Every month, our community outreach programs garner a huge amount of interest and engagement, from people of all ages. From experienced bird-watching enthusiasts to excited middle school students, our programming provides something for everyone.
Often led by our Community Engagement team Kaylyn Brindisi, Shannon Fredebaugh-Siller, and Whittier Henke, Heritage Conservancy’s outreach and education comes in the form of educational resources, informative hikes, and much more.
Here are some of our most recent programs.
Tree Guardians at Keystone Elementary
This October, a group of fourth-grade students from Keystone Elementary School in Bristol Township became our first class of “Tree Guardians.” They joined our Community Outreach and Education Team at the outdoor classroom at Heritage Conservancy’s Croydon Woods Preserve to identify and protect important tree seedlings.
Land stewards identified and tagged saplings on the forest floor that look likely to reach maturity based on their location and other conditions. Students found and identified the trees, learning a bit about the various types, like sassafras, willow oak, the American beech tree, and more.
They installed protective deer fencing around 20 young trees to help ensure they will grow to maturity. The students will return to their trees periodically to check on their trees, document changes, and report on their growth. They will also introduce 2nd-grade partners to them.
Rave reviews from the first outing included “This is not boring.” and “This is the best day of my life!” Stay tuned for more news from this newly energized group of young tree protectors.
Armstrong Middle School’s Nature Club
Over five weeks, nature club students at Armstrong Middle School have participated in a variety of activities learning about a range of topics, including, birds, trees, water quality, and pollution. Each session students used their nature journal to write about something they learned, how they are feeling, or something they observed outside.
“I think the students favorite activity was when I brought aquatic macroinvertebrates for them to explore” says Community Engagement Associate, Kaylyn Brindisi.
Truman High School Environmental Science Club
Six students from Truman High School environmental science club accompanied Kaylyn Brindisi on a walk around Bristol Marsh and took part in some bird-watching. The students also received nature journals and used them to write down their observations and what birds they saw.
“We saw an egret with Katie Lutzker’s (one of our Environmental Educators) scope which was really cool to see” says Kaylyn.
Glow Hike
Our Senior Community Engagement Associate Whittier Henke led an exciting glow hike this fall, at Croydon Woods Nature Preserve! Everyone showed up eager to explore the forest and were happy to don their glow stick bracelets. After a few safety rules, the group started off into the woods equipped with UV light gear, keen on discovering the secrets of the woods.
Guided by our qualified staff, guests were able to discover floresing mushrooms and plants. The hike culminated with our guests checking out our life under logs section of the forest. There, they found some rolly-pollies and a few earthworms that had faint luminesing blue racing stripes. While the other animals that were uncovered weren’t luminescent under UV light, it was still fun finding spiders, red-backed salamanders, and other bugs living in the forest. The evening concluded with some tasty hot chocolate and cookies before calling it a night.
The event was a huge success, with a massive amount of interest and extensive signups. “We had to obtain extra help from our educators and buy extra supplies to account for the strong interest in the program” says Whittier.
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Heritage Conservancy is dedicated to educating the public through community outreach programs such as these. Learn more about our education and outreach initiatives here.