Last Updated on November 18, 2017

Nature Trail Committee Update

Our biggest item of interest is that our Committee has voted to rename and expand Wildflower Day. The event will now be called the Charlestown Nature Festival, and it will still be held in April, this time on Thursday, April 26, 2018, just after Earth Day. The event has been renamed not only because we are seeing fewer wildflowers along the Nature Trail, but also because we want to expand its perspective. Fully two dozen campus and outside organizations will be invited to participate with this Committee in the broadened springtime festival, which will be “Celebrating Charlestown’s Natural Environment”.

Maintenance improvements have been made on the Nature Trail, and more shade-tolerant native perennials have been planted on the hillside below the St. Charles building, in hopes of stabilizing the erosion in that area. Olaf the Troll, who was stolen from his lair in the hillside spring near the Trail last year just before Wildflower Day, is being replaced. But he will not be positioned until spring, so he won’t have to weather the ravages of winter. The gardens associated with the Nature Trail Committee are now all bedded down for the winter. New wildflower and tree signs are being ordered to replace the old ones which are in disrepair. The new signs will be in place before the spring Nature Festival. A Birder Group, yet to be officially named, is forming with support from the NTC. Anyone interested should contact Rick Jones at 410-314-9014.

Last summer we lost one of our founding members, resident arborist Harper Griswold. He is truly missed, and a memorial tree is planned on campus in order to celebrate his time with us.

The next meeting of our Committee will be at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 20, 2017 in the Cross Creek Crafts room. Please join us if interested.

Bert Clegern
Co-Chairman
Nature Trail Committee