Vernal pools contain creatures (amphibians and bugs) that can only breed where there are no hungry fish. Citizen scientists are needed to find and report vernal pools in the Hilltowns. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
How do spring peepers know when to start singing?
They don’t have weather reports, or the ability to see the buds forming on trees, the snow melting, or teens walking around in shorts and T’s when it’s 40 degrees and climbing.
Certainly, there are scientific reasons that explain how peepers know when to announce the return of the sun and the warmth; but there’s a simpler reason that is worth considering and appreciating. The peepers feel the right moment to sing.
Peepers are a special family of frogs, and frogs have a unique physiology—a evapotranspirative skin that makes them especially sensitive to the slightest changes in temperature, humidity, chemistry and other things we don’t have words for including that feeling that we also get when spring arrives. There is, for example, a new kind of sunlight that appears out of the grey, slush and slog of the late winter months that Emily Dickinson noticed, and maybe you and the peepers notice too.
Science might tell us the story of how the nervous systems of the peepers intuit and react to the thermonuclear/electromagnetic surge that accompanies our spring equinox, the day the sun’s rays hit the equator straight on. But can science explain why, in coincidence with the celestial flicking on of the peeper song -switch, major religions have their own switches flicked on—in the form of Passover, Easter & Holi?
Of all the neighbors we have, the peepers are the loudest and most boisterous announcers of spring; and have you noticed that, though they are so loud, their sound is not noisy? Somewhere deep inside us, their petite buglings find sympathy: and, here, “sympathy” means “the correlation existing between bodies capable of communicating their vibrational energy to one another through some medium.”
Perhaps you have been so drawn to the song of the peepers that you have tried to track them down. And what did you find when you tried that? Something very magical, and also perplexing—silence.
How do they know you are near? Vibrational energy: your footsteps quaking the earth, sending the same kind signal you see when you throw a rock into still water.
Like all frogs, peepers are living dinosaurs who, despite their lack of armor, claws and sharp teeth, have survived for plus or minus 300 million years. Their evolutionary success is due to their extreme sensitivities, not their ruthless might. For us, who have a history that begins about 5,000 years ago (and a prehistory that begins about 65 million years ago), this ought to be a lesson.
At the very least, this lesson includes the fact that we miss—through ignore-ance, distraction and abstraction—so much that is actual. As actual as the different sunlights of each season, and the sympathy religious holidays have with the song of the peepers. And the feeling we have that somehow, the peepers sing our song, too.
Since you can’t get close to peepers, and I want you to get as close to Spring as possible, here’s an actuality you must not miss this year—the vivification of vernal pools. These pools contain creatures (amphibians and bugs) that can only breed where there are no hungry fish; tiny clams and shrimps also live in them, that got marooned when the tectonic plates shifted and lifted their habitats high and dry into what is now the Hilltowns. Like the peepers, they are teachers whose lessons we have much to learn from.
Instead of describing what these are, I’ll send you to these links so you can investigate them yourselves. Here’s the basic Mass DEP page. You’ll notice on this page that the DEP needs citizen scientists to find vernal pools, so that these rare habitats and creatures can be preserved.
If you look at the DEP map and select in “available data layers” the folder “Natural Heritage Data” and, in that folder, “NHESP Certified Vernal Pools,” you’ll see all the vernal pools that have been listed for protection by the DEP.
Zoom in on your town, and you might find some near you—if so, please put on your walking shoes and go find one of them. You might not find any listed where you live; that doesn’t mean they aren’t actually there; it just means that nobody has tried to find and list them yet. Most of the Hilltowns have few or no listings—which means that citizen scientists have a lot of good work to do.
You’ll find plenty of info through these links to help you track down one of these precious abodes of ancient, yet contemporary, life. But the easiest way of all is to listen to the peepers; more than 1/2 the time, they’ll lead you to the clams and shrimp who live far from the ocean from whence they first came, ensconcsed in our hills.
The song of the peepers announces Spring, and sounds an invitation to discover the soft, awesome, perennial powers of biotic integrity and resilience.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kurt Heidinger, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Biocitizen, non-profit school of field environmental philosophy, based in the Western MA Hilltown of Westhampton, MA where he lives with his family. Biocitizen gives participants an opportunity to “think outside” and cultivate a joyous and empowering biocultural awareness of where we live and who we are. Check out Kurt’s monthly column, The Ripple, here on Hilltown Families on the 4th Monday of every month to hear his stories about rivers in our region. Make the world of rivers bigger than the world of pavement inside of you!
This summer we are taking a break from the usual planting and growing of beans, pumpkins, squash and salad greens. This year we’re making plans to grow a Popcorn House! (Photo credit: Carrie St. John)
Snow pants, boots and mittens be gone! It’s time for sunny afternoons and mud pies after a spring rain. Outdoor clean up. Digging. Rakes. Water. Hoses. Sticks. Rocks. Shovels. Mud. Now that the younger ones are completely engrossed in dirt play, encourage the older kids to put down their devices and join you for fresh air and sunshine. Their play job this month is to help you design and plant a sunflower house.
The Story of the Sunflower House
Wondering what a sunflower house is? Here is an excerpt from Inspiration from the Garden: Sunflower Houses, a Book for Children and Their Grown-ups by Sharon Lovejoy that shares the story:
In early summer, my mother would wake us up with ‘Get up you sleepyheads, today’s the day!’ and we would get out of bed and pull on our clothes. We didn’t even want to eat breakfast, but she would make us sit down and take our time. It all served to heighten the excitement. We couldn’t wait to get outside. Chores done, watering can and stick in tow, we would head outside and take time choosing the best, flattest, sunniest spot in our garden. Then the work would begin. Mother would use the stick to trace out a large rectangle, usually about 6 by 9 feet, leaving a small opening for a doorway. She would drag the stick along the ground and gouge out a trench a couple of inches deep. My little sister and brother would trail behind and drop in seeds. John would drop in a big, fat sunflower seed; daintily, my sister would tuck in a ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glory seed. I would trudge along behind them lugging the huge tin watering can. I’d use my foot to knock the earth back over the seeds and then I’d give them a small drink of water. Every day one of us would have the chore of walking that rectangle of land and giving a drink of water to the sleeping seeds. We all hoped to be the one to discover the first awakening green heads that poked through the soil. Once the green of the sunflowers peeked through the earth, we became even more interested in our growing playhouse. Usually, we would each water the plot once a day. Soon flowers were climbing skyward and the ‘Heavenly Blue’ morning glories were wrapping their tendrils around the stalk and heading upward too. I’ll tell you there was nothing like crawling through the door of that playhouse and lying on the ground looking up through the incredible lacework of vines and flowers. I guess you could say I spent the best days of my childhood playing, dreaming and sleeping in that little shelter.
The Story of the Popcorn House
My daughter and I planned a slightly different version for our garden—a Popcorn House. Japanese Hulless Popcorn. This year we are taking a break from the usual beans, pie pumpkins, summer squash and salad greens. We have loofah seedlings, hibiscus tea sprouts, wine cap mushroom spawn in our fridge and various flower seeds waiting for warmer days. So why not plant our own popcorn? We saved a space 10 by 20 feet for the Popcorn House.
The entrance will be slightly hidden by a verbena and sunflower border. Verbena has gorgeous, delicate purple flowers with brilliant, green stems and attracts many varieties of butterflies. A mix of ornamental sunflowers (sun samba), giant sunflowers (sunzilla) and a summer mix of bright yellow, red and orange sunflowers will help create the outer wall with the rows of popcorn.
My daughter requested a secret space in the center where she can dig, collect outdoor things and have tree stump seats. Her inner space will also have a carpet of fresh straw to keep the weeds down. The process involves a lot of patience waiting for everything to grow. Hopefully the excitement of warmer weather, planting and planning will help with the waiting for warm summer days playing in the popcorn house while mom weeds and waters the veggies.
Carrie was born, raised and attended university in Michigan. As a child she rode bikes and explored her rural neighborhood freely with siblings and neighbor kids. Mom and Dad never worried. The kids always made it home after hours wading in the creek and climbing trees in the woods. After college she moved to Kyoto, Japan to study traditional Japanese woodblock printing. In 1995, she began a career at a small Chicago firm designing maps and information graphics. Life brought a move to Northampton in 2001. Carrie completed her MFA at UMass in 2004. Her little love, Sophia, was born in 2005. The two live in downtown Northampton where they constantly make things, look forward to morning walks to school and plan each spring for additions to their plot at the community garden. Carrie continues to do freelance work for clients here and in Chicago.
Spring has a leap of the leprechaun in it; who can deny that?—but spring’s called spring not because of its leapiness. Spring’s called spring because of the upwelling waters that appear as the frozen earth thaws.
Right now is the best time to hunt for springs. We had a great ice winter, a record snow and some flood-causing rains, so the conditions are approaching perfect for finding the little springs that make Spring spring.
Why would parent and child hunt springs? Well—we’re pasty from sitting indoors for five months and, no matter the age, cobwebbed and crotchety. A good hard bushwack, a mucky hill scramble is therapeutic. When the sun pours through the grey tree limbs, you can almost feel them swell like you swell, soaking the glow, craning for warmth, more heat, more nourishing radiation.
The trick to hunting springs is: you can only hunt springs that you don’t yet know about. If you know about them, it not possible to hunt them.
So, you have to enter a place, a terrain, a topography that is a mystery, and that draws you to it. It can be your backyard, or a town park, or wherever there isn’t too much pavement to occlude the upwelling waters. The best places are the ones where few things have been constructed—the deep woods, the sides of mountains, the banks of rivers. I suggest, though, that you start by trying to find a spring w/in a five or ten walk from your front door. Read the rest of this entry »
When winter is most wintery, the otter is most active. It is hungry, of course, and it is also very smart. The ice that forms in and above the streams shrinks the size of the stream, making it harder for fish and crayfish to hide. Not only that, the otter—of the weasel family (i.e., a mountain lion crossed with a squirrel)—is in summer a nocturnal feeder, but changes that habit in the winter, and feeds during the day. In the harshest and barrenest of late winter, the otter finds a feast. (Photo credit: Kurt Heidinger)
It’s the end of winter (almost), when months of frigid winds have whipped the bare hills and leafless trees into a freeze-dried state. The best loggers cut trees for firewood now, just before the March thaws, because the ground is frozen and the green wood is at its driest, all the sap stored underground (Think maple syrup!). How wonderful and wise and tough are the trees, an example for us all of character and of presence (A friend of mine, a Chilean ethnobotanist, once said, “Always live in the trees. Humans go crazy without them.” I still wonder if she’s correct—and I tend to agree.).
The creatures who live in our forests are likewise in their stiffest winter state, hungry and cold, their food supply growing ever more meager. The deep hard snow will soon be gone, but while it lasts, life gets dearer for all us living beings. Dessicated, shrunken, and gnarled, the bios—the shared life expressed by biodiversity —is ready to spring.
Before it does, get out of the house! As harsh as late winter is, it is an ephemeral world of austere beauty. Everybody wants summer right now, all my friends off last week in Florida, posting Facebook photos and saying nananabooboo—but what is summer anyway, if it is not earned by gritting through the iciest and bluest and shiveriest months of cold? Living four seasons deeply is what chisels the Yankee character. For each season, we have a way of living and that—our environmentally-determined multifaceted character—makes us culturally unique and vibrant. Spring is not so incredible and sweet and exuberant unless it follows the kind of winter we’re having, and that makes the winter we’re having a perfect one.
