Serving Alachua and surrounding 8 counties

Services Provided

Environmental Education, Outdoors Skills and More!
We offer a wide range of classes and courses on outdoor skills, ecology, science and growing food systems. Some of our most popular classes and courses are listed below. Many of our courses and classes are custom created for your group's interests.

Aquatic Adventures: Dive into the world of water creatures and learn all about them. Youth 4+ are guided through collecting small creatures from a local water body using a dip net. Students will then explore their collections and learn about the creatures found. 

Outdoor Basics for Youth Plus level 1: This course is an introduction to the important components of outdoor safety and survival. This 5-week course meets once a week for 2 hours to cover the following topics: Safety, Shelter and Orienteering; Fire, First Aid and Survival; Food and Foraging; Water, Fishing and Knot Tying; and Special topic of choice for final class (E.g., Science, Food forests, Hunting, Fishing). Upon completion of the class each student will receive a Certificate of Completion for The Crystalline Ranger’s Outdoor Basics Plus for Youth level 1 Course. There is a cap of 20 students for this course. Appropriate for ages 7-16.

Outdoor Basics for Youth Plus level 2: This level 2 course is a deeper exploration of specific outdoor safety and survival skills. This is an especially hands-on course that dives right into shelter building, navigation using a GPS, the specifics of survival scenarios if you get lost/stranded and emergency preparedness. We will also delve into more edible plants, fishing and trapping, and of course, chosen Special Topic! Upon completion of the class each student will receive a Certificate of Completion for The Crystalline Ranger’s Outdoor Basics Plus for Youth 2 Course. Prerequisite: Outdoor Basics for Youth 1. There is a cap of 20 students for this course. Appropriate for ages 7-16.

Introduction to Applied Natural Sciences: Each class in this 3-week course is an immersion in science. Designed for youth with an interest in science, students will learn the scientific method by doing. Youth 8 and up will learn the basic principles of the scientific method including forming hypotheses, collecting and processing samples, recording and analyzing data, and drawing conclusions based on our results. The students will use 3 methods of collecting environmental data. In the final class we will put all the data together to form a larger picture of how science is applied to real-world challenges. We will meet for 2 hours, once a week, for 3 weeks.

Nature and Ecology Walks for Families: Ever wondered about the wild world in your local park? Or wanted to explore more parks in your area? This 1 hour walk with Ms. Crystal will entertain and educate all ages! We will explore the life and ecology and learn interesting information about the intricacy of the natural world around us. Teacher-biologist Crystal Hartman has a talent for working with mixed-age groups. You'll go home with a new perspective on nature and ecology. If you would like to book a Nature and Ecology Walk, reach out and we can either choose a park you like or provide a list of options. Many groups create a recurring series of walks, wherein a new park or ecotype is explored each month or week.

Crystalline Food Forests
Our biologist has over 20 years of experience with food forest design, which is couched in over 10 years working as a researcher and teacher of ecological and biological sciences. She has synthesized these skills into an effective method of creating robust and resilient food forests systems that fit in with the local ecology.

Food Forest Workshops: These workshops cover everything you need to know to create and maintain a food forest, whether you have acres or just a small yard. This workshop is usually hosted at The Crystalline Ranger Farmstead or can be at a location of your choosing. In this workshop we will take a tour of the wild food forests encompassing roughly an acre. Learn important how-to skills and food forest design concepts. Create “green” prints, garden logs, and a proper maintenance schedule. For the grand finale, choose farmstead plants for your food forest. Take home plants, seeds and cuttings from each of the 7 food forest layers. You will also receive an information packet of everything covered in class, plus a list of useful external resources.

Food Forest Plants and Seeds: There are always several varieties of edible, medicinal, hygienic and pollinator friendly plants and seeds available. Simply reach out for a current list.

Food Forest Consultation: First, we are all about education! Therefor we offer a FREE half hour phone consultation with a pre-consult questionnaire so that we can make the most of those 30 minutes. Rates for further consultation, design and implementation are fair and reasonable. We also love to work WITH the client, building your dream with you and teaching you as we go.

Crystalline Aquatics
Aquatic ecology is one of our sweet spots! We provide aquatic plants, fish and invertebrates, consultation for pond problems, new pond designs and aquaria design and large pond analysis. We can survey the plants, aquatic life, and water chemistry to tell you about your pond and help you get to where you want to go.

Environmental Consultation and Enhancement
Ecosystem enhancement for your yard or acreage. We specialize in increasing plant and animal diversity, and empowering everyday people to enrich their backyard ecosystems!