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Taking a Walk at Camp Linden
by Lew Buckingham, former Caretaker
Starting on the flood plain of the Brandywine River, Camp Linden's fifty-one acres rise more than one hundred feet into a deciduous forest interspersed with evergreens. Surrounded by crop fields and pasture, the walnut, tulip-poplar, hickory, maple, dogwood and oak trees provide a perfect habitat for a variety of fauna.
To the south the Brandywine and its flood plain produce beautiful grape hyacinth in early spring followed by May apple, stinging nettle and jewel weed. The creek is one of Chester County's best fishing spots. Eels, snapping turtles, water snakes, muskrats, bank nesting swallows and perch spawning circles make up only a small part of this stream ecology.
A walk on the trails any time of year provides a feast for the senses. Red foxes, white-tail deer, raccoons, flying squirrels, possums and skunks dwell in this wooded haven. The bird watcher spots an osprey or kingfisher feeding by the river near the centuries-old sycamore. Great blue herons, tri-colored herons and many different warblers spend their summers here. Marsh and red-tailed hawks, kestrels and merlins hunt the woods and adjacent fields. At night the conversations of great horned and screech owls can be heard.
The inner-city youth, so far from their unforgiving environment, may have feared the unfamiliar animals at first. What they soon discovered was not frightening, but wonderful and novel. We have taken nature walks and learned to see this beautiful place through the eyes of the young. We have appreciated the small quarry on Linden's southeast corner that provided the stone for the adjacent 18th century farmhouse. Spice bush gave up its wondrous taste and smell to us. Jewel weed soothed our stinging-nettle burns. Toads patrolled and controlled the bathhouse insect population. The Osage orange with its chartreuse brain-like fruit intrigued us.
We hope that children and nature walks will always be a part of Camp Linden. Your financial support will enable hundreds more to learn from and connect to nature.
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