SO: Grab some snowshoes and ski poles and take risk (I guess I should place a disclaimer here: what I will now suggest is somewhat dangerous, so be very careful and don’t over do it.)… put on those snowshoes and, preferably with a friend or two also on snowshoes, walk a stream bed…while you still can! Read the rest of this entry »
This month we need to spread the play. It’s cold out. People are looking for signs of spring. I think families can brighten a little corner of our world with kindness and have great fun doing it.
Many people are helping neighbors near and far. Knitters have made blanket squares for victims of Super Storm Sandy (Knit Sandy). Many observed the National Day of Service in honor of Martin Luther King (Spreading Kindness). Small gestures are made numerous times a day that can brighten an afternoon such as holding a door for a delivery man loaded high with packages, helping your child’s teacher with a special project or shoveling the neighbor’s walk. We decided to spread play in our community.
I mentioned yarn bombing in my column last year. Those wacky knitters provide the public with visual interest and color in unexpected places. Knitted items pop up over night. Yarn bombers spread creativity, art, beauty and ideas. Technically yarn bombing is an act of graffiti. Northampton frequently removes it from the main areas downtown. We decided to start making Play Bombs! Can play bombs be illegal? I hope not. We have been leaving finger puppets, tiny toys and bouncing balls around Northampton on and off for months now. Have you found a paper puppet in your stroller? Or a tiny purple spider on the jungle gym? Maybe a felt bunny on the chair at a local coffee shop? We try to be subtle and act as if we accidentally left an item behind, as subtle as you can be with a 7 year old excited about leaving surprises for other children to discover. Each has a little note so people know there is no need to look for the owner. You can brighten the faces of kids in an after school program by dropping off something as simple as a box of paper airplanes. Are the neighbor kids home with the flu? Leave a box of hearts to cut out with scissors and glue on the front steps. It’s easy and can quickly bring a smile. Just don’t get caught. Play bombing is much more fun, if it is secret.
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Help us spread some play this month. I have links below for more ideas and examples of random acts of kindness.
Carrie was born, raised and attended university in Michigan. As a child she rode bikes and explored her rural neighborhood freely with siblings and neighbor kids. Mom and Dad never worried. The kids always made it home after hours wading in the creek and climbing trees in the woods. After college she moved to Kyoto, Japan to study traditional Japanese woodblock printing. In 1995, she began a career at a small Chicago firm designing maps and information graphics. Life brought a move to Northampton in 2001. Carrie completed her MFA at UMass in 2004. Her little love, Sophia, was born in 2005. The two live in downtown Northampton where they constantly make things, look forward to morning walks to school and plan each spring for additions to their plot at the community garden. Carrie continues to do freelance work for clients here and in Chicago.
Westfield River Wild & Scenic Call for Hilltown Artists
Michele Beemer of Heartwood and volunteers have been working away in the beautiful Washington, MA shop, designing and building watershed suit cases. (Submitted photo)
The Westfield River Wild & Scenic advisory committee invites local artists of all ages to paint wooden suitcases that will “Travel the Watershed” this summer!
“Many artists choose to live in the Hilltowns because of the inspiring landscape and the pristine river that runs through it,” writes the Westfield River Wild & Scenic advisory committee. “The idea for a call to artists is to invite local artists to paint six handcrafted wooden suitcases that will ‘Travel the Watershed,’ inspiring others to soak up the beauty and protect the watershed.”
These suitcases will be on exhibit as works of art throughout the summer as display cases with information about Westfield River Wild & Scenic. Local artists of all ages are invited to apply by midnight, March 1st, 2013… a great opportunity for youth artists to integrate art with environmental studies!
Selected Artists will be announced at the Westfield River Watershed Symposium held at Westfield University on March 23rd, 2013. A $500 honorarium will be given to each of the selected artists and their work will be shown throughout the summer as the cases “Travel the Watershed.”
“We are looking for local artists of all ages, four of the selected artist must have an address in one of the ten towns with Wild & Scenic designation,” writes Wild & Scenic. Towns include Becket, Chester, Chesterfield, Cummington, Huntington, Middlefield, Savoy, Washington, Windsor, and Worthington. To apply visit: becketartscenter.org.
Westfield River Wild & Scenic advisory committee serves to preserve, protect and enhance the special qualities and outstanding resources of the Westfield River Watershed in concert with local communities. Find out more at westfieldriverwildscenic.org.
Focus on Feeders
Mass Audubon Winter Bird Count
February 2nd & 3rd, 2013
People can help their feathered friends in the coldest season by joining Mass Audubon’s annual Focus on Feeders winter bird count on the weekend of February 2-3. The volunteer survey invites participants to list individual bird species and the greatest number of each seen at one time at their feeders and in their yards during that Saturday and Sunday. Anyone can participate—including families, first timers, and veteran bird enthusiasts. Participants will be able to learn and share information about the birds that visit their yards and feeders in winter. They will also be contributing knowledge to more than 40 years of winter bird feeder sighting information.
Does your family enjoy watching birds at your feeder during the winter? Backyard feeders provide a consistent, easily accessible source of food for a wide variety of bird species during the winter, and feeder-watching is a great way for families to learn about the many different species who live in their neighborhood.
This weekend, Mass Audubon is offering a chance for families to put feeder-watching to good use! Focus on Feeders – the great winter bird count – will take place on Saturday, February 2nd and Sunday, February 3rd, and is an annual event held to collect data on bird species and populations. All that families need to do to participate is to keep a list of the types of birds seen at the feeder during the weekend, as well as the number of each type of bird seen at a time. Then, families can submit their data for use in an actual scientific study by either entering it in online or completing a form and mailing it. The data collected will be used to assess bird populations and habits across the state – information that can be analyzed in order to understand the effects of changes in climate and landscape.
In order to identify birds, families will need to use a good field guide. Using a field guide to identify species allows kids to develop and practice reference skills while discovering bird characteristics of different species needed to properly identify them. Learning about the species living in their backyard will help students nurture a sense of place while drawing closer to the natural world around them!
Deadline for submissions is Thursday, February 28, 2013. More information at www.massaudubon.org/focus.
The next time the western wind blows strongly, hurtling great grey masses of clouds over our towns—long cirrus strips with ribbons of blue between them—imagine you are a fish looking up at the river’s surface. Because, in the wider scheme, you are!
Rains become rivers, so—if we think of the whole instead of the parts—clouds are rivers.
How very unscientific is such a thought! If everybody thought clouds are rivers, how would we distinguish between them? Wouldn’t reality become an un-focus-able blur?
Maybe! That could be a very healthy development, if it allowed us to reboot our way of categorizing, and comprehending, the parts that make up the whole of our biosphere.
All too often we are forced by training and circumstances to have a tunnel-vision view of things; we are so driven to achieve personal goals, for example, that we block out anything that is beside-the-point. All we see or care about is that carrot dangling in front of us, and so we lose the wider perspective, which (also) provides the place for our performance, the stage where we display our role not as a soliloquy-er, but as a high-kicking member of a chorus line. Even when we have the spotlight upon us, we perform in a wider scheme. I have nothing against achieving personal goals or ignoring extraneous information, as long as I have, from time to time, the space—a wider scheme—within which to place my activities.
We live and act not as isolated island universes, but in a biotic mandala (that is itself part of other mandalas), and to the extent that we join things together and perceive reality holistically, the more we assume in thought and deed the design of our mandala: and there is soft power and beauty aplenty in such magnification.
So, clouds are rivers.
You saw it a few weeks ago when dense fog exhaled out of the snow and blanketed both our white hills and heavy dark waters. Science explains that, because the air was listless and warmer than the frozen ground, water molecules condensed (like tears on the side of an ice-water glass) in the atmosphere—giving us fog: an un-focus-able blur. Science explains, too, that the water molecules are essentially the same, whether they float in the sky or flow over the earth. What science doesn’t explain is how fog feels.
We feel fog. It’s clammy on our skin. It occludes our vision, and because sight is our primary sense, it frustrates us. Drivers—and downhill skiers—don’t like fog, and people walking on the side of the road worry more when they walk in it. It makes us turn our lights on in the middle of the day. In some psychosomatic way, the day never begins when it starts in the fog, and—yawn some more coffee please—the night never ends. When you walk in the woods in a dense fog, a subtle rain falls—each crooked finger of branch-tip collecting H2O atoms until the drip is formed and drops on your head. If you aren’t prepared, and walk long enough, you get soaked.
When the sun breaks through again, blue and gold and making us squint, we feel relief, as if a burden and gloom has lifted off our thoughts and shoulders. Our eyes resume command over things, feeding our brains the information of parts, distinguishing between this and that, and giving us the power and freedom to choose what we will focus on. We like that; it is the realm we have been trained to operate in, where everything has its place and is in position where it is supposed to be. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s a great day to get out into the snow! Just add kids and go! But before you head out, prepare so as to optimize the fun! Set up a healthy snack for the kids to energize and hydrate, then have them take a bathroom break BEFORE getting dressed in their winter gear. While they eat, gather up the warm clothes by the door. Layers. No cotton. Wool and other fibers are warmer. Long underwear. Turtlenecks. Sweaters. Snow pants. Snow jacket. Warm socks. Waterproof boots. Winter hats. Warm mittens you can tuck up into the jacket sleeves. And extra mittens to swap out when the first pair gets wet. When its really cold, add a neck warmer and leg warmers. Cover all the skin you can in layers. Then open the door and let ‘em out… and the kids will just play!
Snow has a magic effect. There are the traditional snowy day activities. Sledding. Slipping and sliding on patches of ice. Climbing snow hills. Building a snow person. Walking through the drifts. A snowball fight. Constructing a snow fort or igloo. Making snow angels. For variety, as the winter lingers on, present some other options.
Paint Snow: Fill spray or squirt bottles with water and food coloring to paint in the snow (Avoid spraying each other as food coloring can stain.).
Build Winter Fairy Houses: Build mini houses with icicles for walls. They can be houses for snow fairies similar to summer time fairy stick houses.
Make Mini Snow People: Use snowballs and tiny foods like raisins and nuts for faces and toothpicks for arms for mini snow people.
Blow Bubbles: Blow bubbles on a cold, cold day. They freeze.
Hula Hoop: Have a hula hoop contest dressed in all those layers.
Flashlight Tag: It gets dark early, so consider a game of flashlight tag before dinner.
Box Sled: Use a cardboard box or trash can lid for a sled.
Tracking: Go on a hunt for animal tracks in the snow.
Indoor Snow Bin: IF it gets too cold outside, bring a plastic bin of snow inside to play. Add a few action figures, toy trees and some ice cubes or sugar cubes for building and pretend to have a tiny winter landscape inside.
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Enjoy the season!
January Collections
We are always collecting and saving items in bins and on shelves for creative projects. This month add a few things to enhance snow play:
spray or squirt bottles
food coloring
flattened cardboard boxes and large trash can lids make great sleds
traditional summer playthings like bubbles or a hula hoop
Carrie was born, raised and attended university in Michigan. As a child she rode bikes and explored her rural neighborhood freely with siblings and neighbor kids. Mom and Dad never worried. The kids always made it home after hours wading in the creek and climbing trees in the woods. After college she moved to Kyoto, Japan to study traditional Japanese woodblock printing. In 1995, she began a career at a small Chicago firm designing maps and information graphics. Life brought a move to Northampton in 2001. Carrie completed her MFA at UMass in 2004. Her little love, Sophia, was born in 2005. The two live in downtown Northampton where they constantly make things, look forward to morning walks to school and plan each spring for additions to their plot at the community garden. Carrie is a licensed family care provider and continues to do freelance work for clients in Chicago.
