Camp Ecology

Sometimes it’s good to be up a creek, especially when you are 11 or 12 years old and it’s Walnut Creek in western Garland County.

For 33 years, the Arkansas Audubon Society has hosted an ecology camp for youngsters. The camp now meets along the upper part of Walnut Creek at Camp Clearfork, a rustic descendant of the Civilian Conservation Corps now managed by the U.S. Forest Service. South of U.S.

270 and west of Crystal Springs, this group campground is a part of the Ouachita National Forest. The Arkansas Audubon Society rents the camp for two weeks each summer as the site of its Halberg Ecology Camp.

Barry Haas, who is retired from the animal feed business, has volunteered as treasurer for the camp for 17 years. He describes the camp as “an exceptional learning opportunity for youth interested in the wonders and complexities of nature.” The ecology camp began in 1980, meeting at other facilities for a few years before settling at Clearfork. In1995, the Audubon Society decided to name the camp “Halberg” in honor of Edith and Henry Halberg, who had contributed significantly to the camp’s founding.

What happens at Halberg, stays … in the memory of an 11-year-old child.

There are two six-day sessions each summer. This year, they are June 9-14 and 16-21. Camp students arrive on Sunday afternoon and stay until Friday when their parents pick them up and watch a video presentation on the week’s events. Of last year’s camp, one mother remarked that her son enjoyed it so much she could “barely drag him home.” An 11-year-old girl was heard telling the older gentleman who picked her up, “Oh Grandpa, this was the best week of my life!” A typical day for campers might include a morning nature walk (to identify birds and other critters that are most easily seen early in the day); breakfast in the dining hall; four onehour classes in ornithology, water quality, snakes and spiders; swimming or canoeing on a camp lake; and a common evening meal in the dining hall followed by a guest speaker. There might also be an “owl prowl” to look for nighttime critters.

Individual classes are held with eight or nine students and two teachers. Instructors usually lead campers in hands-on outdoor activities, such as digging into a rotten log to look for insect larvae, dragging seine nets through a pond in search of small fish, or looking at one-celled creatures through a microscope.

Evening speakers at campfire events include naturalists and other relevant speakers. In the past, Lynne Slater of Russellville, a rehabilitator with HAWK (Helping Arkansas Wild “Kritters”), presented a program about rehabilitating birds with live eagles, hawks and falcons, and Stephanie Hymel, with Central Arkansas Water, talked about prescribed burns and fire ecology. The schedule of speakers for the 2013 camp was not available at press time.

A committee of 11 volunteers from the Arkansas Audubon Society (not affiliated with National Audubon Society) oversees the ecology camp. The committee comprises people from all regions of the state and selects the administrative staff.

The staff is managed on-site by two co-directors. This year, they are Robin Buff, an environmental science teacher at Fayetteville High School, and Paul Lowrey, a geology instructor at Northwest Arkansas Community College at Bentonville.

The paid teaching staff includes at least 14 college and high school natural science teachers along with other specialists who have broad experience in one of the disciplines associated with environmental studies.

Most teachers have worked many years at the camp.

The staff also includes a full-time registered nurse,cleaning personnel and an activities director who coordinates recreational events.

A kitchen staff prepares nutritious, eco-friendly meals that get good reviews from campers.

The curriculum for the campers is built on seven areas of study: plants, mammals, birds, insects, reptiles/ amphibians, aquatic biology and geology emphasizing the interconnectedness of these fields. The goal of the classes, according to Cheryl Lavers, one of last summer’s co-chairmen, is “to enrich their lives by engendering an interest in and a curiosity about nature,” not to make the campers experts.

Organization Halberg Ecology Campcan accommodate 50 firstyear campers and 12 second-year campers at each session. An extended session called the Johnson Camp for 12 third-year campers is held at the Mount Eagle Camp in the Ozarks. Thirdyear campers have a seven-day encampment with four teachers. They learn to conduct water-quality studies, canoe and watch wildlife along the Buffalo River and usually have a deep-cave spelunking expedition. In total, the camps introduce 136 children each year to the wonders of nature.

Applications for firstyear campers can be made only if a child is 11 or 12 years old on the first day of the camp session they wishto attend. Attendance at the camp as a second- or thirdyear student is by invitation only.

It costs the Arkansas Audubon Society about $450 per camper to host the camp. The tuition, however, is $300 per session per child.

Many full and partial tuition scholarships are available to those in need who apply early. Grants and gifts to the Halberg Camp make up the shortfall between tuition and actual costs. Among groups who contribute regularly to the camp are the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, FayettevilleNatural Heritage Association, Arkansas Native Wild Plant Society and Arkansas Audubon chapters in eight cities across the state.

Application forms and a printable brochure can be downloaded from the Halberg Ecology Camp’s website, arbirds.org /halberg_ecology_camp.html.

The website also has links to youtube.com videos that show activities of campers and counselors. For more information, contact camp executive director Elizabeth Fulton at efulton114@sbcglobal.net.

Clearfork CampgroundFacilities

The facilities at the camp are typical of what is expected at a general public use campground designed for family reunions, civic and church groups or Scouts.

It has separate cabins for boys and girls, a dining hall with a kitchen, covered pavilions, amphitheater, fire ring, volleyball court, ping pong table, 4-acre reservoir and a clear, flowing stream suitable for wading.

The most important feature of the Halberg encampment is its location in a pristine forest with considerable biodiversity. Ouachita National Forest serves as a laboratory for children whoare interested in the science of nature. The campground is also the trailhead for Clearfork Hiking Trail and a gated road leading to the camp parking area provides a measure of security.

Environmental Leaders

in Training

The benchmark for any successful training program for young people is the track record of previous campers.

During the ecology camp’s 33-year operation, about 2,600 young people have attended. Some of those campers have become science teachers, environmental scientists and ornithologists. Several campers have returned 10 and 20 years later as teachers. Even campers who do enter environmental professions have a richer appreciation of mankind’s role in the biosphere.

Robert Doster of Pine Bluff attended the f irst Audubon Ecology Camp in 1980. He has a doctorate in biology and works with theU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in California. Mitchell Pruitt attended the camp in 2003, heard his first whippoorwill and is now considered Arkansas’ leading young birder. He is studying environmental engineering at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He led the camp’s bird walks and taught classes in ornithology at Halberg in 2012.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of the hundred young people who get stuck up Walnut Creek at Halberg Ecology Camp in 2013.