The diamondback terrapins of the Howard County Conservancy wish you a Turtally Awesome holiday season!

The Conservancy Camps wish peace, friendship and love to our community.

A fresh, new year is here and it’s a time to reflect on 2016.  So many things happened – the Conservancy embarked on the “Next 25 Years” campaign, we finally began the expansion of our Nature Center at Mt. Pleasant, our watershed report card went state-wide, and more than 16,000 students were able to connect with nature through our programs.  Our students and programs made the news, helped to change local policy, and informed neighborhoods and communities about our impacts on the environment.

There’s so much more, though.  Especially in the small moments, the ones that no photographer could catch, lives were being changed. Children chatted with the animals, constructed houses for fairies, created their own narrative of who they are, explored, investigated, engineered, nurtured each other, and found new friends–human, animal, and imaginative.  Each day offered the opportunity to change the outlook of a child and that makes what we do so important.

2017 is already off to a roaring start! We are diligently working on hiring the best young adults we can find to safely challenge campers, share their love of nature, and encourage joyful creativity.  Camp registrations are opening on January 18 and we have many Winter projects in progress. We are visiting schools for outreach programs, hosting public programs and events as well as working with our Volunteer Naturalists through hikes and lectures.  We are lucky to be so busy developing fantastic programs and hope that you will join us this year.

                  Happy trails,

              Lorna and Ashley, Conservancy Camp Directors