Supplement Habitat Studies with the Junior Duck Stamp Program
The Junior Duck Stamp Program offers an educational arts and science curriculumwhich educators can use for incorporating science, art, math and technology into habitat conservation studies. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
Western Massachusetts is home to a wide variety of duck species. These beautiful birds make their homes in wetland areas, a habitat in need of conservation. Students can learn about duck species and help to promote wetland conservation by participating in the Federal Fish and Wildlife Services’ Junior Duck Stamp Program! This contest calls for students to create their own stamps, featuring a specific duck species portrayed in its habitat. Students should learn about their species of choice, so as to make the best and most accurate depiction possible! Their design should reflect the group’s goal in creating the stamp – to share the beauty and importance of the species of the duck depicted.
Students should learn to understand the relationship between the duck and its specific environment, and should understand why the duck has such specific habitat requirements. Students can also study other stamp designs to learn what makes a good stamp!
Entries in the contest will be judged in four different age groups, and the winning entry will be made into a stamp and released in June. The contest is an opportunity for students to learn about local biodiversity, and to work on their understanding of the interrelatedness of species and their habitat. Students can also work on their art skills, working carefully to clearly portray their duck. The contest deadline is March 15th. For more information visit www.fws.gov/juniorduck.
Stalking Winter Nests & Wildlife Tracks
Family Outdoor Adventures
“Because robin nests are fairly large, and so well built, they are one of the easiest to spot after the nesting season. Look for them in shrubs and on horizontal branches in the lower halves of trees.”
During the cold months of winter, many of the creatures often seen during the rest of the year have migrated south, are tucked away in burrows for most of the winter, or have become even better at hiding so as not to be easily spotted against the snow. But their signs are still there and a lot of fun searching for! Looking for signs like tracks, scat, dens, and nests is a fun and educational way to learn about the habits of wildlife living near you.
To inspire families into winter tracking expeditions, Mass Audubon offers an online list of the Top 5 Nests to Spot in Winter! The list includes information on the American Goldfinch, American Robin, Baltimore Oriole, and Chipping Sparrow, as well as Eastern Gray Squirrels, who builds nests high up in trees as well. The nest list not only shares information on spotting and identifying five different nests, it also includes facts about the nest’s structure, specific reasons for why each nest is created the way that it is, and interesting facts.
Identifying nests together with your family can teach them a lot about the habits of each bird species, and can help them develop a greater awareness of the many animal signs present around them. Mass Audubon also has Winter Walk Bingo Cards families can download and print that would make for fun this winter while searching for nests and other signs of wildlife.
Maybe even take Kurt’s advise and after a week of constant ten degree weather, head to the wetlands and explore an area otherwise not easily accessible outside of winter. Read more in his post, “The Ripple: Winter Wetlands.”
Looking for organized activities to do together while looking for nests and other animal tracks, here are some upcoming events in January worth checking out:
“Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.” – Thoreau
Perhaps you love to walk in the woods in winter because, when the leaves are down, the shape (or “geomorphic character”) of our biome is exposed. I do, too!
Winter is possibly the most perfect time to get to know where you are. When you look up at the hills from down in the valley, or from hills to other hills, there is more to see of the “body” of the “superorganism” we are, like lichen, affixed to and dependent on. What appear in summer to be solid monolithic mountains are seen, in winter, to be made of monticellos, stacked in front of each other, leapfrogging up to the highest point.
Summer leaves keep sunlight from touching the forest floors, and cover the giant wrinkles—the cracks, rifts and ravines—that separate the monticellos. In those wrinkles are cascading streams that, when it gets really cold, freeze and form ice-falls. Icefalls are always magical places, and by that I mean they are places that “recreate” you: make you feel different, by awakening your imagination and sense-of-beauty, by catalyzing surges of joy and delight. May an icefall appear before you this holiday season (If you can’t find one nearby, try Chapel Falls in Ashfield.)!
And, may we get some seriously cold weather between now and March to wipe out the ticks in the fields and the adelgids in the hemlocks—and so we can roam one particular kind of micro-biome that is off-limits when it is warm. I speak here of the murky soggy mucky source of rivers and streams: wetlands!
Wetlands have been considered the “worse” kind of real estate because you can’t build foundations or septic systems in them, and were typically used in the past as garbage cans. From a biotic perspective, however, wetlands are extremely vital (i.e., a lot of creatures live there) and from a public health perspective, they store lots water and prevent floods. Thoreau’s description of the existential value of wetlands always makes me smile: “Hope and the future for me are not in lawns and cultivated fields, not in towns and cities, but in the impervious and quaking swamps.”
Of all the microbiomes we neighbor, wetlands are the most mysterious. It is hard to know what they are because they are so difficult to access. Thoreau liked to sink to his waist in swampmud, or at least he wrote he did; but in real life, for most folks, swampmud is not enjoyable. Often it reeks with the bubbling bodies of things once green, and unlike other muds it is capable of staining clothes. Add to this the unpleasant feeling of stepping into tannin-dark gruel populated by exuberant worms and bugs and snakes and leeches—that feels like it has no bottom, yet is too shallow to swim in. Like me, you might wait until those waters freeze, and skate atop them.
Winter is the best time to explore these upland sources of all streams & rivers, these mysterious wetlands. What a joy it is to skirt the prickers and brambles and ivies that grow rife in the summer, and to avoid the spiderwebs, mosquitoes and deerfly, and also the creepy decaying Edgar Allen Poe vibe even the sprightliest wetlands exude. Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas Bird Count: An Annual Citizen Scientist
24 Hour Hunt for Bird Species
This beautiful Cedar Waxwing is a year-round resident and a commonly seen during the Christmas Bird Count. (Photo credit: Leslie Reed-Evans)
Leslie Reed-Evans writes:
Imagine standing at the edge of a frosty field on a chill December morning. Out of the corner of your eye you see an electric flash of blue- a male Eastern Bluebird flying to a wild rose bush to munch on its fruit1 – This is a scene played out all over New England, and indeed the country, as bird enthusiasts get out to find, identify and count as many individual birds and species as possible as members of the annual Christmas Bird Count.
According to the National Audubon, prior to the turn of the century people engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas “Side Hunt.” They would choose sides and go afield with their guns; whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won. Conservation was in its beginning stages around the turn of the 20th century, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then budding Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition -a “Christmas Bird Census”-that would count birds in the holidays rather than hunt them. One hundred and thirteen years later, hundreds of citizen scientists head for the woodlands, fields, ponds and rivers to compete with fellow participants and find the most number of birds, building on the tradition started so long ago. Everyone is looking for the most exciting and unusual species, but every bird sighted is a special one.
Counts may take place anytime between December 14 and January 5, and each count area is a circle extending from a center point with a 15-mile diameter, taking in as many habitats as possible. The count period is 24 hours. The north Berkshire count averages between 45 and 55 species, depending on the weather of the day, and the weather leading up to the count day. This year there have been many reports of winter finches, such as Pine Grosbeaks and crossbills, which in some years come from the north when cones or other food is in short supply.
Each of the citizen scientists who annually braves snow, wind, or rain to take part in the Christmas Bird Count makes an enormous contribution to conservation. Audubon and other organizations use data collected in this longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations – and to help guide conservation action. Everyone who takes part in the Christmas Bird Count does it for love of birds and the excitement of friendly competition — and with the knowledge that their efforts are making a difference for science and bird conservation.
If you are interested in finding a Christmas Bird Count to take part in, visit birds.audubon.org (or contact the organizers below).
You will be participating in a tradition that you just might adopt as your own!
Western MA Area Christmas Bird Count Dates & Organizers:
Springfield Area Christmas Count: Saturday, December 15th, 2012. Contact: George Kingston. 413-525-6742. gcking@yahoo.com
North Berkshire Christmas Bird Count: Saturday, December 15th, 2012. Contact: Leslie Reed-Evans. 413-458-5150. lre@wrlf.org.
Central Berkshire Christmas Bird Count: Saturday, December 15th, 2012. Contact: Tom Collins. tcbirder@nycap.rr.com.
Westfield Area Christmas Count: Saturday, December 22nd, 2012. Contact: Seth Kellogg. 413-569-3335. skhawk@comcast.net.
South Berkshire Christmas Bird Count: Tuesday, January 1st, 2013. Contact: Rene Laubach. rlaubach@massaudubon.org.
The lesson of Kerouac at Big Sur is, first, nature doesn’t use words to communicate what it is conveying, and second, that to “hear” what it is “speaking” requires us to “give” and not “take.
This summer I was lucky enough to visit the West Coast, and spent two days in Big Sur, that rugged part of the California coast where cliff and ocean try to work things out. The history of Jack Kerouac, the Beatniks and the Hippies, and of the collective yearning for freedom and spirituality and ecstasy that begins centuries earlier in Europe and in Plymouth and Concord, haunt the vertical redwood forests, the tiny artsy enclaves and the kelp-strewn beaches that lace our continent’s edge. One of the things I contemplated there was Kerouac’s attempt to record the language of the Pacific ocean, and to translate its message. I’ve asked you to listen to our rivers, and I was interested to see how he’d approached the task; if worthy, his strategy might be employed by us all.
What I learned is that Kerouac would go down to a beach and listen for words in the surf. You’ve listened to a river, and you know that when it speaks it doesn’t use words (if it did it would be writing its own column). His disappointment crushed him, as he confessed in the poem, “Sea,” that he wrote about his travail. The experience was for him so traumatic it ended his career as a writer as he, and many a biographer have, explained.
Nature does not speak to us in the language we write with, obviously. I’m not sure why Kerouac wasn’t aware of this, but if somebody had clued him, he would not have been so disappointed and his poem would have been happy. Often enough, the language we write with actually gets in the way of our apprehending what nature is communicating.
“Listening to a river speak” actually requires us to “listen” with all of our senses. It “speaks” synaesthetically—casting vapors that, by sweetness or mustiness or both, tell us what it conveys; a river in spring smells different than it does in the fall. It “speaks” through its vigor, which we see because it is incapable of hiding; through white water it conveys the gravity and burden of clouds; in trickle, it conveys the persistence of the same great circling masses which, having departed, do return. In ice, the river “speaks” the continuity of essence through all permutations—for ice is fog clothed in the same (just colder) air. By its sounds, a river conveys either a welcome or a warning; its welcome sounds like children just out of eyeshot playing in the back yard; its warning sounds like an engine, woodchipper or airplane, exhaling. If you have to yell to be heard as you stand by a river, listen up, for you are being told to remain ashore.
To hear a river “speak,” though, you must immerse yourself and give into it, let it carry you. Of course, this is a summer activity—but even in summer courses the winter river; there’s always a wintery spot in the river where the native brook trout gather and ride out the heat wave. Next summer, immerse yourself in the rapids and hear the clangor and tumult that rubs rocks round; then sink into an eddy or deep, and hear the soft pulse of your own heart steeping into the bios itself—from water to water, and not “ashes to ashes?” Immersion brings new sounds to us, who too often do not “give into,” but instead—like poor Jack Kerouac—”take from.”
The lesson of Kerouac at Big Sur is, first, nature doesn’t use words to communicate what it is conveying, and second, that to “hear” what it is “speaking” requires us to “give” and not “take.” What we have taken from our rivers I have written about—the Atlantic Salmon, for starters. What terrified Kerouac is what terrifies those who take too much: by projecting our desires, our hungers, our urge to absorb and possess, upon nature, we lose nature and end up with only the projection, which we invented and has no life of its own. At Big Sur, Kerouac was consumed not by a terror caused or communicated by the ocean; he was consumed by his own thoughts and words. His story is as ancient and as instructive as Icarus’s, who was not killed by the sun, but by his desire to absorb it. “Beware the urge to consume, lest it consume thee.”
