The Northampton County Junior Conservation School

Today's post is a little bit different, but it has everything to do with the spirit of this blog. If you have a child, relative or know someone who does that is between the ages of 14 to 17, I ask you to read all the way through this post.

So, what is the Northampton County Junior Conservation School? NCJCS is a one week long residential summer camp for ages 14 through 17. The week is filled with field trips which include but are not limited to, hiking on the Appalachian Trail, learning canoeing skills on a lake with proper rescue techniques, canoeing down one of two large rivers in the area, touring a landfill and visiting a gun range where students learn to properly handle and shoot five types of fire arms. While out in the field there are a multitude of lectures that focus on hands on learning. The students don't just see photos in a book, they are taken to different environments and the components of which are explained. I was a student in 2000 and helped for over ten years as a volunteer. It truly is an amazing and fun program. This years session will be running from July 12th through the 19th (2015).

The hike on the Appalachian Trail takes the students into the heart of an area devastated years ago by the deposition of heavy metal, due to a zinc smelting operation. Not only do they learn about the problems that caused it, but also the solutions that are being carried out today.

A canoe over canoe rescue doesn't look easy, but all of the students get the hang of it in an afternoon.

Now not every student was able to hold this Luna Moth, but the year this was taken every one got to see one right there in front of them. There is generally a multitude of wildlife that is seen throughout the week and experts who know how to teach identification are always on hand.

This year the canoe trip was on the Delaware, sometimes it is on the Lehigh and some years like last the rivers are too high or low to be safe. So, the students still get time on the water, but a slow moving non-flooded or dried up body of water. The river trip is my favorite and it is the main aspect of this camp that fits in with my blog. On the average years when the rivers are able to be ran, students gather and remove over 2 tons of trash. The local landfill that is visited actually picks up the trash at the end point and lets the camp know how much in weight they collect. I will be on the river with them this year and you better believe I will be a top competitor against the students for the most trash taken off the river by one boat!

There are stops on the river like this one. Here the kids are learning about macroinvertebrates and soon after the educator was done speaking they were sent into the river with nets and other collecting devices to find and identify them.

So, this is a bad year, the rivers were deemed unsafe. A day on Long Pond instead. I kind of wish I was there right now actually.

If you have or know kids in the right age range, think about it. You can learn more or sign up a student at ncjcs.org. I would also like to add, the full cost of the week is only $250. If you are interested, but do not have the money to spend, contact NCJCS anyway, they will do their best to find the student a sponsor bringing the fee down to just $75. I am ending this post with a Common Map Turtle found during one of the years I was a volunteer.