Wintergreen Studios is an environmental education and wilderness retreat center located in South Frontenac, Ontario, Canada. Established in 2007, Wintergreen's programs focus on culture, education, and the environment. Programs are delivered at their year-round off-the-grid facilities.
Wintergreen Studios promotes community and corporate mindful living, by offering sustainable facilities for events and delivering educational programs that invite participants to discover themselves and explore their nature connection. The largest program is the Annual Land Art BioBlitz, which draws hundreds of visitors to Wintergreen over the course of 5 days each spring.
Wintergreen Studios is a charity and not-for-profit organization, that receives funding from individual donors and grants. Additional funding comes from program fees, facility rental fees, and the sale of books from Wintergreen Studios Press. Wintergreen supports local sustainability and environmental education initiatives both financially and through in-kind assistance. Their partners include Queen's University, Pathways to Education, Sustainable Eastern Ontario, and the Wintergreen Renewable Energy Co-operative. Wintergreen also relies on a voluntary team to maintain the facility and assist with program delivery.
History
In 1990, Rena Upitis, Professor of Education and former Dean of Education at Queen's University, purchased a 204-acre property in South Frontenac, Ontario. The land was previously farmed by Irish settler Patrick Nolan.
In the summer of 2006, Upitis learned to build with natural and re-purposed materials at the Earthwood Building School in West Chazy, New York. Upon her return, she built the first cordwood guest cabin on the property, called the Hobbit House.
In 2007, Wintergreen's property became part of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve (a UNESCO designation), due in part to its ecological significance as a land bridge between the Canadian Shield and the Adirondack Mountains.
In April of that same year, Upitis attended a conference in Chicago, where she was surrounded by skyscrapers and a lack of natural spaces. She decided then to create a year-round facility to bring balance back to the land and into the lives of its inhabitants. "Educational, sustainable, green, off-grid connected to the land – these were the things that mattered to me" – Rena Upitis One week later in spring 2007, Upitis chose the name "Wintergreen" for the facility; a nod to the plant that grew on the South Frontenac property. She began sourcing local straw for sustainable building construction and assembled an initial board of directors. These directors were Rena Upitis, Serena Manson, Ann Patteson, Helen Turnbull, and Katherine Smithrim. In September 2007, Wintergreen Studios was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization by the five directors. In July 2008, Wintergreen was granted charitable status.
Construction of the main facility, known as the "Lodge", began in summer 2008. Many of the builders were volunteers, including Anglin Group Ltd, Camel's Back Construction, and Upitis herself. Two, smaller storage buildings called the Smoke House and the Root Cellar were also built during this time. By December 2008, all three structures were complete and the first programs were offered at Wintergreen.
In 2009, a Sauna was built on the property using the same cordwood design. Next came a guest cabin called the Meadow Hut in 2010, followed by a Bake Oven next to the Smoke House.
By 2012, there were six structures on the land built from cordwood. In the summer of 2012, the first cabin using a combination of straw bale and cordwood was built during a course at Wintergreen. This most recent cabin built on the property is called the Beach House.
At a site 15 minutes away from Wintergreen, Upitis and a team of volunteers built a cordwood writer's cabin called the Hermit Hut. This building was completed in 2013.
In 2017, Wintergreen Studios celebrated its 10-year anniversary. To mark the achievement, they built a labyrinth and launched a 3-year capital campaign.
In 2019, an apiary was built just south of the lodge to support beekeeping programs. Since then, Wintergreen continues to develop new programs, while hosting concerts, retreats, and other events.