What we can give our rivers are our senses. Only two hundred years ago, every stream and river we live next to harbored life beyond our present imagining. They still do. There is no reason our rivers cannot one day again return to their former vivacity—except that we are not “listening” to them and all that they convey. A way to start, an opening exercise—don’t think of “rivers”; think of “blood vessels.” Soon enough, I promise, among many other things you’ll hear it say “you’re much more than you have ever been taught that you are.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kurt Heidinger, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Biocitizen, non-profit school of field environmental philosophy, based in the Western MA Hilltown of Westhampton, MA where he lives with his family. Biocitizen gives participants an opportunity to “think outside” and cultivate a joyous and empowering biocultural awareness of where we live and who we are. Check out Kurt’s monthly column, The Ripple, here on Hilltown Families on the 4th Monday of every month to hear his stories about rivers in our region. Make the world of rivers bigger than the world of pavement inside of you!
Tracking Owls in Massachusetts
Families Can Help Mass Audubon
There are eleven different species of owls found in Massachusetts, and chances are good that there are a few in your neighborhood. Families can become owl spotters and useful citizen scientists by taking part in Mass Audubon’s efforts in tracking owl populations – there are lots of ways to participate, and any and all information collected in useful!
There are a variety of different owl-themed family programs offered by Mass Audubon, including moonlit trail explorations to search for birds, hands-on learning activities at sanctuary visitor centers, and owl-themed presentations for older students and adults. After brushing up on owl-knowledge, families can venture out into their backyards or nearby woodland areas (parks, nature sanctuaries, etc.) to search for signs of owls – and maybe even a real-life owl itself!
Findings can be reported on Mass Audubon’s online Owl Reporter form, used to collect all sorts of information on owl sightings, including location, species of owl (or general characteristics of the bird), etc. There are even instructions for constructing bird houses on the organization’s website – owl-loving families can build them to encourage owls to move into their neighborhood. () Taking part in the project is a great way to supplement studies of New England wildlife biology and can help kids develop confidence in animal identification and outdoor skills. For more information, visit www.massaudubon.org/owls.
Have you ever thrilled at a sunset—tried to take pictures of it so you could later return to the expansive glowing feeling-thoughts that came with it? Your identity magnified, your experience of life intensified, a part of a larger magnificence… The fractal-ness of that experience of being a tiny shiny diamond in a vast galaxy of larger shiny diamonds, or of being a raindrop that becomes the ocean the moment it touches it, is also evident when we think like a watershed.
One of the funnier thoughts I’ve heard goes like this: “I want to be one with nature.” You might have heard of this thought, or a variation of it, too. The reason I find it funny is that it’s actually impossible not to be “one with nature,” if being “one” means directly, physically and existentially connected to the vital sources of being.
If, by any chance, you are worried you aren’t one with nature, here’s a simple way to find out: don’t take another breath. If you can do that, then perhaps you aren’t one with nature (or, you’re dead, and the issue is no longer of consequence). If, on the other hand, you hold your breath & feel that growing discomfort that finally consumes all other thoughts, and gasp and open your mouth and vacuum the atmosphere deep into your lungs, then you have empirical proof that you are air. For, without it, you are not you.
If you and I and our friends and family are air, then why does this fact—”Hi! I am an amalgam of air named Kurt”—seem so weird? Why isn’t the airy-ness of every moment as much a part of our surface consciousness as our cellphone # is? The answer: we take for granted, and then forget, that we are air because there are so many other things we are forced, or want, to think about. It’s these other business/family/social/daydream thoughts that remove our attention from what actually is (i.e., that we are always “one with nature”). We (over)emphasize these kinds of thoughts and they become the construction materials we hammer together to create that cell phone #-side of ourselves, that gets all the attention. Our airy side gets forgotten.This funny thought of wanting to be “one with nature” is caused by a way of thinking that presumes we are not already natural. My job (here at The Ripple) is to help you, and your family, emphasize the ways that you are perfectly “one with nature.” And one of my favorite ways to do this is to stimulate our imaginations by thinking like a watershed.
Before I do that, though, allow me to suggest a great read for Fall: The Sand County Almanac. It is one of the foundational statements of ecological philosophy, and it is written in a folksy, grandpa-ish style that camoflages its profoundly passionate explanations of how we are “one with nature.” There is a chapter in it entitled, Thinking Like a Mountain that changed, and continues to change, my life for the better. What is so wonderful about the chapter is that it explains that humans are gifted with an ability to think non-human thoughts; for example, through observation and deduction, we can think like the sky—which is another way of saying that we can forecast the weather. What is even more amazing is that thinking like the sky has a practical value (ask any farmer, sailor or pilot) but it also has other values, including aesthetic. Have you ever thrilled at a sunset—tried to take pictures of it so you could later return to the expansive glowing feeling-thoughts that came with it? What happened was your identity was magnified, your experience of life was intensified in a wonderful and glorious way not just by the image you beheld, but also by the fact that you—by witnessing and thinking it—real-ized you are part of a larger magnificence.
The fractal-ness of the experience of glorying in a gorgeous sunset, that feeling of being a tiny shiny diamond in a vast galaxy of larger shiny diamonds, or of being a raindrop that becomes the ocean the moment it touches it, is also evident when we think like a watershed (A fractal is form like a circle that retains its identity whether it is perceived on micro- or macro- scopic level.).
A watershed is a geological form that looks like, and is often called, a basin, the rim of which is defined by ridge tops. All rain that falls within the basin is pulled by gravity to the lowest altitudes, where it coalesces to form streams and rivers. Many Hilltown Families readers live in or near the Connecticut River watershed, which is one of the largest in the eastern USA.
As you can see from the map on the Connecticut River Watershed Council website, the CT River watershed is an amalgam of many smaller watersheds. Here is an example of the fractal-ness of nature—of the tiny worlds within bigger worlds within even bigger worlds reality that makes nature so fascinating and resilient. The Westfield River watershed is comprised of (at least) three smaller watersheds, all nested within the whole; and this whole is one of many smaller watersheds that make up the CT River watershed.
Notice, too, that the watershed form resembles a leaf. The streams are leaf veins, and they lead to the midrib which is a brook. The midrib leads to tree branch, in the same way a brook leads to a river; and a river, like the Westfield, leads to a larger river, like the CT, the way a branch leads to a tree trunk. From there, it flows back to the ocean from whence it came; like the trunk that returns to the roots and the earth, from whence it emerged. Aren’t fractals fun? Read the rest of this entry »
If you and your family love streams and rivers, and would like to develop a deep and meaningful relationship with them, this is what I invite you to do: Adopt your local stream or river; make a commitment to care for and watch over it like a parent cares for a child.
Rivers and streams are beautiful. That’s why we are drawn to them, deeply and elementally. The first colonists in Western Massachusetts hugged close to the rivers because of the abundance of life that issued from and through them, and our (or at least my) favorite town of all—Northampton—still retains much of the vibrancy of its original biocultural character: an idealistic, community-oriented and caring character generated by the serendipitous confluence of river, fertile alluvial fields and small but striking volcanic mountains. Take away the river, and there would be no “Paradise City.”
Rivers and streams are creative. They speak to us of permanence amidst ceaseless change, and when we feel drained of energy and crazed by the myriad burdens of these crazy days, a trip to the river can ease our bodies, minds and souls. “In the woods is perpetual youth,” said the sage of Concord, and there are few other places adults can go in this world, and in our woods, to reflect upon existence and to return to the simplicities and sufficiencies that delight the child, both real (as in our kids) and metaphorical (as in that sacred part of us that never gets jaded).
Rivers and streams, our rivers and streams of the Connecticut and Westfield watersheds, are alive—and once you are initiated into the ways of perceiving that life (also known as biome), you pass through the portals of knowing them as “scenic” and begin to develop a relationship with them as intimate and fulfilling as that of a child to a parent. For they are actually the circulatory system of an otherwise listless geology; (ask any desert, and you’ll find they agree). Mid to late summer is the perfect time, for example, to see and touch the wild flowering plants such as Cardinal Flower and Joe Pye Weed our rivers “express.” Go—find some! Compare them, their supple composure and light presence, to the rowdy new “invasives” called Japanese Knot Weed and Purple Loosestrife that spread like the common cold and cram together along the banks, choking off all other knee-high plant life. What we see in the spread of invasives is the changing of our riparian landscapes from ancient reciprocal patterns of native plants and the creatures that depend upon them to a new and flashy pattern of chaos that starves and exiles our native creatures. Wherever Loosestrife takes over, Cardinal Flowers disappear—and that’s why Mass DEP recommends eradicating invasives wherever you find them .
Rivers and streams need us to love them, and it is actually possible to do this, out of gratitude (for the life, health and beauty they generously share) and out of concern (that their integrity is disrupted by our present way of living).
If you and your family love streams and rivers, and would like to develop a deep and meaningful relationship with them, this is what I invite you to do. Adopt your local stream or river; make a commitment to care for and watch over it like a parent cares for a child. To care for it, you have to know it, and to know it you have to look deeply into it and understand how it works—where comes from, where it goes, what it’s connect to, whose water supply is derived from it, what kinds of specific creatures depend upon its living waters.
One of the best ways to perceive, and care for, the life of our rivers is to participate in the annual “citizen scientist” activity of Rapid Biotic Assessment (RBA). A RBA is done in the early Fall, takes about 2 or 3 hours to do, and involves collecting the bugs (called benthic invertebrates) that live in the stream bed. The health of the river can be understood by the amount, and type, of bugs that you collect. A RBA is an annual health check up, actually, and when done year after year, you can find out if your river is getting healthier or sicker.
Kurt Heidinger, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Biocitizen, non-profit school of field environmental philosophy, based in the Western MA Hilltown of Westhampton, MA where he lives with his family. Biocitizen gives participants an opportunity to “think outside” and cultivate a joyous and empowering biocultural awareness of where we live and who we are. Check out Kurt’s monthly column, The Ripple, here on Hilltown Families on the 4th Monday of every month to hear his stories about rivers in our region. Make the world of rivers bigger than the world of pavement inside of you!
Kids who have background knowledge in astronomy can look for constellations, stars, planets, etc. to identify themselves, or learn to locate and name new space objects! Families can also bring along their own binoculars and/or telescopes to get assistance on using them to view the night sky.
See the stars up close! On Saturday, August 11th beginning at 8pm, atop the summit of Mt. Greylockin Adams, MA, the Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association (the 5A’s) will share a variety of telescopes with families interested in learning about the sky above them.
As a result of the mountain’s location – with its low horizons and lack of light pollution – the summit is a perfect place for stargazing. The 5A’s will have telescopes on hand whose lenses range in size from three to twenty inches, the largest of which are nearly eight feet tall!
Kids who have background knowledge in astronomy can look for constellations, stars, planets, etc. to identify themselves, or learn to locate and name new space objects! Families can also bring along their own binoculars and/or telescopes to get assistance on using them to view the night sky.
Stargazing is not only a fun activity – it also can be a valuable learning opportunity! Older students can tie studies of astronomy to principles of math, physics, and chemistry, while younger students can learn about our solar system and celestial landmarks, cultural significance of constellations and the zodiac, and the history of space travel. The event will be cancelled if there is rain or cloud cover. For more information call the Mt. Greylock Visitor Center at 413-499-4262. There will be another stargazing opportunity at Mt. Greylock on Saturday, September 22nd at 8pm.
