Farm-based Programs
Sweetwater Farm, in Sugar Grove, WV is a 565-acre property that is currently 
home to an old farmhouse, barn and outbuildings, as well as a more updated and equipped community center. It will serve as the main campus for our farm-based education programs. The property is nestled into a bowl-shaped valley along the rim of the Shenandoah valley. It adjoins the 1.8 million acres of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. It contains its own micro-watershed, including several springs, a network of old roads and an area of volcanic activity called an igneous intrusion.
Within the movement to connect children and nature, there is a growing sentiment that if children fail to develop attachments to natural spaces and places, society will ultimately fail to raise the next generation of stewards who will car
e for and protect their environment. Our Mountain Stewards Summer Program at Sweetwater Farm will challenge youth to be leaders and stewards and provides an effective setting for them to grow and develop a personal connection to nature in a small farm setting.
In the fall we will welcome school groups who will be joining us to use the property as a home base for stewardship, community building and self-exploration units. These courses bring together adventure, conservation and community-building to connect academic topics to the physical world. They give students real world context and experience, and help to ignite a passion for learning that they will carry through their education for years to come.