It was a beautiful spring morning at Yankauer Nature Preserve. The gnats had not yet started biting and a group of school children were painlessly learning about echolocation by playing a nature-oriented game called “Bat and Moth.” Other children were on sort of a scavenger hunt, looking for things in nature that were fuzzy, wet, slimy, prickly, etc.

Dr. Alfred Yankauer, a Bethesda resident who enjoyed spending weekends in the Eastern Panhandle, donated the 104-acre site to The Nature Conservancy (TNC) over 40 years ago. TNC and Potomac Valley Audubon Society (PVAC) jointly operate the preserve. PVAC manages the entire preserve—including trail maintenance, battling invasive plants, and promoting native plants—in exchange for using it for educational purposes.

Executive Director Kristin Alexander, hired by PVAC in 2001, is one of the two full-time employees responsible for the care and operation of the preserve, with its two miles of nature trails and its many educational programs. She is assisted by Ellen Murphy, who directs children’s programs and summer camps, and a group of dedicated volunteers.

Volunteers built a storage building and a large wooden pavilion that provides shelter for picnics and outdoor classes, but there is no office on the premises. “We work out of our homes,” said Alexander, “and come out to the preserve for programs. But there are long-term plans for a nature center here.”

Alexander, originally from Ellicott City, Md., has a bachelor’s degree in environmental education and a master’s degree in experiential education. She spent several years on what she calls “the internship circuit,” working in nature centers, camps, and outdoor educational facilities across the country, from Minnesota to North Carolina, Colorado to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “I worked in all sorts of very different ecosystems,” she said.

By coincidence, when she moved to this area she discovered that she had an ancestor who had lived in Shepherdstown—her great-great (maybe there was another “great”) grandmother. “She was in Shepherd College’s first graduating class with women in it,” Alexander reported.

While many people think of the Audubon Society as an organization for bird-watchers, Alexander explained that it is about more than just birds. She is not an avid birder herself, although, she said, “That doesn’t mean I don’t love waking up to the song of a wood thrush, or that I don’t get a thrill seeing a great blue heron or bald eagle along the river.”

She said that the national organization is still focused on birds, but it also includes things that impact birds, like global warming and ecosystems.

“The local PVAC is more about nature in general,” she said. “They have lots of educational programs, meetings with guest speakers, field trips, the master naturalist program, a nature photography group. There’s a digital nature photography camp for high school kids. It’s one week at NCTC, and they get to use the computer lab and software.”

Local schools and youth groups visit the Yankauer Preserve, and arranging educational programs keeps Alexander busy. She works with schools and teachers to design programs that fit the needs of the schools. The teachers develop the curriculums so that visits to the preserve and the activities there meet standards required by the state.

“There are curriculums for kids in grades K through six,” she said. “We have different programs for each grade, so when the kids come back with the next grade, they won’t be doing the same thing.”

Summer nature camps for kids up to age 14 are held at the preserve, including a special half-day camp for three-year-olds with their parents. In summer, Shepherd University students help out, some earning class credit.

“Summer is more free-form than the school year,” said Alexander. “The kids learn while they don’t know they’re learning. They listen, smell, use their senses, explore nature. The kids make forts, dig in the dirt to see what they can find, go geo-caching, build fires, learn how Native Americans lived.”

Alexander added that a silent walk gives many children a new experience. They concentrate on observing and listening to the sounds of nature. “Some of these kids have never been on a nature walk before,” she said.

In her spare time (and there’s not much), Alexander enjoys canoeing on the Potomac River, biking on the C&O Canal towpath, hiking, and camping. The past two years haven’t allowed much time for recreation, as she and her husband Jeff Feldman were busy building their straw-bale home.

Her favorite outdoor destination in West Virginia is the family farm outside Keyser, said Alexander, adding, “If we’re trying for a weekend getaway, Dolly Sods and Canaan Valley are two favorite hiking spots.”