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Crow’s Nest Camp Week Five

August 13, 2014

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager

Photos by Molly Smyrl, Educator

The seventh and eighth graders rounded out the summer’s weeks of camp. All are returning campers from previous years and are very familiar with Crow’s Nest. So we explore how Crow’s Nest is part of a larger conservation effort Natural Lands Trust undertakes in our region.

camp photos by Molly Smyrl

That means we see how land is interconnected, including by water that passes through it. Campers kayaked on Scott’s Run Lake in French Creek State Park, part of the Hopewell Big Woods that also includes Crow’s Nest Preserve and is the last large unbroken forest in southeastern Pennsylvania.

camp photos by Molly Smyrl

Then we kayaked on the Schuylkill River, the watershed that ties many of our preserve lands together. Natural Lands Trust has a small preserve that is an island near Phoenixville.

camp photos by Molly Smyrl

On another day the kids went to visit our ChesLen Preserve which is developing its own kids’ play area and becoming a community resource as well as regionally-significant open space.

camp photos by Molly Smyrl

Upon returning to Crow’s Nest the campers “gave back” to the preserve in the form of a service project addressing some of the problem areas that have developed on the Creek Trail. An eroded incision in the treadway they filled with gravel which required a bucket brigade to get the gravel from the edge of the woods to where it was needed. And they added a second board to a boardwalk over a gully that was getting more difficult to cross as it got wider and more muddy.

camp photos by Molly Smyrl

We are grateful for the kids who have made this summer’s camps so memorable and fun!