Families can also go stargazing at Notchview in Windsor, MA with the Trustees of Reservations and representatives from Arunah Hill Natural Science Center, same night beginning at dusk Kids of all ages can gaze through telescopes and learn to identify planets, stars, etc. Rain date: Aug 12. 413-532-1631. Old Route 9.
Take a Hike!
Explore the State Forests and Parks of Western MA
Outdoor explorations can also supplement students’ studies of local ecology – bring a field guide and learn to identify the many different trees, flowers, etc. that you discover. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
Explore the hills of Western Massachusetts – spend an afternoon hiking at one of the many local state forests and parks! The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) offers families an outline of hikes at numerous locations all over the Hilltowns and Berkshires, including the DAR State Forest (Goshen, MA), Western Gateway Heritage State Park (North Adams, MA), Pittsfield State Forest (Pittsfield, MA), Mohawk Trail State Forest (Charlemont, MA), and the Tolland State Forest (Otis, MA).
Their guide, Take a Hike! Explore the State Forests and Parks of Western MA, shares information on finding and following trails, as well as length of hike, difficulty, and interesting highlights that families can see, explore, and learn about on each trail. Hikes make a great summer adventure for families, but are also great through the fall (until it snows, then break out the snowshoes!) and in spring, as leaves begin to appear. Explore the many different hikes suggested, and find a family favorite!
Outdoor explorations can also supplement students’ studies of local ecology – bring a field guide and learn to identify the many different trees, flowers, etc. that you discover. To check out the hikes, download their guide, Take a Hike! Explore the State Forests and Parks of Western MA.
RECOMMENDED GUIDES FOR BEGINNERS:
Golden Guides from St. Martin’s Press are beginner field guides that offer an introduction to different outdoor classifications that are easy to used for any family just starting their outdoor explorations together. Pick up a guide on a particular topic your kids are interested in exploring while hiking our local state forests and parks, and go on a quest together to find and identify parts of our natural habitats:
I invite readers to join us at the beginning of Fall, as we help people become stewards of their local stream and river as biotic citizens. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
Aldo Leopold was one of the shining lights of our long-awakening ecological movement; and he said that one of the drawbacks of seeing the world from the ecological perspective is that, at the same time you see the incredible beauty of the kinship of all living creatures, you also see the damage being done to our great shared life. He implored educational leaders to not only teach ecology, but to act on that bittersweet feeling of loss by getting involved in the “real world” of political activism to change the course of our collective destiny from that of the “conqueror of nature” to that of the “biotic citizen.” For this reason, he—a professor at the U. of Wisconsin—started the Wilderness Society.
I have always believed that, given the grim news coming from other parts of the world, our Happy Valley and Hilltowns were doing better ecologically than those parts. There are so many farmers concerned about soil and plant health, thought I, and so many nature lovers watching out for their favorite species and landscapes, and so many smart people acting rationally about energy and consumption issues hereabouts that we don’t need to worry about most of the grim things that are occurring elsewhere. It was a shock, therefore, to learn that our air quality gets a grade of “F” from the American Lung Association. We aren’t making most of that air pollution; we inherit the wind from the cities and states out West. We are connected to everything else; that’s what ecology tells us; that’s how the world works.
If you’ve been following the news about what is happening to the Atlantic Salmon, you know the news isn’t good. Despite the best technology the state and federal government could muster, the salmon are not coming back again. Technology did not provide the solution. So what will—what can—prevent further extinctions of fish species in our rivers?
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting both the Holyoke and Turners Falls’ anadromous fish recovery operations with a group of intrepid high schoolers (Anadromous fish are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean for most of their lives, and return to fresh water to spawn.). Holyoke has a fish elevator, which is somewhat unique, and Turners Falls has a fish ladder; both are open for public viewing from Mother’s to Father’s Day every year.
Normally, I shy away from zoos, and there is something zoo-like about both these operations. However, in this case, the survival of several fish species is on the line, and I brought the high schoolers as much to have them ponder the evolutionary, economic and ethical issues as I did to let them take in the sheer spectacle of tons of money being spent to engineer the desperate last ditch attempt to save these beings. The fish—sturgeon, shad, salmon—have lived in Nonotuck for plus or minus fifteen thousand years, ever since the end of the last ice age. The dams that prevent their migrations and spawning are two hundred or less years old. Any person, child or adult, who visits these sites can see that the easiest, cheapest and permanent solution to the steady demise of the fish is to pull the dams down. It is this obvious knowledge that conflicts with the more complicated fact that nobody is calling, much less organizing, for the dams dismantling that I wanted us to wrestle with. Read the rest of this entry »
Discover fun and educational events happening this week in Western Mass, along with announcements, upcoming events, links, resources and the HFVS podcast.
SUGGEST AN EVENT
Happy Father’s Day Weekend! (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
If you have a family friendly event or educational program happening in Western Massachusetts that you’d like to let us know about, post your event on our “Suggest An Event” page. The events below are “suggested.” Please take the time to confirm that these events are happening, along with time, place, age appropriateness and costs before attending.
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Saturday, June 16th from 10am through Sunday – FAMILY CAMPING: Camp out at Barton Cove tonight! Families can learn camping skills and explore the woods and water! This is a great event for families with little to no camping experience – there will be tents available to borrow if needed, and tons of support with everything from setting up the tent to starting a cook fire, learning to tie knots to catching a fish! There will also be fun family activities, like scavenger hunts, hiking, and more! Registration required. 800-859-2960. Northfield, MA. ($$)
Saturday, June 16th at 11:30am – FAMILY CONCERT: Mass MoCA hosts a performance by The Jimmies, a pop-rock indie band for kids! Their music is fun for parents, too, and will likely inspire dancing. 413-662-2111. 1040 Mass MoCA Way. North Adams, MA. ($)
Saturday, June 16th from 8-9:30pm - ENTOMOLOGY/OUTDOOR ADVENTURES: Families with kids ages 6+ can join Earthwork Programs for an interactive night of learning about (and searching for!) fireflies! Families will also learn about how they can spend their summer being Citizen Scientists as part of the Museum of Science’s firefly watching program! BYO flashlight. Call to register. 413-522-0338. Ashfield, MA. ($$)
Sunday, June 17th from 9:30am-5pm – MUSIC/HISTORY: It’s Music and Art weekend at Old Sturbridge Village! There will be demonstrations of antique musical instruments, performances of 19th century dance and music by OSV’s singing and dancing groups, jaw harp lessons, storytelling, and craft activities. Great for kids interested in art and music history, and an interesting lesson on 19th century culture for all! Dads receive free admission. 800-733-1830. 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road. Sturbridge, MA. ($)
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Enter to win a pair of tickets to the Green River Festival happening July 14th & 15th in Greenfield, MA! Deadline to enter to win is Friday, July 6th
Saturday, June 23rd from 10am-4pm – HARVEST CELEBRATION: It’s lavender season! Celebrate at the Lavender Festival at Johnson Hill Farm. Visitors can tour the farm, check out lavender products from local vendors, learn about uses for lavender by watching demonstrations, and take part in workshops to learn things like wreath making and flower art! 413-625-6439. 51 Hog Hollow Road. Buckland, MA. (FREE)
Sunday, June 24th from 12noon-8pm – CULTURAL STUDIES: Springfield Technical Community College hosts the first ever Springfield Vietnamese Festival! The event is designed to share with the community information on Vietnamese culture and traditions! There will be live Vietnamese music, a traditional Dragon Dance, games, activities for kids and a variety of food. 1 Armory Square. Springfield, MA. (<$)
BULLETIN BOARD
INNOVATION SCHOOL: Berkshire Trail Elementary School in Cummington is pleased to announce that it is transitioning to an Innovation School in September. It’s a cutting-edge program that transforms a traditional classroom environment into a vibrant learning community where students are authentically engaged, energized, focused, challenged, and having fun! The program’s successful, ground-breaking strategies are project based, hands-on, creative and authentic — with proven academic results for students in reading, numeracy, research, writing, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration. School choice openings are now available in grades Pre-K through five. For more information, call Berkshire Trail Elementary School at 413.634.5327 or visit online.
HOST FAMILIES: Joe Bock writes, “Share your summer with a young person from Spain! Homestaysusa offers Spanish children the opportunity to experience American culture by living with a host family for the month of July. We match ages, genders & interests to those of the host family. Students come to the area with a supervisor who is nearby & in contact the entire time. Host families receive $600 stipend, the student pays for extra activities, including camps & excursions. Hosting teens are invited to an exciting 2-day New York trip with the group. More info & testimonials at homestaysusa.org. Personal references available upon request. Become a host family & represent the Hilltown community to students from abroad. A summer you will always remember. joe@homestaysusa.org.”
PLANT STUDIES: Summer Intensives at Goldthread Organic Herb Farm. Let the aromatic air of the farm restore harmony and revive your senses while enjoying two hands-on, capacity building botanical medicine intensives at Goldthread this summer. In July join them for a multi-dimensional week long immersion into the aesthetics, qualities & manifestations of the Ayurvedic 5 elements that will give participants both a scholastic and deeply felt understanding of botanical medicine. In Sept, propagate, harvest, process, and study the botanical characteristics, medicinal properties and therapeutic uses of 25-30 major herbs grown at the farm during the Farm to Pharmacy Intensive with David Crow and William Siff. Dates, tuition and full details are on their website.
Valerie Casterline writes, “Are you a parent looking for a summer camp option that will keep your child stimulated and allow for lots of outside, nature based activities? If yes, then RH Conwell Summer Camp is the right place for your family. We have openings in our program that runs starting with the week of July 9th through the week of August 16th. Our day runs from 8am to 4pm, accepting the age ranges of 4-12 years old. Activities and projects will be planned with the input of the interests of the attending children. There will be the option of swimming at a life-guarded pool in the afternoons and weekly trips to the Worthington Library as part of our program. For further information please contact Susan Warner at swarner@rhccec.org or call 413-238-5856.”
“Hilltown Families continues to be my go to place for family events. I really appreciated the organized list of summer camps.” – Dawn Cordeiro (Holyoke, MA)
SUMMER CAMP: Are you looking for a great summer experience for your kids? Check out our post Summer Camps and Programs in Western MA which highlights opportunities happening throughout the region. With a great variety of themes, there are many summer camp/programs your family can choose, including: farm & gardening, music, art, technology, nature, personal development, science, theater, sports, ballet, preK, college… as well as a good old fashion summer camp! Discover what’s being offered near you, and find out how you can add a camp to this growing list too!
SPONSORSHIP & ADVERTISING: Reach thousands of families in Western MA while supporting the work of Hilltown Families. See your event, camp, workshop, business featured here in the bulletin board section of our list of Weekly Suggested Events and eNewsletter! Find out more about our Enhanced Publicity options and how we can help with your marketing.
JOIN OUR TEAM OF CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Interested in becoming a Contributing or Guest Writer for Hilltown Families? We welcome writings that reflect the community building and educational efforts parents, teens, teachers, artists, activists and community leaders work towards and accomplish and how that affects, supports and empowers our families. All writing styles welcomed, including DIY posts, seasonal cooking, and community-based educational opportunities. Send your query to hilltownfamilies@gmail.com.
