Boardwalks Protect the Environment at Crow’s Nest Preserve

Summer campers pose on the footbridge they built at Crow’s Nest Preserve.

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

I have a lot more to write about highlights from the last five weeks of summer camp, but want to focus here on improvements to the trails. Our 7th and 8th grade summer campers built a section of boardwalks and bridge near the kids’ play area along Pine Creek, near the wire bridge over the creek. This protects the environment and improves visitor experiences.

We’ve had about the wettest summer ever—one reason there hasn’t been much time to write blog entries. Some of the trails are still wet but we’re doing what we can to make them passable.

When trails are wet, visitors should still stick to them. Those are the principles of Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly! campaigns and a way to protect the environment here and everywhere. Our Creek Trail has gravel embedded on it so there’s traction even when wet. If you leave the trail to go around the water, not only is the ground there softer—there is no gravel there—but you may trample sensitive vegetation and make the trail needlessly wide and muddy.

That’s why boardwalks and footbridges are good for visitors and for the environment next to the trails: People can keep their feet dry and the impact on the preserve from the trails is kept to a minimum.

Campers in our 7th and 8th grade programs have been coming here for years. Our youngest campers become comfortable outdoors in just one part of the preserve—the very location where these boardwalks are being built. As they return as older campers they come to know all 712 acres of Crow’s Nest Preserve. They demonstrate this by embarking on the Crow’s Nest Challenge Hike—a camper-led hike through the entire preserve. By the time they attend the oldest camp, they go on field trips to other Natural Lands’ preserves to see how Crow’s Nest fits into this conservation network. They also give back to the preserve through service projects like building these boardwalks and bridge.