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Crow’s Nest welcomes Schuylkill Acts and Impacts program

August 6, 2022

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

Kayaks stacked five high on a trailer ready for the Schuylkill River

Photo: Daniel Barringer

You may see the colorful kayaks and think this is going to be a post about our 7th and 8th grade camps where we go kayaking on the Schuylkill River. Don’t worry, our Crow’s Nest camp will be in a weblog post soon.

These kayaks are being trailered in support of the Schuylkill Acts and Impacts program, a partnership between the Schuylkill Headwaters Association, the Fairmount Water Works, Stroud Water Research Center, and Take it Outdoors Adventures. In the program, high school kids spend six days paddling the Schuylkill River, stopping to visit farms, water treatment plants, parks and nature preserves, in order to better understand how these things impact water quality from the top of the watershed in Schuylkill County and through Berks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties as the river flows to Philadelphia.

Kids relaxing around a campfire at Crow's Nest Preserve

Photo: Daniel Barringer

Started in 2014, the program skipped 2020 due to the pandemic and included only a short day trip here in 2021. This year the program returned to include an overnight trip to Crow’s Nest Preserve and we are thrilled that they are back. The students are extremely engaged and inspiring and give me great hope for the future. We went on a hike of the preserve, followed by dinner and discussion by the campfire before they returned to the river the following day. You can read more about the program here: https://www.schuylkillwaters.org/acts-impacts.