PARENT AIDE VOLUNTEER EFFORT: Become a Parent Aide! For over 31 years, the PAVE program has been providing home-based support to Hampshire Co. parents who are stressed & often isolated from a supportive community. The program’s goal is to strengthen & empower parents by giving them new tools to help them in their parenting journey. Compassion, common sense & the ability to listen to a parent are required. Berkshire Children & Families will provide the training & supervision. Volunteer 3-5 hours per week. Summer training now forming. No commitment required until training is completed. For more information, call Berkshire Children & Families 413-584-5690 x114 for Gail Fries, or x102 for Marylou Spaulding. Email gfries@bcfcma.org or mspaulding@bcfcma.org.
Francia Vieda Wisnewski writes, “”Each year on June 21st, United Way invites all citizens to “Live United” and take action in their communities. This year, United Way of Franklin County, in collaboration with Western Massachusetts Electric Company, will kick off their “Read.Learn.Succeed.” program on [June 21st] by holding a Summer Reading bag event on the Greenfield Town Common. Volunteers and staff will collect new and gently-used books for children aged pre-school through Grade 4 and stuff more than 1,000 bags for distribution. Contact the United Way of Franklin County (413-772-2168 or info@uw-fc.org) to learn how you can help.”
LIST OF WEEKLY SUGGESTED EVENTS:
June 16th-22nd, 2012
There are several opportunities for families you volunteer together this weekend, including Red Gate Farm’s family volunteer day in Buckland on Saturday. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
Be sure to check our Best Bets for this weekend, Jun 9 & 10, for several fabulous community celebrations! We’ve featured Riverfest in Shelburne Falls, the Children’s Book Festival Baseball Bonanza in Amherst, Bear Fest in Easthampton, Hilltown Bluegrass Festival in Goshen, and The Mount’s Family Day in Lenox. Aside from these homeruns, families can build upon their nature studies, explore local history, enjoy the outdoors and participate in community service with several community based educational and service learning opportunities, all week long!
Kids interested in insects can learn about dragonflies and damselfiles at the Millers River Environmental Center in Athol on Saturday or join in Northfield Town Forest BioBlitz, where kid volunteers can help identify the many different species of living things that are present in the forest with local experts. And later in the week, on Wednesday, Jun 13, at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, families can learn about the Boston Museum of Science’s Firefly Watch program and join in on a firefly walk.
Young ornithologists can meet birds of prey up close at the Ramsdell Library in Housatonic on Saturday, or take part in Northfield Town Forest BioBlitz early morning bird search by helping to identify bird species with local experts. Later in the week on Thursday, Jun 14, in Leverett, the library hosts “The World of Owls,” an event all about these feathered night creatures.
Cemeteries can offer families a glimpse into early New England life. On Saturday, the Museum of Our Industrial Heritage will be giving a tour of the Green River Cemeteryin Greenfield, and the Stockbridge Library will host a cemetery tour in Berkshire County where families can learn about important historical figures and their life stories. And on Thursday, Jun 14, older students can learn about the art, history, and symbolism of burial practices in New England from colonial times until today with Gravestone Girlsin Belchertown.
On Sunday, Jun 10, families can learn about the history of the canal in Turners Falls by taking a guided walk down the canal-side trail/bike path to inspect the skeletons of the cutlery and paper industries while learning about the history of the industries, what the canal was used for, and the history of the first dam built on the Connecticut River. And on Tuesday, Jun 12, in West Springfield, families can take an interactive tour of Storrowton Village where visitors will encounter villagers and hear each of them tell their own unique tale of life in New England during the Civil War.
During the week there are a couple of local history learning opportunities for older students. On Monday, Jun 11, Hope Church – historically Amherst’s first all-black established church, is offering a presentation on its history tonight! The church’s history dates back to the early 1700’s, though it has been officially established for only a century. And in Northfield on Tuesday, Jun 12, the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir will be discussed at the Dickinson Memorial Library. Learn about the making of Boston’s water source with a narrated slide presentation by Historian JR Greene.
If outdoor adventures is what your family craves, on Saturday, Jun 9, there will be a day of kayaking with the M. N. Spear Library and “Adventures In Adventure Out” at the Shutesbury town beach, a nature sensory awareness hike at Olivia’s Outlook in Lenox, and an afternoon family hike at Mt. Greylock waterfalls in Lanesborough. If you can’t make it to Mt. Greylock on Saturday, try Sunday when there will be a guided medicinal plant walk or a guided wild edible/medicinal plant walk at Bug Hill Farm in Ashfield, also on Sunday.
Community service learning opportunities happen all weekend too. Red Gate Farm in Buckland hosts a volunteer day on Saturday where families can help out with farm chores, and Stanley Park is raising community awareness on creating accessibility at their annual Wheel Walkin Westfield, and permablitz is happening in Amherst where folks can come work together on permaculture-related projects while sharing skills related to sustainable living. Then on Sunday, families can help out at the Just Roots Food for All Garden in Greenfield (this Sunday, and every Sunday, during the growing/harvest season).
To find out about these events in Western MA and many others, check our list of Weekly Suggested Events.
Discover fun and educational events happening this week in Western Mass, along with announcements, upcoming events, links, resources and the HFVS podcast.
SUGGEST AN EVENT
Families can participate as citizen scientists this Saturday in Franklin County at the Northfield Town Forest BioBlitz. Volunteer to help identify the many different species of living things that are present in and around the forest with local experts. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
If you have a family friendly event or educational program happening in Western Massachusetts that you’d like to let us know about, post your event on our “Suggest An Event” page. The events below are “suggested.” Please take the time to confirm that these events are happening, along with time, place, age appropriateness and costs before attending.
Serving Western Massachusetts since 2005, Hilltown Families supports development and enhancement of our local economy and community. Local businesses, individuals, schools and non-profits are encouraged to partner with Hilltown Families throughsponsorship and advertising. Let us help get the word out about your after school class, event, camp, workshop, fundraiser, business/school, service, open house or general announcement. Deliver your message to thousands of families living throughout Western Massachusetts while supporting the work of Hilltown Families. Click HERE to find out more.
BEST BETS: JUNE 9th & 10th
The 1st Annual Hilltown Bluegrass Festival will take place at the 3 Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen this Sunday, June 10 from 2-7pm… and Hilltown Families has a 4-pack of ticket to giveaway to one lucky family! Deadline to enter to win is Friday, 06/08/12 @ 7pm (EST).
Saturday, June 9th from 10am-4pm – COMMUNITY CELEBRATION: Celebrate the Deerfield River and its role within the community at Riverfest! The event includes a parade (with mask-making for those who would like to participate beforehand), live music, an opportunity to learn about fly-tying, performances, and more! Riverfest also brings Nickel Days – a celebration of the days when ice cream cost just a nickel! Families can buy ice cream from the Snows NIce Cream truck for a nickel, then visit the trolley museum! 413-625-6628. Shelburne Falls, MA. (FREE)
Saturday, June 9th from 10am-5pm - MUSEUM ADVENTURE: The Eric Carle Museum is hosting the Children’s Book Festival Baseball Bonanza, a festival celebrating children’s books about baseball in conjunction with the exhibit “We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball.” There will be a special presentation from members of the Negro League Baseball Players Association, as well as tons of activities for kids centered around the theme of baseball and baseball books! 413-658-1100. 125 West Bay Road. Amherst, MA. (<$)
Saturday, June 9th from 1-5pm – CITIZEN SCIENTISTS: The second part of the Northfield Town Forest BioBlitz takes place Saturday afternoon! Volunteer to help identify the many different species of living things that are present in the forest. No experience is necessary – there will be tons of resources available to help with identification. There will be lots of kids’ activities, too – kiddos can illustrate what they’ve found, and will get to learn how to identify trees, flowers, etc. 978-248-2055 ex 14. Gulf Road. Northfield, MA. (FREE)
Saturday, June 9th from 2-8pm – COMMUNITY CELEBRATION:Easthampton’s annual Bear Fest begins today! The event is a celebration of local art, and the highlight is gigantic bears, artistically decorated by local artists, that will be on display around town through the summer. Today’s kickoff event includes tons of fun activities, including live music, food, games, tastings of the official Bear Fest ice cream flavor, and, of course, the unveiling of the bears! Easthampton, MA. (FREE)
Sunday, June 10th from 11am-3pm – FAMILY DAY: It’s Family Day at The Mount! Families can visit the historic home to learn about the life of Edith Wharton, its one-time resident. Explore the home and its gorgeous grounds, take part in a scavenger hunt, hear a story, and do other fun family activities. Bring a picnic! 413-551-5110. 2 Plunkett Street. Lenox, MA. (FREE)
Saturday, June 16th at 11:30am – FAMILY CONCERT: Mass MoCA hosts a performance by The Jimmies, a pop-rock indie band for kids! Their music is fun for parents, too, and will likely inspire dancing. 413-662-2111. 1040 Mass MoCA Way. North Adams, MA. ($) - Hilltown Families is giving away a family 4-pack of tickets along with 4 museum passes to one lucky subscriber to our eNewsletter. Check your eNewsletter this week to find out how you can enter to win. Not subscribed? Do so now for free! Hilltown Families Weekly eNewsletter
Sunday, June 17th from 9:30am-5pm – MUSIC/HISTORY: It’s Music and Art weekend at Old Sturbridge Village! There will be demonstrations of antique musical instruments, performances of 19th century dance and music by OSV’s singing and dancing groups, jaw harp lessons, storytelling, and craft activities. Great for kids interested in art and music history, and an interesting lesson on 19th century culture for all! Dads receive free admission. 800-733-1830. 1 Old Sturbridge Village Road. Sturbridge, MA. ($)
BULLETIN BOARD
CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL: Hit a home run this weekend! Head to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst for the Children’s Book Festival on Saturday, June 9 from 10am-5pm for a Baseball Bonanza. Meet more than a dozen authors and artists of your favorite baseball books and learn about the history of Negro League Baseball from two of the league’s retired players. There’s an incredible line up of art activities, book signings, performances, raffles, and games — plus hot dogs, ice cream and facepainting. For the day’s schedule, visit www.carlemuseum.org or call 413-658-1100
BEAR FEST CELEBRATION: Easthampton Bear Fest Celebration Unveiling begins at 2 p.m. on June 9th. See 40 artist decorated bear sculptures throughout the city of Easthampton with a day of festivities including Mt. Tom’s Homemade Ice Cream flavor contest winner announcement and tasting. Dance along to music by the Expandable Brass Ensemble, Flava Evolution and BlueGrass Co-op. Enjoy a performance and Teddy Bear Picnic with Bill Shontz. Taste food by Glory of India and Sugar Bakers–Easthampton’s very own bakery on wheels. Have fun at Bearland—games and family fun. The festivities begin at 2p.m. at the Cottage St. Municipal Lot and continue throughout Easthampton and at the Easthampton Savings Bank Lawn until 8 p.m. Find out more at EasthamptonBearFest.com (Free)
Valerie Casterline writes, “Are you a parent looking for a summer camp option that will keep your child stimulated and allow for lots of outside, nature based activities? If yes, then RH Conwell Summer Camp is the right place for your family. We have openings in our program that runs starting with the week of July 9th through the week of August 16th. Our day runs from 8am to 4pm, accepting the age ranges of 4-12 years old. Activities and projects will be planned with the input of the interests of the attending children. There will be the option of swimming at a life-guarded pool in the afternoons and weekly trips to the Worthington Library as part of our program. For further information please contact Susan Warner at swarner@rhccec.org or call 413-238-5856.”
