PARIS — The start of the school year last September brought a new opportunity for students from Oxford Hills and Buckfield high schools — an outdoor recreation program that gives them education and skills to become Maine Guides.

Classes are split between the tech school, a base camp site on the shore of Lake Pennesseewassee and various locales around western Maine to gain hands-on experience on mountains, lakes and trails.

Last spring, Vocational Region 11 Oxford Hills Tech contracted with the town of Norway to use the Little Red Schoolhouse on Waterford Road as its classroom base for the outdoor recreation program.

Its location within a few minutes of OHTS allows students to learn about personal watercraft operation and safety, fishing and camping.

Water and heat were turned off at the schoolhouse in December, but the group will continue using the site for outdoor activities like ice fishing.

“It’s been awesome,” instructor Andrew Merrill told the Advertiser Democrat. “We meet two times a week. On Tuesday, we do book work and trip planning. On Friday we take trips (for field work learning).

“We’ve been to the ice caves in Greenwood, which has good moose habitat. One day we spent there doing moose calling,” Merrill said. “We’ve gone to the Mineral & Gem Museum in Bethel. One Friday we worked at the park on Pennesseewassee’s shore to install erosion control.

“Now that we’ve gotten some snow, we’re planning to spend a day dog-sledding.”

This month, Chelsey Lathrup, education and outreach coordinator with the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, introduced students to the department’s program Hooked on Fishing — Not on Drugs, a youth outreach program with the mission of teaching healthy lifestyles and choices.

Volunteers are trained as mentors to teach the art of fishing to young adults to pursue outdoor activities as an alternative to experimenting and using substances.

The tech school programs combine text book curriculum with actual guiding activities.

Students are taught a 14-step trip plan that delves into risk mitigation and getting people outside in a safe way. They make sure planning is set ahead of time with preventative measures in place against injury or accident.

The goals, Merrill said, are simple but important: “When you’re prepared and your guests, clients, sportsmen, etc., are prepared ahead of time, everyone has much more fun.”

Preparation includes checking all equipment, making sure everyone knows how to use it and having a plan for what people should do if a catastrophic event happens. Merrill’s job is to instill in his students the mindset of what it takes to be a Maine Guide.

“They can take people safely into the backcountry,” Merrill said. “And give them a piece of Maine that they’ve never had before.”

Students studying outdoor recreation management took part in last week’s 13th annual Tech Challenge, working through a simulated drill of what can go wrong when off the grid in the Maine wilderness.

The challenge was a three-phase exercise. The first part was a multiple-choice test for general outdoor knowledge with the second testing map and compass use.

The third involved a catastrophic event scenario: Students were Guides taking a party of six into the remote Deboullie Public Reserved Lands in Aroostook County for a fishing excursion.

“This is an area where it is not good infrastructure,” he explained. “There aren’t good roads to get in, there is no cell service or easy access. Three of the clients are a father with two sons, who have hiked 3 miles from base camp to a remote pond to fish.”

The situation escalates when the father, with a history of cardiac illness, fails to return to the set meeting point on time. One son looks for him while the other rushes back to base camp for help.

At that point, the students were instructed to continue the scenario, using their own plan to safely locate the father and son while executing a search and rescue operation. Bryce Hazelton took first place in the challenge, with Emily Reed winning silver and Brayden Ryan bronze.

In the first year of instruction, three of Merrill’s students are sophomores, two juniors and one senior. The class capacity is limited to nine for transportation logistics; he expects at least four will return for their second year with a new group of sophomores joining.

Enrollment for the tech school’s programs during the 2024-25 academic year is currently open, with the applications deadline set for Feb. 23. To learn about each track and enroll, visit the school website at www.ohts.net.

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