Camp

- Camp Birch Memorial Trail Stewards- Dedicated to preserving the beautiful nature for the future. -

Monday, October 13, 2014

Fall Colors at Camp

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Camp Birch woodlands will provide a beautiful backdrop for hikers and scouts of all ages this month as dynamic oranges and yellows will dominate landscapes with near peak fall foliage condition. Get out to camp and enjoy the October events as well as the natural beauty.

Check out more about Fall Color in Ohio through ODNR.

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

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Monarch Butterfly Way-station at Camp Birch



Camp Birch has a student Master Gardener working on establishing a monarch butterfly way-station at camp. This butterfly garden will be behind the Turner Building. The benefits of having this are many. First, we will be helping to save the Monarch butterfly, whose numbers have declined rapidly in recent years. The garden will also be of benefit to all native pollinators. It will be a place where some items of ranks/badges could be earned. It is an opportunity for performing conservation projects.
Robin Houch, the lady behind the project has asked for donations of certain flowers from other peoples gardens - black eyed Susans, purple cone flowers, asters, Joe Pye weed, bee balm, yarrow, mallow and milkweed. Robin works strictly by donations. Please help this lady, and in turn, help Camp Birch.
For more information on Monarchs to to www.monarchwatch.org.

Robin Houch
937-554-9748
rsclifford2002@yahoo.com

Click Here for the Tecumseh Council BSA Website