At a Glance

The Friends offer a variety of environmental, historical, and recreational programs year-round, featuring hands-on activities, guided walks, and interactive workshops.

Nature Walk October 1995

Susquehanna County Forester Jim Kessler (since retired) demonstrates tree dating. He twists a boring instrument into a hemlock tree to withdraw a core sample.

He holds the core sample in his left hand and uses the boring instrument to help locate and count the age rings in the core sample.

Watershed Education April 1999

Organized by the Friends' first environmental Educator, Sue Chance (far left).

Activities included identifying some of the aquatic wildlife, collected by dredging a screen through the water.

Parade July 4, 2000

Together with the local Recycling Center and Shelley Preserve, we entered a float.

Susquehanna County Oral History Project September 2005

Practice, practice, practice! SCOHP, a subcommittee of the Friends' Historical Committee, provided training for a number of high school students in the fine art of conducting oral history interviews. Here, pairs of students practice what they learned.

November 2005. Two months later, they spent a day interviewing local seniors.

Holiday Season Kick-off December 2005

Some Decembers, we'd kick off the holiday season by gathering around a campfire near the Pavilion and singing Christmas Carols.

Inside the Pavilion, we sipped hot chocolate and made edible tree decorations for the birds.

Stone Wall Building Workshop September 2006

Rusty Ely, owner of Rely Landscaping, led a number of stone-wall building workshops. He begins by explaining the various tools and techniques we would use to build a mortarless wall.

Rusty trenched out the base of a small drop between the Wheaton House and the parking lot and hauled in a couple loads of stone.

Within four hours we had a respectable beginning. It's complete now. Come and see it...truly a work of art.

E3--Earth, Ecology, and the Environment September 2006

This is a 4th-grade environmental education program that the Friends conduct for local schools. (Visit our Education page for more about our school programs.) Part of the program involves studying the stream ecosystem. This section is led by Jay Harter (right).

What did they find?

This?

This?!

Along with the kids, the Friends also thank Nancy Wottrich for coordinating this program.