ECOLOGY - CONSERVATION AT CAMP HUGH TAYLOR BIRCH

Saying the name camp Birch will bring to mind many different things for different people. Countless youth have been served the outdoor program at this facility since the nineteen twenties. And many other programs have been experienced here in our great outdoor setting. The "outdoors" is basic to the scouting movement. We are fortunate to have a reservation any BSA council would want. Many don't have any. We are also blessed with a multitude of eco-systems. There are open fields at camp Birch, hardwood forest, springs and several streams, a ten acre lake, and an area of wet woods that attracts migratory waterfowl. Our varied habitats serve a wide variety of animals, birds, plants, insects and fish. It is blessed by being in a rural setting, having the variety of habitats, and by being close to other preserves with their areas of forest, streams, fields and river. All this makes camp central for the presence of many species, and attractive to many that pass through.

Basic to having and keeping our beloved camp is understanding and applying methods of conservation. Scouts have been conservation minded since their beginning. Here at camp Birch there is a two- fold need regarding conservation. One is to preserve what we have for future generations to use for their varied outdoor programs. The other need is to apply restoration efforts to bring back what we have lost to non native invasive flora.

Our four hundred plus acres are nestled in a larger plot of land, over two thousand acres, that is made up of the private nature preserve Glen Helen, John Bryan State Park and the Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve. In our efforts to be wise caretakers of camp we are responsible to our neighbors as much as we are to our heirs and our present users. All agencies throughout the state face the same issues of restoration and wise management of natural resources. I like to think scouts have something extra going for them when it comes to conservation. That would be the twelfth point of the Scout Law, a scout is reverent. Some say other points of the scout law would also apply, but reverence goes to the heart of everything. Knowledge is basic. Conservation is basic. And reverence, which includes respect, is even more so and should be a part of what we are as scouts and scout leaders.

This site is dedicated to providing information and knowledge relative to all things about camp Birch dealing with ecology, conservation and natural history. A part of our offerings will be photographs showing what great nature stuff occurs right here at camp Birch.

Hope to see you on the trail.

Jim Sage