Youth Climate Action

The Governor’s Youth Climate Council is a group of high school students in Mass who meet monthly to research and develop climate and environmental policy recommendations for the Governor. Apps are open until Sept 11.

 

Fall Programs are here!

Registration for fall programs for children and families are open now. Get your spots in fall afterschool, preschool classes, monarch tagging, nature walks, and more. Take a look!

 

Little Bear Nature Walks

Join us around Western Mass for guided, open-ended walks for toddlers, preschoolers and their caregivers to explore nature together with simple tools, songs, and stories. Summer and Fall Walks

Hitchcock Harvest Tickets

Enjoy a Harvest meal, libations, & learn what local innovators are doing to show what it means to shape a hopeful, resilient future. Plus music, raffle and silent auction, sustainable design, and a live community art project. Get your tickets!

 

We're Hiring!

Hitchcock Center is hiring a full-time Environmental Educator and Camp Director to join our team at our Living Building in Amherst, Mass. Learn more and apply.

 

Nature Events for Adults

Classes to learn about edible plants, walks to identify local mushrooms, and getting to the heart of the season. We have NEW! events coming up for adult community members. Learn from nature

 

With underwriting support for operations and programs provided by:

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Hitchcock Center for the Environment

We envision a world where people, communities, and ecosystems thrive. The Hitchcock Center for the Environment, founded in 1962, is an organization in Amherst, Mass whose mission is to educate and inspire action for a healthy planet. Our programs for children, youth, and families are designed to use the study of science and nature as a means to provide creative inspiration to solve human problems sustainably. Our programs serve to develop a continuum of competencies that begin at the earliest, most formative years and progress through a process of lifelong learning to engender a greater understanding of the interdependence of the environment, economy, and social issues. Our approach to education uses the environment as a classroom and defines place at a variety of scales - the schoolyard, the backyard, the neighborhood, the park, the farm, the town, the forest, the pond, the mountains, and the watershed. In these settings, the Hitchcock Center helps thousands of children, youth, and families see and understand the impacts of our actions.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Hitchcock Center for the EnvironmentSeptember 22, 2026 at 7:58pm
We had a great time visiting our friends at The Conway School and seeing so many neighbors 🦋
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Thanks to all our Village Hill neighbors, community partners, alums, and friends who joined us for last week’s open house. None of our work would be possible without all of you! 🙏💚 Shout out to all our legislators who are helping amplify the work we do and sharing the countless benefits of ecological design and planning with the rest of our community. Congressman Jim McGovern; Lindsay Sabadosa, State Representative, 1st Hampshire District; Mindy Domb, State Representative; Hitchcock Center for the Environment; @http://debby.pastrich #community #solidarity #support #collaboration #appreciation
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Hitchcock Center for the EnvironmentSeptember 17, 2026 at 5:21pm
Take a slow walk to listen for local birds, learn more about foraging, create nature crafts, and reconnect to nature and yourself in the forest. Don’t miss the beauty of September and the first breezes of autumn 🍂🌞
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Hitchcock Center for the EnvironmentSeptember 15, 2026 at 4:00pm
We’re headed to Portland, Oregon, this October for the NAAEE 2026 Conference. Executive director Billy Spitzer and Environmental Educator Chrissy Larson are really excited for this program.

Billy and Chrissy will be presenting “Engineering and Design in Upper Elementary: Cultivating Thoughtful Problem Solvers” on Friday, October 9 in a 90-minute, hands-on session.

☔️ The Hitchcock Center partnered with Springfield Public Schools - Massachusetts to deliver climate-focused STEM lessons using engineering and design. This session shares the model, engages participants in a hands-on rainwater harvesting challenge, and explores benefits, adaptations, and lessons learned from four years of implementation with upper elementary students through a residency-based approach.

🌈 The theme for this year’s conference is “Imagine If…,” and it’s a great invitation to think creatively about the future of environmental education and the possibilities that emerge when we all collaborate.

Hope to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones in Portland!

Register for #NAAEE2026 today: conference.naaee.org.
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Hitchcock Center for the EnvironmentSeptember 15, 2026 at 2:48pm
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
ACTION ALERT 🚨

Soon, the state legislature’s Mass Ready Act Conference Committee will decide whether to adopt an amendment permitting towns to ban the use of anticoagulant rodent poisons, which are harming thousands of wildlife and pets in Massachusetts every year, on all property (including private).

Sign our letter today! We need the Conference Committee to hear from as many supporters as possible before they decide. Let’s get this amendment included in the final version of the Mass Ready Act to protect our wildlife and pets.

TAKE ACTION 👉 https://bit.ly/Petition4ConferenceCommittee
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Hitchcock Center for the EnvironmentSeptember 12, 2026 at 10:59am
What kind of teaching makes learning sink in and stay with us? In this new Earth Matters column, Christine Hatch and her UMass Amherst students make new discoveries while installing a piezometer.

Our column Earth Matters: Notes on the Nature of the Valley has been running since 2009 and after a pause, we’re bringing you new articles! This column by local writers is about science and art, local and international stories, nature, people and our planet.

You can read the column in Daily Hampshire Gazette and archived on our website.

Read it here: https://www.hitchcockcenter.org/earth-matters/bangers-on-the-bog/
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Hitchcock Center for the EnvironmentSeptember 9, 2026 at 9:50pm
Join us this fall for adult community programs that aren't just about learning from nature, but also restoring ourselves in and with nature.

Featuring Forest Bathing with Todd Lynch, the autumnal Heart of the Season program series with LionHeart Medicine, LLC and our NEW! monthly nature craft gathering where we’re making dried floral creations using flora from our Gardens.

Join us: https://www.hitchcockcenter.org/programs/community-programs/
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Hitchcock Center for the Environment