Forest First Fridays: A Nature-Based Recovery and Wellness Program
Offered first Fridays of the month, February through December
Join BEEC and Turning Point of Windham County for a series of programs blending outdoor skills and peer connection in support of resilience and recovery.
This series will offer individuals the chance to gather monthly on BEEC’s campus for guided sessions that blend outdoor skills, nature exploration, and peer support. Through hands-on activities and shared experiences in nature, this program fosters resilience, connection, and healthy habits.
- 2/6; 2pm-4pm: Fire Building, cooking, birding, and animal tracking
- 3/6; 2pm-4pm: Outdoor Recovery
- 4/3; 2pm-4pm: Outdoor Recovery
- 5/1; 2pm-4pm: Outdoor Recovery
- 6/5; 2pm-4pm: Plant and animal identification, outdoor first aid
- 7/10; 4:30pm-6:30pm: Outdoor Recovery
- 8/7; 4:30pm-6:30pm: Outdoor Recovery
- 9/4; 2pm-4pm: Invasives removal and trail building
- 10/2; 2pm-4pm: Outdoor Recovery
- 11/6; 2pm-4pm: Outdoor Recovery
- 12/4; 2pm-4pm: Shelter Building and backpacking essentials
Turning Point of Windham County (TPWC) is a local recovery center located in downtown Brattleboro. TPWC's core mission is to support and improve the lives of our neighbors who are experiencing substance use and addiction, at any stage of their recovery. They do this through peer-led social connection, community education, counseling groups, recovery support, outreach, and advocacy.
Ethnobotany Series: Botany and the Body
In Partnership with Dr. Jessica Dolan
3/21 from 3-5pm
9/12, and 11/7 from 2-4pm
$55 members/$65 non-members per workshop
This three-part, seasonal workshop series with Dr. Jessica Dolan will explore how plants and trees support physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Through hands-on projects, plant identification walks, and practical herbal preparations, participants will learn to care for skin, build a home first-aid toolkit, and cultivate emotional resilience through connection with the land.
Additionally, each workshop participant will receive a complimentary face serum or body scrub from Ursa Major!
In the first session of the Botany and the Body series, we’ll explore how plants and trees can help care for our largest sensory organ—our skin!
Participants will learn techniques to enhance circulation, hydration, and overall skin wellness, including facial steams and washes, healing baths, foot soaks, rosewaters, hair and skin oils, and skin brushing.
Featured plants may include witch hazel, elderflower, cedar, rose, horse chestnut, calendula, chamomile, rose, balsam fir, marshmallow, meadowsweet, sunflower, flax, evening primrose, nettles, black willow, hickory, birch, wintergreen, and horsetail. Attendees will also create and take home their own healing cedar-rose bath soak sachets.
In the second workshop in our Botany and the Body series, we'll explore local plants and trees that can be used for first aid, including poultices, salves, oils, and rapid hydrators. Participants will explore the BEEC loop to identify these plants in their natural environment, then return to create a handcrafted salve, choosing between Saint John’s Wort or Plantain.
Plants featured in this workshop may include Saint John’s Wort, yarrow, plantain, mullein, spruce, balsam or pine pitch, licorice, nettles, peppermint, sumac, jewelweed, oregano, rosemary, elderberries, chaga, bee balm, comfrey, aloe vera, thyme, elecampane, dock, slippery elm, clove, white willow, ginger, cayenne, burdock, and dandelion.
In the third and final workshop in our Botany and the Body series, we'll explore how to nurture the emotional body through connection with the land. Participants explore practices for grieving and healing with the support of plants, trees, and the surrounding landscape. Deciduous and evergreen trees offer guidance and comfort, while seasonal flowers, seeds, berries, and cones can be gathered to create art that nourishes emotional and spiritual well-being.
The session includes a plant identification and ethnobotany walk, highlighting plants and trees traditionally associated with the heart and emotional healing, such as hawthorn, rose, pine, linden, and catnip. Attendees will collect needles, cones, and berries to craft solstice beeswax candles, integrating the natural materials into a meaningful practice of reflection and care.
