We received the following exciting message from Sean Haughian of the Nova Scotia Museum of Naturel History:
We’ve had a lot of bad news lately, so here’s a little bright spot for a dreary Thursday:
I’ve just received word from our senior leadership that my proposal to create a Natural History Field School at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History has been approved and funded!
It’s still early days, but we hope to eventually operate a little like the Eagle Hill Institute of Maine, with week-long introductory courses on topics in Natural History taught mostly by Curatorial staff, and more specialized courses taught by experts that we bring in when we don’t have the expertise in-house. The goal will be to compliment and build upon what our existing colleges and universities teach, not to compete with them, and to keep costs as low as possible to ensure that nature-based learning is accessible to people of all backgrounds.
We’ll work with local universities to determine course-credit or partial credit options for current post-secondary students, and with professionals in the region to understand what topics are most in-demand. We’ll also work with other institutions and other museum sites to potentially offer courses in other parts of Nova Scotia, ensuring better accessibility for local naturalists, professionals, and students.
The first course we’ll offer will be “introduction to mosses and allies”, taught by me, likely taking place some time in May of 2026. I hope to do an introduction to lichens course later in the year, possibly in September.
Please feel free to share this news with your staff, members, or other natural history enthusiasts in your network, and encourage them to reach out to me if they have ideas about what courses they would like to see offered or to take themselves.
Best regards,
Sean
Sean R. Haughian, Ph.D. (He/Him)
Senior Curator of Botany,
Nova Scotia Museum (Index Herbariorum NSPM),
1747 Summer Street, Halifax (Kuowa’qamikt),
Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 3A6
sean.haughian@novascotia.ca / 902-424-3564
