Past Events

A group of enthusiastic adventurers explored the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area yesterday with Citizen Scientists, Nina Newington and Lisa Proulx!

Guest host Angelika Waldow  shared her love and knowledge of trees with participants teaching them how to identify trees by looking at the area surrounding the tree and using all of their senses. 

Participants explored an area of the (proposed) Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area and Lisa Proulx provided tips on how to use  iNaturalist more effectively. 

Keith Egger shared his knolwedge of all things fungi with participants as they explored the Arlington Teaching Forest.  2023 was an excellent year for mushrooms!

The Hampton Hall was ringing with the sound of hammers and laughter as participants built Tree Swallow Nesting boxes under the guidance of Larry Powell.  

Julie Palmer and Bonnie McOrmond led participants into the Arlington Teaching Forest to learn how to identify birds by ear.  

Participants spent a sunny afternoon with Colin Gray learning the basics of using a map and compass to navigate in the woods. 

Guest leader Allison Fortune from Clean Annapolis River Project lead a walk into the Arlington Teaching Forest and taught participants how to identify birds by sight and sound. 

Citizen Scientist Lisa Proulx shared her knowledge of the iNat app and then led a guided walk into the Arlington Teaching Forest to practice with the app. 

Participants learned how to navigate using Avenza, make waypoints, draw on maps, share coordinates and more!

Participants enjoyed a walk in the Arlington Teaching Forest on a beautiful sunny Fall afternoon.  

Participants walked through the Arlington Teaching Forest keeping a close eye on the ground searching for fungii.  The mushrooms were plentiful, and guide Keith Egger demonstrated how to identify different mushrooms by their composition and provided a handy guide to compare our specimens to. There are over 14,000 identified species of mushrooms and new ones are just waiting to be found.  Keith Egger has found mushroom species in Nova Scotia that have not been previously identified. 

Larry Powell from East Coast Habitat Helpers spent an afternoon teaching participants how to build their own Barn Swallow Nesting Cups.  In addition to building nesting cups, Larry shared his knowledge and cool facts about Barn Swallows.  Although it was a hot and muggy day to be outside thankfully there was a shady area to gather and build the nesting cups. 

As part of the Society for Ecological Restoration's Make a Difference Week, participants went into the Arlington Teaching Forest and removed garbage and debris from the forest.  The sites were picked over thoroughly to ensure nothing was left behind!  And some participants lucked out and took home some bags of soil and pots! 

Arlington Forest Protection Society teamed up with the Clean Annapolis River Project (CARP) to host a plant and tree identification workshop on Sunday May 1, 2022 as part of the 2022 City Nature Challenge!  Guest speaker Jennika Hunsinger (Medway Community Forest Co-operative) led the walk, identifying trees and plants and answering lots of questions.  

Participants went exploring into the Arlington Teaching Forest to hunt for Eastern Hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis).  Colin Gray lead the walk and shared his knowledge of hemlocks, and the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid.  Colin brought some well-sealed samples of HWA and a 337 year old sample from a hemlock tree that had been cut down in Nova Scotia.  

The first event at the Arlington Teaching Forest!  Colin Gray (Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute) guided participants through the woods and helped identify trees and plants.  As an added bonus for participants, Keith Egger (a Society member) was in attendance and happily shared his vast knowledge of mushrooms and fungi with everyone.