Another fallen tree has blocked Tuckahoe Road and knocked out power to our service center. We’ve had to close the service center again. That’s inconvenient for people planning to visit, although our employees can work productively remotely. What concerns me more is what an extended outage means when campers are at Tuckahoe.
Tuckahoe had power outages before we moved our service center there in 2025. With my office now at camp, I’m on site and experience them firsthand, so I’m much more aware of each one. The outages have also become more consequential for our day-to-day operations. One outage during summer camp in 2026 lasted three days.
Summer camp programs continued during that outage, and our staff kept campers fed and safe. Kitchen staff adjusted the menu to use less equipment because their available power was limited. When the pool’s filter system was offline, aquatics staff moved instruction to Memory Lake. We added portable generators where we could to support dining hall refrigeration and kitchen equipment, our well, and the shower building’s wastewater system. Camp stayed open, but the experience showed us that we need to be better prepared for a multi-day outage.
Tuckahoe Road runs through a wooded residential area, with homes on lots among large trees. In places, large trees stand on steep slopes above the road and power lines. The tree that caused the latest outage looked perfectly fine, with lots of green leaves. When a tree falls across the road and into electrical lines, it can block access to camp and cut power. Those lines may still be live and tangled in the branches. It isn’t safe for camp staff or our ranger to pick up a chainsaw and clear the road when electricity is involved.
None of the 2026 outages were caused by trees on our property taking out lines. The electric line into camp belongs to Met-Ed, which would need to handle trimming around it. Trimming branches and removing trees that appear vulnerable would probably help some, but I doubt it would eliminate outages where roads and power lines run among large trees.
As planning continues for our upcoming capital campaign, a volunteer study group is looking at needs across all our camps, including how to make key facilities more resilient. Our plans for further investments at Tuckahoe and Hidden Valley will likely include standby generators for key facilities. A generator large enough to power the entire service center would be expensive, and backup power for summer camp operations is a higher priority.
The three-day outage exposed where we could be better prepared. That work was already underway before the latest tree fell, and it remains an important part of planning for our camps.
Yours in Scouting,
Ron Gardner
Scout Executive & CEO
