Woods, Water & Wildlife Festival: A Day of Family Fun and Learning
Thanks to Kate Wilcox for these photos of our 2019 WWW Festival!
Attendees, volunteers, and presenters were all smiles by the end of our 17th annual Woods, Water & Wildlife Festival at Branch Hill Farm in Milton Mills, held on a beautiful Saturday in August. We present this annual festival in partnership with Branch Hill Farm (BHF) as a day for families to connect with nature, helping ensure that the next generation appreciates and strives to conserve our region’s natural resources.
An informal poll of what kids hadlearned that day elicited a common animal theme. Recounted one smart young girl, “I learnedthat skunks can spray six times and then they have to wait ten days.”Fascinating facts like this were presented during the ‘Wildlife Workshop’offered by Squam Lakes Natural Science Center, where Center staff showed arescued owl, skunk, and opossum and discussed their habits. Other children werecaptivated by what they learned from Athena’s Bees, which displayed a hive madefrom a white pine column, simulating a tree. Reported one child, “Bees huddleup in their nest during the winter like penguins and eat their honey.” AHorseshoe crab shell provided by naturalist Jon Batson, a snake to hold fromthe Funny Farm, as well as the chickens, goats and a miniature horse brought by4H for kids to pet were also popular.
Children had many opportunities toget physically active, engage with nature and make things. One little girlcaught six fish while fishing in the Branch Hill Farm pond. Volunteerinstructors from NH Fish & game were on hand to lend poles and bait andfishing advice. Down at the Salmon Falls River (one of the hayride destinations),kids used dip nets to look for water creatures. Dozens of families tried out theself-guided treasure hunt called ‘Kids Discover the Forest’ and the green gymin the woods called ‘Nature’s Playground’. Children jumped at the chance to use a crosscut saw tocut a ‘Tree Cookie’ (slice of pine log) and decorate it, they inserted hollow day lily stems into a recycled milkcarton to make a home for wild pollinators at the ‘Build a Bee House’ activity,and learned to make cork boats with Acton Wakefeld Watersheds Alliance. Bothtoddlers and older kids played at gardening, digging and carrying dirt inwheelbarrows alongside Sheehan Gardens Permaculture Garden, where everyonedelighted in samples of Mexican sour gherkins, a small round cucumber.
In addition to being Mour biggest yearly outreach event, the WWW Festival also serves as our most important annual fundraiser, with proceeds supporting our land conservation and outreach missions. We are grateful to festival underwriters, BHF/Carl Siemon Family Charitable Trust, Siemon Company, and D. F. Richard Energy, and to major festival sponsors, the Hays Dombrower Family, Peter & Susan Goodwin, Norman Vetter Inc. Poured Foundations, Bruce & Jennifer Rich, S&S Plumbing & Heating, LLC, Carl & Beth Ann Siemon, Henry and Junko Siemon, the Wyatt Family, and Philip Zaeder & Sylvia Thayer, as well as to many more sponsors, co-sponsors and supporters. Click here to see the full thank you list on our Festival webpage.
Moose Mountains Regional Greenway isa non-profit land trust serving Brookfield, Farmington, Middleton, Milton, NewDurham, Wakefield, and Wolfeboro (see www.mmrgnh.org). Branch HillFarm/Carl Siemon Family Charitable Trust is a private operating foundation (seewww.branchhillfarm.org).