“Hilltown Families continues to be my go to place for family events. I really appreciated the organized list of summer camps.” – Dawn Cordeiro (Holyoke, MA)
SUMMER CAMP: Are you looking for a great summer experience for your kids? Check out our post Summer Camps and Programs in Western MA which highlights opportunities happening throughout the region. With a great variety of themes, there are many summer camp/programs your family can choose, including: farm & gardening, music, art, technology, nature, personal development, science, theater, sports, ballet, preK, college… as well as a good old fashion summer camp! Discover what’s being offered near you, and find out how you can add a camp to this growing list too!
JOIN OUR TEAM OF CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Interested in becoming a Contributing or Guest Writer for Hilltown Families? We welcome writings that reflect the community building and educational efforts parents, teens, teachers, artists, activists and community leaders work towards and accomplish and how that affects, supports and empowers our families. All writing styles welcomed, including DIY posts, seasonal cooking, and community-based educational opportunities. Send your query to hilltownfamilies@gmail.com.
PARENT WORKSHOP: On Tuesday, June 12 from 6:30-8:30pm, Talking to Your Kids About Sex. Having trouble finding a comfortable, productive way to talk to your kids about sex? Hilltown Families is sponsoring a workshop for parents on approaching the subject with their children. The event takes place at Cup and Top Cafe, and will be facilitated by Brooke Norton, a certified sex educator. The talk will begin with talking with youngest kids, and progress through teens. Sexuality, puberty, body image, and sexual identity will also be discussed. 413-585-0445. 1 North Main Street, Suite 2. Florence, MA. (FREE)
SPONSORSHIP & ADVERTISING: Reach thousands of families in Western MA while supporting the work of Hilltown Families. See your event, camp, workshop, business featured here in the bulletin board section of our list of Weekly Suggested Events and eNewsletter! Find out more about our Enhanced Publicity options and how we can help with your marketing.
LIST OF WEEKLY SUGGESTED EVENTS:
June 9th-15th, 2012
Discover fun and educational events happening this week in Western Mass, along with announcements, upcoming events, links, resources and the HFVS podcast.
SUGGEST AN EVENT
Have you noticed all the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails fluttering about this spring, puddling in your compost and pollinating your early blooms? The butterfly garden at the Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen, MA is a lovely place to see them while enjoying this eccentric Hilltown landmark. June 10th will be a great day to visit as it’s the same day the sanctuary will host the 1st Annual Hilltown Bluegrass Festival! (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
If you have a family friendly event or educational program happening in Western Massachusetts that you’d like to let us know about, post your event on our “Suggest An Event” page. The events below are “suggested.” Please take the time to confirm that these events are happening, along with time, place, age appropriateness and costs before attending.
Serving Western Massachusetts since 2005, Hilltown Families supports development and enhancement of our local economy and community. Local businesses, individuals, schools and non-profits are encouraged to partner with Hilltown Families throughsponsorship and advertising. Let us help get the word out about your after school class, event, camp, workshop, fundraiser, business/school, service, open house or general announcement. Deliver your message to thousands of families living throughout Western Massachusetts while supporting the work of Hilltown Families. Click HERE to find out more.
BEST BETS: JUNE 2nd & 3rd
In Franklin Co. on Saturday from 10am-2pm – FISHING: It’s Family Fish Day at the Great Falls Discovery Center! Kids can learn about fishing – everything from fly tying to types of fish found locally. No need to bring equipment, everything necessary will be provided! There will also be art activities and chances to learn about local habitat. If kids are interested in learning about the sport of fishing or doing some fishing of their own, this event is a way to get them started. Takes place at Unity Park. 413-863-3221. Avenue A. Turners Falls, MA. (FREE)
In Berkshire Co. on Saturday from 10am-4pm – FAMILY DAY: Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary hosts Family Fun Day with live animal demonstrations, crafts, singing, guided nature walks, and opportunities to learn about honey bees and to participate in a Nature Quest. 413-637-0320. 472 West Mountain Road. Lenox, MA (FREE)
In Hampshire Co. on Saturday from 11am-3pm – LOCAL HISTORY: The Williamsburg Historical Society hosts “A Day to Look Back and Remember,” an event featuring many unique opportunities to learn about local history. There will be a reenactment of a school lesson, a guided informational tour of the Williamsburg Reservoir Dam, historical exhibits, and intergenerational conversations about community events past and present. 413-268-7757. Williamsburg, MA. (FREE)
In Hampshire Co. on Sunday from 11am-3:30pm – ECOLOGY/HISTORY: Sunday is the 5th annual Fort River Celebration Day! There will be educational activities and displays, all designed to teach the community about the river’s history, the organisms it is home to, and its role within the community. There will also be a rubber ducky race, and a canoe ride from 2-3:30. Takes place at Groff Park. Mill Lane. Amherst, MA. (FREE)
In Hampden Co. on Sunday at 2pm – KIDS’ CONCERT: See Beethoven’s Wig performed live at the Wistariahurst Museum! Musician Richard Perlmutter has created silly lyrics to accompany well-known classical music as a way to introduce classical music to kids. Fun and educational! 413-322-5660. 238 Cabot Street. Holyoke, MA. (FREE)
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Saturday, June 9th from 9am-12noon – COMMUNITY SERVICE: Help to sustain and maintain an important community resource at Red Gate Farm’s volunteer day! Families can visit the farm to help out with all kinds of different tasks, from planting and weeding in the garden to preparing the farm’s program building for summer events. Snacks provided for volunteers. Helping out at the farm can help kids to appreciate all that is offered there! 413-625-9503. 4 Norman Road. Buckland, MA. (VOLUNTEER)
Saturday, June 9th from 10am-4pm – COMMUNITY CELEBRATION: Celebrate the Deerfield River and its role within the community at Riverfest! The event includes a parade (with mask-making for those who would like to participate beforehand), live music, an opportunity to learn about fly-tying, performances, and more! 413-625-6628. Shelburne Falls, MA. (FREE)
Sunday, June 10th from 11am-3pm – FAMILY DAY: It’s Family Day at The Mount! Families can visit the historic home to learn about the life of Edith Wharton, its one-time resident. Explore the home and its gorgeous grounds, take part in a scavenger hunt, hear a story, and do other fun family activities. Bring a picnic! 413-551-5110. 2 Plunkett Street. Lenox, MA. (FREE)
BULLETIN BOARD
MotherWoman writes, “Join our “MOMS ARE WORTH A MILLION!” Campaign. When you support a mother, you uplift her family. When you uplift her family, you strengthen their community. When you strengthen their community, you change the world. Want to help us change the world? Help us raise $10,000 towards scholarships for women leaders from low-income communities and professionals working for nonprofits to take the MotherWoman Support Group Facilitator Training. Watch this short video in which four mothers tell you how the Training has changed their lives as they navigated the struggles of motherhood. Each woman shares why she is now giving back to other mothers by leading a MotherWoman Support Group in her community. www.MotherWoman.org.”
“Hilltown Families continues to be my go to place for family events. I really appreciated the organized list of summer camps.” – Dawn Cordeiro (Holyoke, MA)
SUMMER CAMP: Are you looking for a great summer experience for your kids? Check out our post Summer Camps and Programs in Western MA which highlights opportunities happening throughout the region. With a great variety of themes, there are many summer camp/programs your family can choose, including: farm & gardening, music, art, technology, nature, personal development, science, theater, sports, ballet, preK, college… as well as a good old fashion summer camp! Discover what’s being offered near you, and find out how you can add a camp to this growing list too!
BOYS TO MEN MENTORING: Boys to Men Mentoring Network. Boys between the ages of 12 and 17 can be matched with a male mentor. The Boys to Men experience gives young men higher self-esteem, empowered sense of self, and a greater capacity for compassion and empathy. Mentors go through a comprehensive training program, pass a background check, and agree to commit for one year. Boys are challenged and supported in new ways, and find their own integrity, courage, respect, passion, and leadership and they discover that they can access these qualities and put them to work. For more information visit www.boystomennewengland.org.
SPONSORSHIP & ADVERTISING: Reach thousands of families in Western MA while supporting the work of Hilltown Families. See your event, camp, workshop, business featured here in the bulletin board section of our list of Weekly Suggested Events and eNewsletter! Find out more about our Enhanced Publicity options and how we can help with your marketing.
JOIN OUR TEAM OF CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Interested in becoming a Contributing or Guest Writer for Hilltown Families? We welcome writings that reflect the community building and educational efforts parents, teens, teachers, artists, activists and community leaders work towards and accomplish and how that affects, supports and empowers our families. All writing styles welcomed, including DIY posts, seasonal cooking, and community-based educational opportunities. Send your query to hilltownfamilies@gmail.com.
YOUNG PARENTS: Support for young parents. Healthy Families is a free home-visiting support program for first- time parents, age 20 and under. Home Visitors provide parenting support at participant homes, as well as in groups with other first time pregnant and parenting teens. Activities are geared toward young parents’ interests, whether it be support groups on relationships or making special journals about their child’s first years of life. All services are voluntary and confidential. Spanish speaking home visitors are available. For more information, visit www.communityaction.us.
FRIENDS OF CHILDREN: Friends of Children, Inc. advocates to protect the basic human rights of all children to have a safe, consistent and nurturing environment in which to develop their full potential. Programs include court-appointed special advocates, mentoring to children who age out of the child-welfare system, foster transition support, assistance and guidance to parents in their role of advocate for their children, and community education. For more information, visit www.friendsofchildreninc.org.
LIST OF WEEKLY SUGGESTED EVENTS:
June 2nd-8th, 2012
The Westfield River is the most Hilltowny of flows, featuring a full range of terrains and moods. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
A few days ago I was walking along the Connecticut River, at the Bashan in Hatfield (the green space off “Bashin Rd.” on this map), and the mist from the low-belly clouds touched its soft, purling surface—connecting the earth and the heavens. I was alone; there were no motor boats (this river is often a highway) and—dripping like the leaves—I absorbed serene, wonderful moments of simple raccoon and heron prints in the sand, of patient muscular hurlings of water molecules from mountains to sea, and of the paradoxical, rousing smell of sweet ferns and mushrooms. The quiet strength of these things (and more), and the feeling of equanimity and ease returned with me to my home, pouring from my character for others to splash in ’til bedtime came and we all drifted away in our own birchbark canoes of sleep and dreams.
Being alone, without distractions, helps one to connect to a river; and always coming and going, shrinking and growing, the river connects us to the elements and creatures in a manner that lakes (too static) and the ocean (too big) can’t. Let us cherish our friend the river, who leads us out of the cares and the cages we live and work in, and helps us recall that the world is bigger and more beautiful than our conceptions of it.
And let us gather by it, with our friends and family, and strangers who we meet, who have been drawn by its ability to draw us in, and absorb us—whether through its calm or its cacophony, its embrace or its danger. Even in great cities, with scores of museums and millions of diversions, people gather by the river, to pause and reflect, and feel bigger and freer than anywhere else. Be it the Ganges, the Spree, the Tiber or the CT, rivers always take us when we give ourselves to them.
Hemingway wrote the “Big Two-Hearted River,” which expressed the way a river can heal the wounded amongst us, and while I love the tale and its message, I love its title the most. The river is the heart of any biome, any region, any political geography. A city built away from a river, is a city that cannot and will not last. Souls, it might be said, that are too long abstracted from the flush and fury of uninhibited rivers, wither. And rivers dammed, like our own lives, soon silt up, get diseased—and then, with that soft power that creates grand canyons, cracks and overwhelms the obstruction, restoring the flow. All rivers are hearts, beating vitality into stones, dusts and dirts: (re)charging the fields and forests, and even those glorified ashtrays we call cities, with bios, with life. And life must be, and always is, shared—just like our rivers.
