Our nature preserves are open to the public 365 days per year from sunrise to sunset, providing natural places that offer peace and respite for all. Willistown Conservation Trust owns and manages Hartman Meadow, Ashbridge, Kirkwood, Kestrel Hill and Rushton Woods Preserves. We maintain these lands to preserve and enhance … Learn more about our nature preserves.
The Birds and the Beans
Spend a morning sipping delicious bird-friendly coffee while getting up close and personal with the very birds that benefit from the preservation of tropical habitat that Smithsonian-certified coffee promotes—including warblers, orioles, thrushes, and flycatchers.
Many of these birds that use Rushton Woods Preserve as a migratory pit stop or for breeding depend on intact tropical forest in coffee growing regions for overwintering. This is why we started the WCT Bird Friendly Coffee Coalition. During this program, you’ll hear a lecture on the importance of bird friendly coffee and why it is more environmentally sustainable than conventional sun coffee. You’ll also get to meet some of our local partners including Gryphon Coffee! Discover how being a conscientious consumer can actually save birds and how you can begin to view your yard through that same lens.
Then we’ll head out to the banding station, which will be operating for spring migration.
Bird banding is a powerful scientific tool in bird conservation. It has allowed us to study seasonal and long-term population patterns as well as species abundance and diversity of birds using Rushton Woods Preserve and Farm throughout the year. Over the past 14 years of its operation, staff of Rushton Woods Banding Station have banded over 20,000 birds of 104 species! For this field experience, students will observe the entire banding process first-hand while learning about the marvels of migration.
Coffee by the bag will be available for purchase from our Bird Friendly Coffee Coalition partners.
ECOcentric Experience is our new environmental education series for adults seeking a deeper understanding of and closer relationship to nature. Through seasonal lectures as well as immersive field experiences, participants study birds and wildlife, regenerative farming, watershed protection, and habitat stewardship.
This is an ACCESS-friendly event. If you are a current ACCESS card holder, please use the ACCESS option at checkout when registering.
