Communities created at Clarence Schock Park with local veterans, park volunteers

Lebanon County veterans are giving bats, birds, and screech owls living in Clarence Schock Memorial Park at Governor Dick a place to call home.

The creation of communal housing for woodland creatures, however, is not the only sense of community coming to life at the park. 

The bat, bird, and screech owl home project is the advent of a new joint initiative to involve veterans living at the Lebanon VA Hospital’s Community Living Center with activities at the park.

Park manager Jedd Erdman said the new endeavor benefits the veterans and the park. On a recent fall day, three veterans came to the park’s environmental center to build bat boxes. 

“In my eyes, Jim, this is what the park was made for. The park was left by Clarence Schock for everybody’s enjoyment,” Erdman said. “If we can come out and give them a special day, and for us, this is a special day. I mean, we enjoyed this tremendously.”

Erdman said the environment is also a winner because of the partnership.

“The bottom line is, and the bonus is, this is also about helping the environment. The bonus is to put the bat boxes up, put the bird boxes up. But I think it’s a win, a major win-win for everybody,” he added. 

The two bat boxes can accommodate up to 250 bats each. All boxes were erected in strategic areas around the nearly 1,110-acre property that are most beneficial to the critters. Governor Dick Park is located near Mount Gretna in southern Lebanon County.

Tammy Schucker, recreational therapy assistant at Lebanon VA Hospital, said the goal of this partnership is to provide more activities to veterans. Between 15 and 20 veterans helped build owl and bluebird houses at the VA Center in prior weeks, assembled the bat boxes at the park one day, and/or assisted erecting the boxes.

“Most of the guys are from our Community Living Center, and we’re trying to enhance a veteran’s quality of life with remote wellness, encouraging healing through leisure activities, and providing social engagement,” Schucker said. 

“We want to just get the veterans out in the community, to engage with the community, to do something like this in this park is beautiful,” said Matt Yerger, recreation assistant at Lebanon VA Hospital.

Veterans at the VA built eight blue bird and four screech owl houses, and then a decision was made to construct two bat houses, too, according to Schucker. For that portion of the project, veterans recently traveled to the park’s environmental center to assist with building those boxes. All but the bat boxes were placed throughout the park last week.

“While they were here, they helped along with the park staff and our staff to create the bat boxes so that the park can put them on their property to increase and help the bat population,” Schucker said. “When they first originally got a hold of Matt to do this program, their first intention was to build some owl houses and then some blue bird houses and then after that went so well, they said they wanted to try these bat boxes.”

Minds came together to determine the best way to have the vets assist with the bat boxes, which are quite large. They are massive so that there’s enough space for the bats to live together. Bats live together in groups, or colonies, primarily for protection from predators, to conserve body heat through huddling, and to care for their young in maternity roosts.

“I think the hardest part was trying to figure out the easiest way to have the veterans be able to participate. And thank goodness we have a wonderful partner that helped us come up with kits that made it easy for the veterans to be able to accomplish what needed to be done,” said Schucker.

One veteran who assembled the various kits and assisted at many of the work days is Walt Beckwith, who was, unfortunately, unavailable for an interview for this article.

“He loved it (the idea) and immediately took plans for the bluebird boxes, screech owl boxes, and bat boxes and started building kits. His ingenuity made the kits easy for veterans to build and he was present for all three sessions working directly with the veterans building the boxes. I couldn’t have done this project without his assistance,” Yerger said. 

Ngai “G” Brabham, a U.S. Army veteran who fought in the first Gulf War, was elated to have the opportunity to participate in the project.

“This was a great experience. To learn about nature and what goes on with, like I said, bats and stuff like that. Like I said, it pretty much puts joy into my heart to help out with the nature stuff,” Brabham said. “And the experience was something new for me.”

“It’s an honor to be a veteran and how much support the community gives us. So a lot of these guys, like if you actually got to talk to them, that’s one of the things they would mention is a project like this, they get to give back,” Yerger said. “The houses, the blue bird boxes, will last about 15 years. So for the next 15 years, the veterans did something that is gonna help the park out. And then just getting them out in public, being with other veterans, being with people, it’s just an all-around great experience for them.”

Former state park naturalist Susan Wheeler said one screech owl will live in a box, and that a pair of bluebirds will raise their offspring in their unpainted wooden love nests.

“They’ll do several, I guess, rounds of offspring. They usually have a clutch of four at a shot. And they’re excellent parents,” Wheeler, who lives in Cornwall, said. “And because of people cutting down trees and not having cavities in trees, they (bluebirds) take really readily to boxes. So we’re gonna put the box up on poles and use predator guards.”

Wheeler said predator guards are critical to ensure the birds propagate. “Predator guards are really important to keep the raccoons and snakes from getting up into the box and killing the young or taking the eggs,” added Wheeler.

And keeping track of bluebirds is important, too. Homeowners with those boxes on their property are encouraged to keep records of their nests. 

“Bluebirds actually really declined over the years, and it’s only with the advent of bluebird boxes that their numbers have really come back because previously they had no place to nest,” Wheeler said. “Sparrows are a non-native species and they just decimate bluebird nests. So if you’re gonna be a bluebird landlord, you have to be dedicated, you have to keep records, you have to check your boxes every week.”

Wheeler and others noted that bat populations are in decline. One cause among others is a lack of habitat. 

“Well, pesticide use, Roundup. They like cavities, too. Attics, things like that, but people don’t want them in theirs anymore. That’s why this book, ‘Woodcrafting for Wildlife,’ is so important,” Wheeler said. “We have to provide homes for these animals and things to have nests for their offspring because of what we’ve done to the environment.”

Wheeler said that bats, unfortunately, get a bad rap due to pop culture and the misconception that they get stuck in people’s hair. 

“They use sonar and they come out at night. They can eat up to 1,200 insects, mosquitoes. They eat moths, anything like that,” noted Wheeler.

The importance of bats was on Brabham’s mind. He said he has learned a lot about bats during this multi-phased project and said he “hopes they do well because they are good to have around us.”

On the day the bat boxes were assembled at the park, Vietnam veteran George Ordog Sr., said he and the other vets used electric-powered drills to put screws in to connect sections together, particularly with the multiple plywood planks that serve as layers inside the box. Ordog said he likes to remain active and participates in many of the VA’s projects. 

I just like doing stuff. I paint and stuff like that. And try to keep busy with different things,” Ordog said. “And I didn’t realize that the bats lived like that, you know? Until we started making them, you know? And I felt good about helping to make them.”