation, and curiosity more than book knowledge — a child doesn't need a science background to thrive here.
Staff & Mentorship
The continuity here is unusual. Environmental Explorers was built over 35 years by Cindy Belt, Mashomack's Education and Outreach Coordinator, who retired in 2025. Belt holds a Harvard M.Ed. in Science Education and a Cornell B.S. in Biology with a concentration in ecology — a rare combination of inquiry-based pedagogy and real ecological field training, and one you can feel in how the program is designed: kids are given the puzzle, not the answer. Her successor, Rebecca Kusa, is Mashomack's Outreach Program Coordinator and has been Belt's deputy on this program for many years. Kusa's background is in environmental education: The Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Seascape program, and the Student Conservation Association. The seasonal instructional team has been continuous year-over-year for a long stretch, and the youth assistants supporting the program are themselves former Environmental Explorers campers — which means everyone in the room has learned the program by living it across multiple summers.
What Makes This Different
Mashomack itself is the differentiator. This is not a parks-department program with a borrowed field. It is a real working nature preserve — one that was nearly developed into a golf course and waterfront homes in the late 1970s before TNC stepped in to save it — with active conservation science and one of the largest osprey nesting concentrations on the East Coast. The word Mashomack itself comes from the Manhanset language and means "where they go by water."
Cost & Information
- Ages 8–12
- Dates: July 27–30, 2026 & August 3–6, 2026
- 9 a.m.–3 p.m., Monday–Thursday
- $375 per session
- • Scholarships available