Living in Northern Michigan allows kids the chance to experience Michigan’s beauty and the outdoors daily and a state-funded program is looking to make sure that is the case for every fourth-grader in the state. In the fiscal year 2024 budget, signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in June 2023, the state allocated $8 million over two years to establish the Nature Awaits program.
The program provides every Michigan fourth-grader with a free field trip to a state park. This includes the cost of transportation. With last spring the first chance for students to partake in the program and the new school year starting soon, the Department of Natural Resources is gearing up for a busy fall that will include many of these field trips.
To help implement the program, the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center hired a second interpreter who will be in charge of the Nature Awaits program at the center. According to the DNR, the Nature Awaits program is open to all fourth-grade classrooms and each class will have the opportunity to visit a state park free of charge for a 90-minute experiential education program.
The field trip will be facilitated by trained educators focused on meeting fourth-grade curriculum standards including science, social studies, physical fitness and language arts through experiential learning outdoors. Guided by environmental literacy best practices, the program also aims to make sure Michigan’s kids learn state parks are for everyone and that a lifetime of spending time outdoors is good for our physical and mental health. While at the park, students will be focused on making observations, applying what they have learned and providing evidence through student-centered explorations.
Things they will learn include how humans impact natural landscapes, the native and invasive plants and animals of the park and more. After attending the program, students will leave with a junior ranger badge and guidebook, including a free pass to bring their families back to a state park for another visit. As for why the Nature Awaits program was created, the answer is about physical and mental health, and better educational outcomes.
The DNR said time in nature enhances education outcomes by improving children’s academic performances, focus, behavior and love of learning. That also goes hand in hand with the physical, mental and emotional health benefits of spending time outdoors. In short, the DNR said research by the Children’s Nature Network suggests that kids who spend time outdoors are happier, healthier and smarter.
Theresa Neal has been with the DNR for roughly 20 years and she can’t think of a time when the agency has gotten more love from a governor’s office than in recent years. The DNR’s Northern Field Manager is involved with the Nature Awaits program, albeit from a supervisor’s role. Like many things that have occurred during the past few years, Neal said the genesis of the Nature Awaits program started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After COVID, a lot of kids were suffering and being connected to the outdoors helped. It was a boost to their mental health,” she said. “Nature Awaits is helping kids reconnect with the outdoors and rebound after COVID.
It also is connecting fourth-graders with educational ideas.” While the DNR would like to take create for the creation of the program, Neal said there are similar programs throughout the country that also focus on fourth graders. There are nine regions across the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, including three in the Upper Peninsula and six across the Lower Peninsula.
The Cadillac area is in Region 4 or the Northern Lower Region. In that region, state parks open to the program include Mitchell State Park in Cadillac, Northern Higgins Lake Park in Roscommon, Young State Park in Boyne City, Interlochen State Park in Interlochen and the Oden State Fish Hatchery in Alanson. Although people in Northern Michigan may take the outdoors for granted, she said in other parts of the state, especially in the southeast part of the Lower Peninsula, some kids may never have walked on a dirt trail.
Nature Awaits is a way to help them feel more comfortable in the woods and nature. While the state parks, like Mitchell State Park and the Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center, were open to schools coming for a visit, one of the biggest hurdles was cost and in particular bus cost.
Neal said with Nature Awaits including the cost of transportation, it is more likely to succeed. That, however, doesn’t take care of all needs as some districts lack enough drivers. While that hurdle remains, Neal said the DNR is trying to brainstorm other ways to get kids to the parks.
The program provides $1,000 per bus but the transportation dollars are for public schools only. Private schools are not eligible for those dollars. Of the 200 or so Nature Awaits trips that fourth-graders took this past spring, Neal said most stayed within an hour of the school.
As the calendar flipped to August, Neal also said there were about 4,000 fourth-graders whose teachers had already registered for one of the Nature Awaits programs and that number is likely higher as you read this. Ultimately, the goal is to have every fourth-grader in the state attend a Nature Awaits program during the school year. She said 100% of the fourth-graders in the Western Upper Peninsula participated this past spring so they are hopeful the goal is achievable.
Neal said they also know it will take some time. For more information about the program contact the DNR at or go to ..
