A quarter-century of conservation: The NCTC turns 25
Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.
— William Wordsworth (1798)
The National Conservation Training Center turns 25 this year. This hidden federal facility, nestled along the Potomac River in Shepherdstown, has seen more than 250,000 conservationists enter its campus and, one hopes, return to their homes to make the world a better place.
The NCTC is not a park, forest, or wildlife refuge. Rather, it is a watering hole for conservationists and the home for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
It's a “conservation college” — perhaps its closest analogy is the U.S. Army War College to its north.
When NCTC was originally conceived the dream was to have a premiere educational facility that would embrace every aspect of the environment. The course offerings are as diverse as nature itself.
A small sampling includes fisheries science, Geographic Information Systems Mapping, leadership courses and wildlife law enforcement.
The diversity and breadth of courses are a constant reminder of the challenges of stewarding a constantly evolving environment for both its wildlife inhabitants and its human visitors. If the NCTC had an official motto, it would be “Conservation Through Education.”
Yet there is much more going on at NCTC. NCTC has hosted two presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton), and world leaders during Mideast Peace talks in 2000.
It has also hosted perhaps the largest nature literature gathering in history. Partnering with the Orion Society, the NCTC provided a platform for our nation’s most eloquent voices for nature ranging from Wendell Berry to Bill McKibben to Barry Lopez and Peter Mathiessen.
Yet in spite of the many human luminaries, by far the most popular visitors to NCTC are the nesting eagles.
For 20 years, various eagle pairs have stayed in their large nest atop a giant sycamore tree while humans spy on them (and their eaglets) unobtrusively via the NCTC Eagle Cam. The annual domestic scenes of feeding, teaching and finally getting their children to leave the nest resonates with many parents in the Tri-State area.
Although NCTC is primarily a student-centric campus, non-eagle neighbors are also invited to visit during various open houses, the American Conservation Film Festival and a free public lecture series that has run for 25 years, sponsored by the Friends of NCTC. The public lecture series has hosted plays, films, authors, scientists — and even a gray wolf during one memorable visit.
A lot has changed since NCTC opened in 1997.
Back in 1997 the first Harry Potter book was released, the film Titanic was a box office hit and a new thing called WiFi was invented.
Things have changed at NCTC too.
Overhead and slide projectors have given way to PPTs and iPads. Our students have become more diverse and even younger as we bring in indigenous high school students for an annual Tribal Congress and the best, brightest, and most diverse university students for our Directorate Fellows Program.
But what remains consistent is NCTC’s mission to train the current and next generation of conservationists to steward our planet.
In that way, NCTC is a hidden treasure in our backyard.
Mark Madison lives in Hagerstown and has worked at NCTC for 23 of its 25 years.