Dr. Jessica Dolan is an environmental anthropologist and ethnobotanist, who has worked with Indigenous communities and environmental caretakers in the Northeast, as a researcher, writer, and on Indigenous history, land stewardship, food sovereignty, and cultural regeneration projects, for the last 20 years. She currently works at the National Park Service Northeast Region, Native American Affairs, and is writing an ethnobotany field guide. Her daily work involves writing, creating interpretive resources, and planning/teaching environmental stewardship education, across the Northeast. She is a loving parent to a third generation Brattleboro kid.
Fireflies: Solstice Light Show
June 20, 8:30pm-10pm
Free; suggested donation of $15
This summer, the firefly show will be underway. BEEC invites you to up your firefly game. Between 20 and 30 species of fireflies inhabit the Northeast, each with a distinctive flash pattern. Learn to recognize a handful of the common flashers.
Firefly displays can’t be taken for granted. In our region, we are lucky to have hayfields and meadows that reliably blink into life on warm nights throughout June and early July. In other places, firefly watchers have seen populations blink out.
We will begin with a presentation on the science and magic of fireflies, and will share suggestions for making your own yard a haven for lightning bugs. As the Summer Solstice-eve dusk settles, we will stroll out into the firefly meadow to practice recognizing distinctive flash patterns and enjoy the show. Leave as early or late as you like!
BEEC Naturalist Patti Smith has been admiring fireflies since she was in footie pajamas. She will share what she has learned from her more recent foray into the literature of firefly biology and ecology.
Whip-poor-wills by Moonlight
June 27, 3pm-9:30pm
Free; Suggested donation of $20
This outing features a parade of oddities; the vast Montague Sandplains developed on a sandy delta that formed in Glacial Lake Hitchcock. This fire-prone land of scrub oak and pitch pine hosts birds that are rare elsewhere in our region, including grasshopper and vesper sparrows, prairie warblers, rufous-sided towhees, and brown thrashers. Rare plants and butterflies abound. The stars of the show take the stage at dusk—those cryptic birds with their unmistakable call, whip-poor-wills. We have timed this outing to coincide with a nearly-full moon, which whip-poor-wills love. Yes, there will also be fireflies.
Meet at the Brattleboro Park & Ride at 3 pm to carpool to the sandplains, a 35-minute drive. We will explore for a couple of hours and then retire to the Lady Killigrew Cafe at the Montague Book Mill for sandwiches. This is a beautiful place for picnicking. Then, head back to the sand plains in quest of whip-poor-wills. Join us for this short trip to a different world!
BEEC naturalist Patti Smith has been exploring this part of the world since she could crawl out the door, and that was a long time ago. She will co-lead this trip with the participants. Together we will learn the story of the place and, with many eyes and ears, discover its magic.
What to Bring: Binoculars and a flashlight. Bring your own picninc or bring some coins to buy supper at the Lady Killigrew.
The Psychedelic Renaissance—Hope or Hype?
In Partnership with The Retreat Farm's Wild Wisdom event series
Suggested Donation of $10
At the Retreat North Barn
Cash bar available
Join a panel of experts to explore the possibilities and realities of psilocybin and other plant medicines, from healing potential to their impact on Vermont’s economy. Curious about the neuroscience, therapeutic uses, legal issues, risks, or Indigenous perspectives? Come get your questions answered!
Katherine Maclean, PhD
At Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Katherine conducted legal clinical trials of psilocybin, the primary chemical found in "magic mushrooms”. She was a lead researcher and session guide on the first study to test the combined effects of high-dose psilocybin, daily meditation training and integration support. Katherine holds a BA in psychology and neuroscience from Dartmouth College, earned her PhD in research psychology with the University of California, Davis, and completed her postdoctoral research fellowship in psychopharmacology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Adriana Kertzer
Adriana holds a B.A. from Brown University in Judaic Studies and International Relations, a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, and an M.A. from Parsons The New School for Design. Adriana was the principal of Plant Medicine Law Group, a law firm founded in 2020 that specialized in psychedelic infrastructure.
Justin Garner
Justin's academic background is in botany, plant chemistry, human physiology and biochemistry. He teaches about the nourishing, medicinal, and toxic properties of our diverse fungi.
Kurt White
Kurt is the VP of Community Partnerships, Communication, and Development at the Brattleboro Retreat. He earned his BA at the University of Chicago and his MSW at Smith College.
