Women Reconnecting and Engaging with Nature (WREN), Rider Park and Deep Green Journey have announced a partnership to host a beginner-friendly women’s backpacking trip this summer.
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The overnight event will take place Aug. 16–17 in Loyalsock State Forest, with the goal of helping women build confidence in the outdoors. Participants will hike approximately 2.5 miles to a hemlock-shaded campsite, where they’ll learn basic backpacking skills and enjoy activities that encourage a deeper connection with nature.

Women Reconnecting and Engaging with Nature (WREN) will host a guided plant and tree identification walk at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, at Montour Preserve.
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Sara Street, park manager at Rider Park, will lead the walk along the Goose Woods Trail, a 0.9-mile loop through the preserve’s wooded landscape. Participants will learn to identify native tree and plant species and explore their ecological roles in the local environment.

More than 1,300 students visited Montour Preserve in May for their schools’ spring field trips. Many of the visits were led by the Vernal School Environmental Education Partnership and featured guided hikes, fossil digs, pond studies and other interactive learning stations.

One standout trip came from the Milton Area School District, where 200 seventh graders took part in a visit organized by students in the district’s Chief Science Officers program.

The Vernal School Environmental Education Partnership is working with Scouting America’s Susquehanna Council this summer to support ecology programming at Camp Karoondinha, a 400-acre Scout camp along Penns Creek in Union County.

The collaboration will provide Scouts attending summer sessions with hands-on learning opportunities in environmental science. Activities include guided hikes, aquatic studies and ecology-focused lessons tied to the camp’s natural features.