Last Updated on October 11, 2023

Nature Trail Club

Bonnie Kawecki, Leader
Donna Ferrara, Co-Leader

The NTC works to preserve and enhance the beauty of the Nature Trail, the Butterfly Garden, the Rock Garden, and the Wildflower Garden by eliminating invasive plants and adding native plants and trees. Our interests extend to helping maintain the beauty and trail of the Lake Charles area including the Old Stone Bridge Trail. We also help the Charlestown community appreciate its natural environment.

Nature Trail Table at the September 2023 Fruits of Our Labor.

SCHEDULE TIME LOCATION
3rd Wednesday (Except December) 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM Cross Creek Creative Arts Studio

See information of their activities:

Do You Enjoy Our Nature Trail?

We need volunteers to maintain the Nature Trail!

Could you help the Nature Trail Club maintain it?  Even a little bit of time would help especially in spring.

Come to our next meeting on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at 10 AM in music room.  Can’t come?  Call Marty Tewksbury or email Ron DeAbreu. Contact information can be found in the Resident Directory on MyErickson.

Charlestown Environment

Bert Clegern, our resident biologist, has prepared a 22-page document on the natural history of Charlestown, the background on the development, and the outdoor and indoor environment on our 110-acre campus.The Appendices are listed as separate documents to allow updating as necessary. 

 

Welcome Spring by Attending the Annual Nature Festival

Photo Credit:
Bill May

Photo Credit:
Lucy McKean

Photo Credit:
John Oxenham

Photo Credit:
Gloria Davis

Event was canceled because of coronavirus.

The Charlestown 2020 Nature Festival takes place:

Thursday, April 23, 2020
11 AM – 2 PM
Fireside dining room lobby
Adjacent class rooms
Gallery

This year, the Festival calls attention to the issues of climate change, our beautiful campus, our wildlife population, and information as to the care of plants within and surrounding our apartments.

• Watch talented flower arrangers at work, and then purchase your favorite arrangement.
• Select from a wide assortment of nature-inspired prints and greeting cards designed by The Fireside Artists.
• Enjoy the beverages and home-made cookies prepared just for you.

Questions? Contact Joni Guhne, whose contact information can be found in the
Resident Directory, available online in MyErickson.

Charlestown’s Natural Pride: The Nature Trail

The pleasant Nature Trail meandering through the woods was designed by resident Paul Gaudreau. A plaque on the trail notes this, and you can read more about it in The History of Charlestown by John J. Strumsky, Jr. which is available online and housed in the Archives office. Also of interest and on this website, under Campus Information, is ECO – CHARLESTOWN, Environmental Actions, Activities and Information at Charlestown Retirement Community and a very detailed inventory of the trees, mammals and birds of Charlestown. This was compiled by Bert Clegern just a year before his death.

Currently, the Nature Trail Committee is seeking to increase awareness of this treasure in our community, particularly in fall and spring. The committee has been given teakwood benches, which will be refinished and placed so walkers can rest and enjoy the peaceful setting along the two streams where they meet the picturesque covered bridge and become one. There are residents who walk this path through the woods daily and others who have never seen it. Perhaps photos taken by a drone will be an introduction to some.

~Excerpted from Lucy McKean’s article in The Sunburst, December 2019~

Visit the Nature Festival on April 25

Discover the secrets of nature at Charlestown in a most delightful way at the second annual Nature Festival.

Thursday, April 25, 2019
11 AM – 2 PM
Gallery and Fireside Lounge

Begin at the information table, then let Charlestown’s own Mother Nature (Volunteer Coordinator Kathleen Hart) be your guide.

You may want to join Charlestown resident and bird-song expert, Paul Canner, as he introduces our campus birds. The Bird Walk begins at 11:30 AM at the CTS main entrance. A Nature Trail tour begins a 2:15 PM. Check at the information desk for details.

See a wide selection of displays from many Charlestown groups.

Take time to view the stunning nature photographs by photographer Betty Caldwell, who will give two short lectures on her work.

If you love flowers, watch talented artists create flower arrangements. Select one or two to take home.

Charlestown Fireside Artists will offer nature-related art, framed prints and greeting cards for your selection.

Play the Putterland game, while munching home made cookies and beverages; take a chance on a raffle; and be sure to take home a Commemorative Tee Shirt with a beautiful baby deer design.

This event is sponsored by the Charlestown Nature Trail Committee and proceeds benefit its work.

Nature Trail Article from Erickson Tribune

See “Trail Blazers – Charlestown Nature Lovers Help Preserve Outdoor Oasis,” by Danielle Rexrode,
Erickson Tribune, April 17, 2018.

Charlestown, the Erickson Living community in Catonsville, Md., is well known for its unique under-one-roof design that connects every amenity on campus and allows residents to enjoy an active lifestyle year-round. But there’s another, often overlooked side to Charlestown that is equally as impressive: the outside.

Charlestown’s park-like campus features beautifully landscaped courtyards, a magnificent fountain, vegetable and flower gardens, a three-acre lake, and a half-mile-long nature trail that meanders along Herbert Run, a stream that flows through Baltimore County and is a tributary of the Patapsco River which flows into the Chesapeake Bay.

On any given day, that’s where you’ll likely find volunteers from Charlestown’s Nature Trail Committee.

SEE FULL TEXT.

Nature Trail Update

As is our custom, the Nature Trail Committee (NTC) didn’t have a December meeting, but now we are full steam ahead in preparing for our expanded Wildflower Day, now to be known as the Charlestown Nature Festival, to be held in the Conference Center from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on April 26. We have more than two dozen tables planned, with presenters having a wide variety of interests associated with Nature and our Trail.

The new wildflower and tree signs have been purchased for placement along the Trail before the Festival, and we have the replacement for Olaf the Troll, who will also be in place by the Trail. The new Charlestown birder group has made several local trips to check out our avian friends, and more species have been added to the Charlestown Bird List, which has more than 100 species.

Ruppert, our primary landscaping contractor, has donated a very nice Armstrong Maple as the memorial tree for our departed arborist Harper Griswold. The tree, with a suitable plaque, will hopefully be placed near the front of campus before the April Festival.

Of special interest are two assessments being done on campus. One is for a major upgrade of the Lake Charles area. The second is for contract maintenance along the Nature Trail itself. We greatly look forward to these improvements.

The next meeting of the NTC will be at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 in the Cross Creek Crafts room. Please join us if interested.

Nature Trail Committee Update

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