By Caleigh Fitzsimmons, Lancaster Conservancy Intern
Photo by Caleigh Fitzsimmons
On a cool autumn day, when the leaves are just beginning to turn and the ground is a crinkly mat of browns and yellows, I step into Tucquan Glen & Pyfer Nature Preserves for the first time. I’m here with a small group of people enjoying a guided hike led by Lancaster Conservancy educators, one of the engagement events I’m attending during my internship at the Conservancy. These nature preserves are magnificent. Tumbling cascades of crystal water weave their way through boulders great and small, colorful leaves dance from high treetops to the ground below, and thickly trunked rhododendrons, more than a hundred years old, grow in shaded groves alongside the path. It is like something out of a fairytale, except it’s real.
Tucquan Glen is not the first of the Lancaster Conservancy’s 50 preserves that I have been on, but it is one of my favorites. I have traveled all over Lancaster County since the start of my internship in early September. I have been stretched far out of my comfort zone, but I have grown more as a person for it and met so many incredible people. That is the beautiful thing about the conservation field – the people. They are so passionate about what they do, and they all have a common goal: to protect and conserve the natural lands around us, like Tucquan Glen and its diversity of plant and animal life, so that they may provide inspiration for the next generation long into the future. I am the next generation, and it is because of organizations like the Lancaster Conservancy that I have the opportunity to use my love for nature in a way that is meaningful and impactful.
Caleigh offers education on map reading during Trail Fest at Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve | Photo by Michelle Johnsen
Lancaster is a special place. I have been all over the United States and seen many natural wonders. I have seen mountains that are so big they scarcely seem real, and I have seen herds of bison that stretch to the horizon, but here in Lancaster there is beauty that is just as breathtaking. Whether it’s listening to the serenade of wood frogs in the vernal pools of Climbers Run or observing a turkey vulture as it basks in the sun, opening its ragged wings wide as if to embrace the star’s life-giving warmth, Lancaster is a place of wonders. This is why it is so important that the county’s wild places continue to be preserved and cared for. Without them, the thousands of plant and animal species that make Lancaster what it is would have no home. Places like Tucquan Glen are a sanctuary, and not just for wild things, but for people too.
Along with me and all the people at the Conservancy, there are countless others out there who long for the whisper of the wind in their hair or the smell of pines in the forest. In this, we are kindred spirits, and it is for this reason that I believe that maintaining public access to Conservancy lands is crucial for the wellbeing of both humans and wildlife. When we, as people, have the opportunity to engage with the natural world, an innate and primal curiosity is stirred within us. We come to view the world as a living, breathing thing rather than something to be used at our convenience and whim. We notice the rhythms of nature, the way that the birds flit through the sky or the leaves sway in the wind, as if whispering to one another a secret message all their own. We forge a sense of connection with nature when we have firsthand opportunities to experience it, to feel it. This promotes empathy and a desire to protect, which is the first step in conservation and all it aims to accomplish.
Photo by Caleigh Fitzsimmons
My hike at Tucquan Glen takes a few hours, but I do not notice time as it passes. What is time, really? To trees, each year is but a few minutes. To many insects, a year is far longer than a lifetime. I am content to simply be in nature’s presence, surrounded by the warm sunlight as it suffuses the forest floor and casts dappled shadows through the crisp autumn leaves. I feel hopeful knowing that the Lancaster Conservancy’s preserves will last long into the future – as long as there are trees to sway in the wind and clear streams to cascade through the stones. Nature is a sanctuary, and in it are a million simple miracles.
Visitor note: There is no parking available at Tucquan Glen & Pyfer Nature Preserves. Visitors can make the strenuous hike into the preserves from Clark Nature Preserve (a 6-mile round trip) or Pinnacle Scenic Overlook (a 4-mile round trip). Learn more here.
