FREEPORT — Michael Frey grew up in Freeport playing in Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, never imagining one day he would be the interpretive ranger there.

But seven years ago family drew Frey, 37, back to Freeport and he found himself a ranger at the coastal park. Three years ago Frey became the park’s environmental educator. Now it’s something he could see himself doing for a long time.

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Michael Frey, who attended Freeport High before moving to British Columbia, is involved with 60 nature programs. Courtesy photo

With 65,000 annual visitors, Wolfe’s Neck is one of Maine’s busiest state parks. It doesn’t have a sandy beach, as the state’s most popular parks do, but it does have resident ospreys, clamming opportunities and, well, L.L. Bean up the road.

Many visitors to the small park come after hitting the outlet stores in Freeport.

That means Frey teaches many people who know nothing about botany, geology, flora or fauna.

With the Freeport outlet stores up the road, do you see in your nature programs many people who are new to the outdoors?

It’s a mix. Often people have never been here. It’s a mix of people coming from the area, even the town of Freeport, who don’t know anything about the park, and some people who do.

When the park was created it was on land that was donated with the specific condition that it be used for environmental education. It’s why my position exists. It’s paid for from a trust. So we keep track of the numbers of people who come to the programs. It’s been growing. We report that to the Smith family, who donated the land for the park.

Often I see grandparents who are bringing their grandchildren to help teach them about nature. Many feel this day and age young children don’t get outside as much.

What’s your experience here?

I started as a customer representative in the information booth. This is my eighth season at the park and third as the interpretive ranger. I spent a lot of time learning from other rangers. In the library of the ranger cabin we have a lot of books on natural history, plants, geology, animals. There are a variety of subjects we cover.

Did you have your eye on this position or were you encouraged to take it when it opened?

I was encouraged to apply. The No. 1 reason I wanted it is because I wanted to be outdoors. I spent seven years in an office in a basement. The other reason is I enjoy teaching the programs to children. It’s never the same experience.

I worked in Chicago but I grew up here. I came back when my mother’s health was not good. So I came full circle.

As a kid were you eager to get out of here, the way that a lot of kids want to leave their hometown?

My childhood was different than most. I spent two years at a high school in British Columbia and Vancouver, the Maxwell International School. I graduated from high school in 1995. So I was in Freeport High from 1991 to 1993. Living in Vancouver was a remarkable experience. I never quite got settled after that. I went to college in Chicago and eventually took a job there.

You’re an interpretive ranger throughout the year. What are your most popular programs?

A volunteer the other day went through all our programs and counted them. We have 60 programs we run on a regular basis, 20 during the summer. Occasionally we run a program for a library or school.

A few other state parks have interpretive rangers but not many. Sebago has one, and Mt. Blue State Park. Their programs are different because their parks are different. Sebago is on a lake, and Mt. Blue is at an elevation. Here we are a coastal environment; visitors have the chance to go clamming. That happens once a month during the summer. Although this month it’s happening twice. We have clam rakes and ask people to bring boots and gloves. They need to call ahead to reserve a spot. We actually have to limit the number of people in it. It’s fairly popular.

The osprey watch is very popular. Another ranger developed a dragonfly program and that’s popular.

Were you into the outdoors growing up?

To a point. My parents never had the money or the capability to take me to outdoor places but I did play outside a huge part of my time. I never imagined I’d do this. Things just lined up.

I could do this for a long time. You never get board. We are working constantly. We’re a small staff. For instance that big rainstorm two weeks ago wore groves in the trails. I spent the morning shoveling sand.

Speaking of maintenance, what’s the deal with the bees? You have a detour around a trail so people avoid the bees?

There were hornets there. Those were driven out by the yellowjackets. One of the conditions (in the trust) from the family who donated the park is we can not use herbicides or pesticides. We try to keep things wild. So we try to keep people away from the yellowjackets. We don’t want people to get stung.

We are very busy in the summer. August was a record month for us with 10,500 visitors, which is significant. And in June last year we had 250 schoolchildren, while in June this year we had 800 students.

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