TRR photo by Ed Wesely After exploring a milkweed plant and discovering a couple of monarch butterfly eggs, Tarik Dordoni examined one of them under a microscope.

What’s under a log?

Summer camp is a great time for kids to unwind and explore things in ways that aren’t possible at school. And in “nature study,” it’s exciting for them to discover plants and creatures they’ve read about, or watched on TV, but never observed first hand—from monarch butterflies to the newts and salamanders that cross forest paths after a rain.

At YMCA Camp Skycrest, where I work, the morning is divided into offerings as varied as fishing, swimming, arts and crafts, Indian lore, sports and “nature”—the last a term I balked at when I was myself a camper.

click for story

Playing favorites

Someone asked me recently, “What is your favorite flower?”

click for story

Learn to keep a field journal

MILFORD, PA—There will be a workshop called Conservation Field Journaling from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 29, at Grey Towers National Historic Site. In addition to some instruction, the workshop will include a brief historical perspective on how journals have been used to record nature in the past, by such noted individuals as Lewis and Clark, Aldo Leopold and Gifford Pinchot.

click for story

Also in this issue:

• Defending against caterpillars