Over the last 47 years, Berks Nature has helped preserve over 11,000 acres of land in Berks County.
During this time, Berks Nature has also taken on new challenges and responsibilities outside of their traditional role as a land trust in response to emerging community needs and values. Today, in addition to our land protection efforts, Berks Nature also manages 4 volunteer-driven watershed associations; offers an expansive array of environmental education opportunities from a summer Eco-Camp to public programs to a fully-licensed Nature Preschool; participates in stream, forest, and meadow restoration projects; and works with farmers to install conservation measures and technology.
Even as Berks Nature’s activities have expanded, we are a land trust at heart and our core focus remains centered on land protection. Since the organization rebranded itself from the Berks County Conservancy to Berks Nature in 2016, we have, on average, helped preserve nearly 370 acres of land per year.
We are proud to remain Berks County’s land trust, helping to protect the County’s rich landscape of natural resources in a variety of ways…
Berks Nature owns 433 acres of land in Berks County and serves as the leading stewards of 3 nature preserves open to the public (Neversink Mountain Preserve, Angelica Creek Park, and Bob’s Woods at the Earl Poole Sanctuary) and 5 private preserves which serve as wildlife habitat providing ecological, environmental, and carbon sequestration services and benefits.
Each public preserve is managed to not only support wildlife habitat and ecological resiliency but also to create safe, restorative spaces for people of all ages to enjoy the great outdoors.
Berks Nature preserves have been assembled using various methods: by donation of land by landowners; by purchase of land by Berks Nature utilizing grant funding; and by what is called a bargain sale whereby a property is purchased by Berks Nature at less than its appraised value and the owner donates the remaining balance as a charitable deduction.
In the case of the Bob’s Woods Preserve, six adjacent properties totaling 38 acres were generously donated to Berks Nature (the Berks County Conservancy at the time) by the Bortz Family. Initially, the Bortz Family had donated conservation easements on these same properties before transferring the parcels to Berks Nature outright.
Until about 1970, the property operated as a farm producing vinegar, cider, potatoes, eggs, and butter. Much of this farming legacy has since been reclaimed by nature.
Surrounding the former site for the farm’s barn and cider press, a native meadow has bloomed; the central fields, once flanked by forest, are now deeply rooted with successional trees creating a contiguous band of woodland; tucked within the shaded understory of the long-established forested wetlands, a unique network of vernal pools support sensitive flora and fauna native to southeastern Pennsylvania; and the once exposed tributaries to Antietam Creek, which served as Reading’s drinking water supply from 1875 to 1930, are now sheltered by a streamside forest.
Today, Bob’s Woods is a verdant sanctuary.
Like the rest of Berks Nature’s preserves, a management plan guides the stewardship actions that maintain Bob’s Woods’ natural and recreational resources. But when Berks Nature first acquired the property in the late 1970s, they looked to the community for help attending the land.
Originally, the preserve was known as the Earl Poole Sanctuary, named in honor of the late Dr. Earl L. Poole: famed ornithologist, artist, and teacher. Poole is one of Berks County’s conservation giants, penning several books including “The Bird Life of Berks County, Pennsylvania,” and helping to establish the Baird Ornithological Club.
It was this group of birders, joined by other local community members, who took up the mantle of stewarding the Earl Poole Sanctuary. Until the late 1990’s this dedicated group of volunteers managed the succession of the property from farmland to flourishing forest. The robust network of wooded wetlands, known now for its diverse covey of native plants and birds, is due in no small part to the passion and commitment of these community stewards.
Forty years later and Bob’s Woods at Earl Poole Sanctuary is finally receiving the attention and resources it deserves.
In early 2020, Berks Nature received a generous gift of $1 million to support their preserve and trail management efforts. Berks Nature dedicated part of this gift to Bob’s Woods.
New infrastructure has improved the accessibility of Bob’s Woods for its human visitors: a roofed kiosk providing preserve and trail information was erected; ADA accessible picnic tables were installed; the parking lot was enlarged; and new signage was added throughout the preserve.
During these improvements, the preserve was renamed in honor of Bob Fleming, an avid nature lover and Pike Township resident who unexpectedly passed away in 2018. According to friends, “A walk in the woods with Bob meant you would learn something new.” It is in this spirit that Bob’s Woods begins its next chapter as a preserve grown by its community, for its community.
We invite you to take a walk in Bob’s Woods and soak in the lessons and love cultivated here by nature and your neighbors.
