Cortland Alternative School Students Tap Into Nature — Literally

March 24, 2026

Cortland Alternative School Students Tap Into Nature — Literally

Cortland Alternative School (CAS) students traded their desks for the woods this month, where hands-on experiences at Lime Hollow Nature Center had them tasting freshly boiled maple sap and coming face-to-face with a red-tailed hawk that perched right on their gloved hands.

Teachers Kerri Freese and Lucien Hudson organized both trips as part of the school’s service learning program, allowing students to explore real community issues and take part in hands-on service. After completing their projects, students reflected on their experiences and connected them to what they’ve learned in class. This year’s focus is environmental conservation, with an emphasis on the important role trees play in maintaining healthy local ecosystems.

The school’s maple sugaring visit paired CAS students with another OCM BOCES program, New Vision Environmental Science, which is based at Lime Hollow. New Vision teacher Chad DeVoe and his students had already prepared for syrup season at Lime Hollow’s Camp Gustafson. 

"We've spent about four weeks learning maple sugaring history, science, and techniques and ultimately managing almost 100 taps," DeVoe said. “The students worked hard making this year's batch of syrup, and I'm so thrilled they could share their enthusiasm and knowledge with their peers in an authentic teaching/learning experience."

The CAS students joined as guests, learning the process from start to finish. Along the way, they discovered that successful sap production depends on more than just drilling a hole in a tree. Climate, soil health, water quality and air all factor in.

"Trees require freezing nights and warmer days to move sap," Freese said. "We also learned that humans and trees can co-exist in a harmonious way. We can tap the trees without destroying them, conserving them so they can keep providing benefits."

Some details caught the students off guard. CAS student Bella Petit was surprised by a trick DeVoe uses during the sap boiling process, while classmate Heavenly Castle said she enjoyed drinking the sap water.

"I liked it when Chad showed us how a couple of drops of vegetable oil removes the bubbles so the water evaporates faster," Petit said.

Fellow student Bradley Bristol was struck by something else. "What I thought was pretty cool was the tubes connecting the trees," he said. "I didn't know you could do that."

The second visit gave students a close-up experience with birds ofprey through a raptor education program led by falconers Peter Harrity and John Kuiken. Each student had the chance to have a red-tailed hawk fly directly to them and perch on their gloved hand. As they took turns, Harrity provided each student with a small piece of rat to attract the hawk. Meanwhile, Kuiken stood across the field with the bird. At his signal, the hawk was released and flew straight to each student to retrieve the food.

Students were thrilled with the experience, which came about by chance.

Freeze said she and Harrity were paddling separately on Skaneateles Lake several years ago and simply ran into each other. She told him her 9th graders were interested in environmental conservation.

“He said, 'I've got a plan for you!' “ Freeze recalled. “Our relationship with Lime Hollow was born."

Freeze said the raptor program reinforces the same message as the maple sugaring experience: A healthy ecosystem depends on all of its parts working together.

“It has become an integral and very memorable part of our annual service learning project,” she said. “It’s nature up close and personal—so fun!”