He was drawn to the German speaking communities of southeastern Pennsylvania and quickly found employment as a weaver for the Louis Kraemer Woolen Mills near Reading.

Nolde established his own hosiery factory in Reading in 1888, just eight years after leaving Germany.

The new factory had the most up to date knitting equipment and by 1910 it covered an entire city block in Reading, with 250,000 square feet (23,000 m2) of floor space and more than 1,500 employees.

Nolde then set out to better the life of his family by creating a forest near their new home, "Sheerlund", which he built south of Reading in Cumru Township.

Inspired by this single tree, Nolde set out to create a "luxury forest" to be a source of family pride and pleasure.

He bought about 500 acres (2 km²) of future timberland in Cumru Township in 1904 and continued to acquire the land that would become Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center until his death in 1916.

This land had been either farmland that had lain fallow for a number of years, or scrubby deciduous forest just beginning to recover from being stripped to make charcoal by colliers for the nearby iron furnaces.

Kohout was a master forester from Austria, who had attended forestry schools in Bohemia and Saxony and received a degree from the University of Vienna.

The impartiality with which he gave of his money is well shown in a recent contribution of $1,000 to the building of the Reformed College in Sendai, Japan.

The main purpose of Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center is to provide environmental education for the citizens of southeastern Pennsylvania and specifically the students of the nearby elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities.

Nolde Forest stays busy offering hands on opportunities to these students and their teachers with a "discovery and problem solving" approach.