You are invited to share the heart of the Hilltowns by Meredyth Babcock, Volunteer Coordinator of the Westfield River Wild and Scenic organization, to join up with others to learn about, and care for, the Westfield River. The Westfield River is the most Hilltowny of flows, featuring a full range of terrains and moods, and I urge you to take care of any riparian business you have, or would like to have, at any of its three conveniently located branches.
On June 3rd, 2012, Meredyth will be training volunteers to explore parts of the Westfield River, and collect data and document findings that will be used to understand, and then conserve and protect, its ecological processes and systems. In short, you’ll be invited to enter, and immerse yourself the vital rhythms of, the beating heart of the Hilltowns—seize this opportunity! Call Meredyth at 413-623-2070, or email her at walkinthewatershed@hotmail.com for more information.
Go ahead—release yourself! The river is waiting for you—
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kurt Heidinger, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Biocitizen, non-profit school of field environmental philosophy, based in the Western MA Hilltown of Westhampton, MA where he lives with his family. Biocitizen gives participants an opportunity to “think outside” and cultivate a joyous and empowering biocultural awareness of where we live and who we are. Check out Kurt’s monthly column, The Ripple, here on Hilltown Families on the 4th Monday of every month to hear his stories about rivers in our region. Make the world of rivers bigger than the world of pavement inside of you!
While adventuring outdoors to enjoy local landscapes this summer, families can integrate their mobile devices into their trek to create environmental learning opportunities! Three applications – CreekWatch, Leafsnap, and the WildLab – are all designed to teach users about their environment and to help monitor and conserve natural resources. All three applications provide ways for families to integrate technology into their outdoor adventures in a way that promotes learning and engagement with nature, rather than detracting from the experience. Try one (or all!) of them on your next outing.
WATERSHEDS
CreekWatch allows families to monitor the health of their local watershed by using pictures of streams and creeks (taken by users and submitted via the app) to determine water level and amount of pollution and debris present in the water.
ARBORICULTURE
Leafsnap, called an “electronic field guide,” compares pictures of tree leaves using photorecognition software, and helps users identify trees – allowing them to learn about the biodiversity present around them while sharing information with a public database, helping to aid scientists.
ORNITHOLOGY
For bird identification, check out the WildLab – it uses GPS-tagged photos taken by users to monitor bird populations, and the user learns what bird(s) they’ve seen using information provided in the app.
We measure our lives in decades, which is fine; but what if we measured our lives like the mayfly, who reappears in the same place for tens of thousands of years, each individual a facet of single transgenerational being, each individual a carrier of the baton-of-life in the finish-line-less relay-race of the species in time?
“Most droughts occur in late summer. The fact that this one is happening as the leaves come out…” I’d worried.
“The tree species that are native to our area can handle this. It happened a few years ago—the buds dried and fell off, but new leaves appeared,” he retorted, determined to make me cheerful.
It’s good to know that; I don’t mind being reassured. Words are just words, though. Real assurance requires the real.
Reassurance can be found, for example, in the flocks of blackflies that greet you when you step into the woods. As a native species, they’re tough survivors—at least as old as the mammal species they’ve supped upon for plus or minus fifteen millenia. Ah, but this is just more blather! To the river we go, sure our blackflies will follow.
At the river, we find the aerial bobbings of the longtailed mayfly. Up and down they flit, yoyo-ing as if played with by kids. They are older as a native species than the blackfly, and form the basis of the aquatic food chain of which trout and salmon are the hungriest. biggest-mouthed predators. Find a boulder to sit on, exposed in mid-stream—a perch fit for a Zen monk or an osprey. Look closely: the twin tails of the mayfly straighten to parallel as they rocket upwards. They linger at zenith for a moment of motionless poise, then drop; their tails split and become V-shaped parachutes they sit on, like children on swings. Wings of chrome-fuzz in the sunlight, bodies slender and dark, they ride for seconds like William Blake’s cherubim: miraculous beyond the ken of science. How can the value of these lives be over-estimated as they do this, as their ancestors have done since before the Ice Age, and the arrival of mammals? We measure our lives in decades, which is fine; but what if we measured our lives like the mayfly, who reappears in the same place for tens of thousands of years, each individual a facet of single transgenerational being, each individual a carrier of the baton-of-life in the finish-line-less relay-race of the species in time?
This is what the river asks us through its tumbling hiss of water against stone, and answers with the yoyo-ing mayfly. In the same place the river speaks its soothing words of white water, the mayfly does its courtship dance, and lays its eggs from which next years dancers will emerge. The kinetic force that gives voice to white water also trebles the oxygen content, and mayfly nymphs—and hungry trout and salmon—need an oxygen-rich environment.
In this way, the voice of the river—even in drought—is voice that reassures. As long as there’s flow, there are the mayflies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kurt Heidinger, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of Biocitizen, non-profit school of field environmental philosophy, based in the Western MA Hilltown of Westhampton, MA where he lives with his family. Biocitizen gives participants an opportunity to “think outside” and cultivate a joyous and empowering biocultural awareness of where we live and who we are. Check out Kurt’s monthly column, The Ripple, here on Hilltown Families on the 4th Monday of every month to hear his stories about rivers in our region. Make the world of rivers bigger than the world of pavement inside of you!
Last winter we ask our readers what their favorite snowy day activities were. One recommendation was to play outdoor bingo with Mass Audubon’s Winter Walk Bingo Cards! In addition to winter bingo, they also have bingo cards for spring!
This spring take your kids out into nature and go on a hunt for moss on a log, a tail marker, signs of a woodpecker, swimming bird, fiddleheads, spider webs, and even smells and sounds of spring. Download their Spring Walk Bingo Cards to get started. There are four different versions, so a group of four can play together! This is a fun activity to get the family outside, observing their surroundings and engaging their senses.
A few years ago Hilltown Families Contributing Writer, Tony(a) Lemos, wrote about Nature Scavenger Hunts, sharing a sample list families could search for getting outdoors and observing their surrounding… or to use to make your own bingo cards! Here are some ideas of what families might like to look for on their hunts:
Find three different tree leaves, seeds or pods
Find an insect
Find a feather
Find a twig shaped like a letter
Find a leaf that a bug has nibbled
Find something that has decomposed
Find something that is no longer living
Find something that was never alive
Find two different kinds of tree bark
She also shared ideas on themed scavenger hunts, a simpler method for younger children, along with urban scavenger hunts and recycle scavenger hunts.
Join the Great Backyard Bird Count
February 12-15, 2010
Heading south for some sand and surf during the February school break? Bring along a tally sheet and count the sea gulls, sand pipers and pelicans at a nearby beach or wildlife refuge. Click on the image above for a printable tally sheet. Use your postal code, town or name of National Park to generate a custom tally sheet. (Photo credit: Sienna Wildfield)
Bird watchers coast to coast are invited to take part in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, Friday, February 12, through Monday, February 15, 2010. Participants in the free event will join tens of thousands of volunteers counting birds in their own backyards, local parks or wildlife refuges.
Each checklist submitted by these “citizen scientists” helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,the National Audubon Society , and Bird Studies Canada learn more about how the birds are doing—and how to protect them. Last year, participants turned in more than 93,600 checklists online, creating the continent’s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.
Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count, from novice bird watchers to experts. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes (or as long as they wish) on one or more days of the event and report their sightings online at www.birdcount.org. One 2009 participant said, “Thank you for the opportunity to participate in citizen science. I have had my eyes opened to a whole new interest and I love it!”
On the www.birdcount.org website, participants can explore real-time maps and charts that show what others are reporting during the count. The site has tips to help identify birds and special materials for educators. Participants may also enter the GBBC photo contest by uploading images taken during the count. Many images will be featured in the GBBC website’s photo gallery. All participants are entered in a drawing for prizes that include bird feeders, binoculars, books, CDs, and many other great birding products.
Participants submit thousands of digital images for the GBBC photo contest each year. Participants are also invited to upload their bird videos to YouTube tagged “GBBC.” – Businesses, schools, nature clubs, Scout troops, and other community organizations interested in the GBBC can contact the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at (800) 843-2473 (outside the U.S., call (607) 254-2473), or Audubon at citizenscience@audubon.org or (215) 355-9588, Ext 16.
Welcome to Hilltown Families, a grassroots communication network for families living in Western Mass, established in 2005 by hilltown mother and long time activist Sienna Wildfield.
"Hilltown Families keeps us connected with all the amazing educational and cultural activities and resources that abound here in W. Mass and curates them in a way to let us know just what’s out there for the many varied interests of our young families and communities,while creating networks of support and growth." - Kara Kitchen (Plainfield, MA)
The Hilltown Family Variety Show (HFVS) airs Saturday mornings on Valley Free Radio, 103.3FM WXOJ, Northampton, MA from 9-10am with encores on Sunday from 7-8am. Playlist and podcasts are posted immediately following broadcast. Listen to our archived shows at any time: HFVS Archived Shows.
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Information provided on Hilltown Families (HF) is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Reasonable efforts are made to provide the most accurate information, but no guarantees of any kind can be made. Information can be changed without prior notice. Please check with 3rd parties to confirm all listings for date/time, cost, location and age appropriateness before attending. Opinions expressed on HF are that of the writer and not necessarily that of HF. In no event shall HF be liable (directly or indirectly) for any losses or damages causes (or allegedly caused) in connection with HF. All health and wellness related information is for entertainment purposes only and should not be used to substitute for professional medical advice or diagnosis. All provided links are provided as a courtesy and not as an endorsement.
The exhibit will be on display at the Forbes Library in Northampton for the month of February 2013, and at the City Hall Gallery in Easthampton from Sept 13-Dec 11, 2013. - We're currently booking shows for the Spring/Summer of 2013 and for 2014. Each exhibit is a unique showcase of images that correspond with the season and venue. Contact us to inquire about hosting this fundraising exhibit for Hilltown Families in your town/venue.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
by Sharon Lovejoy
by Staci Tornio
Saturday, June 16th from 8-9:30pm - ENTOMOLOGY/OUTDOOR ADVENTURES: Families with kids ages 6+ can join Earthwork Programs for an interactive night of learning about (and searching for!) fireflies! Families will also learn about how they can spend their summer being Citizen Scientists as part of the Museum of Science’s firefly watching program! BYO flashlight. Call to register. 413-522-0338. Ashfield, MA. ($$)
PLANT STUDIES: Summer Intensives at Goldthread Organic Herb Farm. Let the aromatic air of the farm restore harmony and revive your senses while enjoying two hands-on, capacity building botanical medicine intensives at Goldthread this summer. In July join them for a multi-dimensional week long immersion into the aesthetics, qualities & manifestations of the Ayurvedic 5 elements that will give participants both a scholastic and deeply felt understanding of botanical medicine. In Sept, propagate, harvest, process, and study the botanical characteristics, medicinal properties and therapeutic uses of 25-30 major herbs grown at the farm during the Farm to Pharmacy Intensive with David Crow and William Siff. Dates, tuition and full details are on their 
Valerie Casterline writes, “Are you a parent looking for a summer camp option that will keep your child stimulated and allow for lots of outside, nature based activities? If yes, then RH Conwell Summer Camp is the right place for your family. We have openings in our program that runs starting with the week of July 9th through the week of August 16th. Our day runs from 8am to 4pm, accepting the age ranges of 4-12 years old. Activities and projects will be planned with the input of the interests of the attending children. There will be the option of swimming at a life-guarded pool in the afternoons and weekly trips to the Worthington Library as part of our program. For further information please contact Susan Warner at 
