While bounding along a wooded trail in Groton one brisk morning last week, a group of energetic second-graders approached a sheer rock wall covered with moss and lichen that glowed in bright sunshine.

“It’s like ‘Jurassic Park’!” shouted Dylan Peck, 7, reaching to touch the verdant natural blanket.

Dylan and more than 50 of his classmates at Northeast Academy Arts Magnet School were on a two-mile hike organized by the Groton Open Space Association, designed to encourage more young people to experience and appreciate the outdoors.

“Nature is beautiful! I love seeing all the pretty colors!” exclaimed Presley Wetherell, also 7. She then described in extensive detail how foliage changes color in autumn, when green chlorophyll disappears due to cooler temperatures and diminishing daylight. This allows the yellow, red and orange pigments that are always present in leaves to become visible, Presley explained.

“I know a lot about nature because I spend a lot of time in the woods,” she said.

Presley’s teacher, Lauren Messina, noted that students recently read the book “How Do You Know It’s Fall” as part of curriculum that focuses on environmental awareness.

“Nature is good for the mind, body and soul,” Messina said, crediting GOSA for conceiving and helping run the program. Without these regularly scheduled outings, “Some kids probably don’t leave the four walls” of their homes, she added.

Lynn O’Connell, a GOSA volunteer who helped establish the program, said the goal is simple: Get children outside, “and let them have fun. We want them to look under logs, touch trees, enjoy the outdoors.” Lynn and her husband, Dan, a director and former GOSA president, helped lead last week’s hikes, along with GOSA volunteers Jerome Link and Bruce Jones.

“I do my best thinking on the trail,” she said.

Three buses carrying students, teachers and paraeducators arrived at Sheep Farm North, at the east end of Hazelnut Hill Road, not far from the Pequot Health Center. After the gathering divided into three groups, everybody set out on well-marked trails, passing rocky outcroppings, glacial boulders, bluestem meadows, extensive wetlands and two waterfalls – barely a trickle during this fall’s dry spell, but thunderous in spring.

The youngsters stopped every so often to pick up pine cones, rub the smooth bark of beech trees and rough trunks of oaks, and gaze at Fort Hill Brook from a rocky perch.

“Not too close to the edge!” Lynn O’Connell ordered, and the students stepped back a few feet.

Ben DeMarco, 6, said he enjoys hiking with his dad, and has learned to look for scuffed bark.

“That’s where deer rub their antlers,” he said.

Neveah Thompson, 7, summarized her perception of nature in one word: “Beautiful.”

“Nature is beautiful,” Presley agreed, “but you can’t rush it.”

GOSA not only organized the student hiking program, but protected the Sheep Farm and several other properties throughout town from development.

Nearly 15 years ago, the preserve had been earmarked for a 34-lot subdivision, when GOSA managed to persuade builders to design a forest-preserve style residential neighborhood that reduced the impact of stormwater runoff to Fort Hill Brook. Then, in 2010, GOSA purchased 63 acres next to the new homes to protect that tract from future construction, and created a public recreation area complete with hiking trails and picnic areas.

The Connecticut Land Conservation Council presented GOSA its Excellence in Land Conservation Award the following year for protecting and preserving property that had been in continuous agricultural use since the 1750s, when Samuel Edgecomb Jr., purchased land for a farm and operated a grist mill.

GOSA launched the student hiking program in 2023, with enthusiastic support from Groton school officials. That year, volunteers led seven hikes, thanks in large part to a donation from Sidney Van Zandt, who helped create GOSA more than 50 years ago and now serves as a director and vice president.

This year, with backing from The Kitchings Family Foundation to help pay for bus transportation, the program has expanded to 15 hikes, involving students from all five Groton elementary schools. Two hikes have already taken place this fall; 13 others are scheduled the rest of the school year at GOSA’s Merritt Family Forest, Avery Farm Nature Preserve and Candlewood Ridge, as well as the Sheep Farm.

GOSA (gosaonline.org) is among several conservation organizations in southeastern Connecticut that offer programs for students. A list of local and regional land trust websites, each of which describes a variety of youth activities, is available through the Connecticut Land Conservation Council (ctconservation.org).