Crow’s Nest: Down the river…

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager

We were excited this week to host a group of students exploring land and water issues as they travel down the Schuylkill River through a program called Schuylkill Acts and Impacts, a partnership of the Schuylkill Headwaters Association and the Fairmount Water Works. This is their third year camping here and learning about Crow’s Nest Preserve and Natural Lands Trust. (You can see photos of this year’s trip on their Facebook page.)

The students collected water quality data daily as they kayaked from the upper reaches of the watershed to Philadelphia. Here we made the connection between land stewardship and water quality, how agriculture and forest land affect water quality. We had s’mores at the campfire while engaging in discussion about stewardship and the following day hiked several miles of the trails here. As a service project the students made seed balls with native wildflower seed, clay and compost, and launched them into a meadow to augment the diversity there.

This is a great program that we love hosting; the students bring a fresh perspective to our work here and ask a lot of insightful questions.