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Pickering Creek Audubon Center is dedicated to community-based conservation of
natural resources through environmental education and outreach
on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay

Pickering Creek Audubon Center is a 400-acre working farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland situated next to the tidal Pickering Creek. The Center’s property features a variety of habitats including mature hardwood forest, fresh and brackish marsh, meadow, tidal and non-tidal wetlands, over a mile of shoreline on a tidal creek, and cropland. Two hundred and seventy acres are devoted to low impact “best management practice” agriculture. The farmed acreage of Pickering Creek is its link to the significant farming heritage of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Pickering Creek is a successful partnership between Audubon Maryland-DC and the Chesapeake Audubon Society, a chapter of the National Audubon Society. Donated to the Chesapeake Audubon Society in 1984 by Margaret Strahl and her brother, George Olds it was envisioned by these donors as a place to learn about the environment, especially the Chesapeake Bay ecosystems. It was their wish that all members of the community, whether watermen, farmers, birders, painters, naturalists, children or adults would have access to the property. For this reason, Pickering Creek is free and open to the public 365 days a year. On any day, you can enjoy a wonderful stroll through the woods and along the creek, encounter a variety of wildlife, possibly even a Bald Eagle or an endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel.

Environmental Education
The center provides excellent environmental and science education programs to students from eight Maryland Counties and the District of Columbia. Over 16,000 school children visit each year and are given the opportunity to make a physical and emotional connection to their Bay.

Community
The Mid-shore community is the heart of Pickering Creek. Our partners, volunteers, members and supporters are farmers, watermen, business people, scientists, teachers and families. We are enriched by their participation and their ideas for new ideas for improving our programs and facilities each year. With over 225 active volunteers, Pickering is a model for community involvement. Volunteers donate over 3,330 hours each year maintaining walking trails, monitoring a 60 nest box Eastern Bluebird trail, implementing habitat restoration projects, tending the Children’s Imagination and Herb gardens, the tool museum and the Waterman’s Shanty. The tool museum and Watermen’s Shanty are living connections to the farm and water communities of this historic region.

Click here for the the schedule of upcoming programs.

For information contact: Mark Scallion, Center Director @ 410.822.4903 or e-mail to mscallion@audubon.org.