Regional Nature Museums of Harriman State Park
Regional Nature Museums
For 10 wonderful weeks each summer, the Regional Nature Museums in Harriman State Park welcome youth from urban New York and New Jersey to provide children with recreation, education, and connection to the natural landscape.
Mission
To develop stewardship and educate campers and visitors about the history and natural history of Harriman State Park.
Each Regional Nature Museum is managed by its two staff members. Staff at Tiorati, Twin Lakes, Kanawauke and Stahahe are trained as Environmental Educators and Scientists, mentored by the Coordinator of the Regional Nature Museums. They work in pairs as co-directors of one of the museums.
These staff learn to create museum exhibits based on their collections of living and non-living things, including live fish, reptiles, and amphibians. They receive training in outdoor education and program development and presentation.
They learn to cultivate skills in welcoming urban children into the natural world and nurture them through hands-on, active learning and dialogue in order to build children’s awareness and engagement in understanding and stewarding the environment.
By season’s end they will have served thousands of city and suburban children and adults, most from non-profit organizations, including those for developmentally disabled adults, families, the very young, and those without permanent residence.
Early in each year, we post the job announcement and seek applicants.
History
The Regional Nature Museums of Harriman State Park were founded in 1919. The Palisades Interstate Park Commission and the American Museum of Natural History partnered to originate and develop outdoor education as a new and much needed pedagogy for urban children particularly of low-resource families.
The original nature museum was located on the shores of Lake Kanawauke and served the nearby Boy Scout Camp. In subsequent years, additional Nature Museums were built and staffed. The small Nature Museums are built from native stone among the granite outcroppings of the Hudson Highlands. With large windows and doors opened wide each day, the Nature Museums are embedded in the woodland landscape.
Example of a previous exhibit set up