In 2018, long-time educators Molly Simmons and Jason BreMiller moved to Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where they lived in an off-grid yurt while treading lightly and connecting their young children Rosie and Alden to wildness. The time they spent in the meadow illuminated the urgency of climate change, growing anxiety in their students, and gaps within the educational system to equip students to navigate these challenges with resilience. The Meadow helped them see that a new, more joyful approach to learning was not only needed, but possible. In 2021, Bald Mountain Meadow opened its first learning expeditions and school partnerships.

Bald Mountain Meadow rests on the shoulder of Bald Mountain, in the heart of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, in the Clyde River Valley, on the ancestral lands of the Abenaki people. The location is ideally situated for deep immersion in rich and diverse natural ecosystems and in the vibrant human communities where people live and work close to the land. And while Bald Mountain Meadow’s programs have expanded far beyond the northeast corner of Vermont, to places like Alaska, Scotland, Iceland, and Japan, the Meadow—and the ideas incubated there—remain at the heart of what we do.