Tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Rockbridge County, Nature Camp is a two-week summer camp dedicated to experiential environmental education. Located in the George Washington National Forest near the small town of Vesuvius, Virginia, Nature Camp holds four, two-week youth sessions per summer, plus one five-day session for adults. Using its gorgeous natural setting as a classroom, Nature Camp educates campers about their responsibility to the Earth and to the natural environment that sustains them. Born as a vision in the collective minds of the Conservation Committee of the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs in 1941, Nature Camp is now run by Nature Camp, Incorporated, with support from the Nature Camp Foundation. Our thriving alumni community is a testament to the profound ways in which Nature Camp has affected many lives.
Unlike other summer camps, Nature Camp’s program combines rigorous but nonformal, engaging instruction in natural history and environmental studies with outdoor recreation. Unplugged from cell phones and computers, campers enjoy a unique experience that puts them in touch—literally—with the natural world. Botany class takes place outdoors among the plants; budding ornithologists learn to find and identify birds in their natural habitats; herpetology students seek reptiles and amphibians in the creeks and crevices around Camp. Counselors, often former campers themselves, seek to instill in campers a sense of connection to the natural world, providing them with skills and knowledge that can be applied when they return to their communities. Our camp song, “Thinking of Tomorrow,” probably says it best: “We know that we are different now, for being in this place/ has shown us understanding for a world we can’t replace.”
For more information, visit http://www.naturecamp.net
