Thanks to Kate Wilcox for these photos of our 2015 WWW Festival!

Moose Mountains Regional Greenways’ 14^th annual Woods, Water & Wildlife Festival will take place on Saturday, August 13 from 10 am to 3 pm at Branch Hill Farm (BHF), 307 Applebee Road in Milton Mills, NH. This day-long celebration of the great outdoors is an opportunity for families to have fun and experience the delights of the natural world together.

Returning festival attendees will find lots of new fun activities and learning opportunities this year. In Build a Bee House, kids can make houses for native bees using tubes, clay and plant pots, or make their own chicken hand puppets and learn about raising chickens at home in the Backyard Chicken Workshop presented by UNH Cooperative Extension Food & Ag and 4H Divisions.  The whole family can become ‘Watershed Warriors’ by completing six activity stations about lake ecology and ways to keep your lake healthy, brought by the NH Lakes Association. Learn about the return of American Chestnut trees in a guided walk to see BHF’s Chestnuts. A new festival focus on sustainability showcases Global Awareness Local Action from Ossipee, with demonstrations on home composting, gardening in raised beds, and utilizing rain barrels as well as Goatscaping from Naylen Farm in Conway, which pens their goats inside a moveable fence to gobble up your invasive species without chemicals.

Many favorite events will be back as well. Take your kids on a Guided Family Forest Walk, a fun discovery adventure led by MMRG Education Coordinator Kari Lygren — a great time was had by all on her first festival walk last year!  Volunteer instructors from NH Fish & Game provide poles and bait to kids for Let’s Go Fishing! in the Branch Hill Farm pond. Nature experts display rescued animals at the Squam Lakes Wildlife Workshop and Ruth Scruton’s Traveling Barnyard brings their petting zoo. Two differently-themed hayrides give everyone a choice and chance to ride. Kids Discover the Forest and Nature’s Playground let families explore and play amongst the ferns and tall trees. Volunteers from the NH Farm Museum, local craftsmen, and a horse logging operation demonstrate traditional rural skills. Kids can get creative in the Tree Cookie Craft Corner and they love to explore the Amazing Corn Maze.

Homemade salads, desserts, hot grilled food, and cold smoothies will be on sale along with T-shirts and raffle baskets of local fresh produce and other items. The festival takes place rain or shine. No pets please. Rest rooms and most events are wheelchair accessible. The cost is $5/person or $10/family and free to ages 12 and under and to MMRG members; all events are included in the admission price. For more information, visit www.mmrgnh.org/festival.

Festival proceeds and business sponsorships support MMRG’s land conservation and educational outreach mission. MMRG is grateful to its festival underwriters, the Siemon Company and Branch Hill Farm/Carl Siemon Family Charitable Trust, which is also the co-presenter. MMRG would like to thank the following major sponsors: Bruce and Jennifer Rich, Carl and Beth Siemon, Charlie Moreno Consulting Forester, the Gene Hays Family, and S&S Plumbing and Heating. Thanks are also due to many more business, organizational, and individual sponsors and supporters who are listed on our festival webpage. A few business sponsorships of festival events are still available; please contact Virginia Long at virginia.mmrg@gmail.com.

We appreciate the dedicated volunteers who have already signed up to help out. More volunteers are needed; please call Kari Lygren at 603-978-7125.

Moose Mountains Regional Greenway is a non-profit land trust serving Brookfield, Farmington, Middleton, Milton, New Durham, Wakefield, and Wolfeboro (see www.mmrgnh.org). Branch Hill Farm/Carl Siemon Family Charitable Trust is a private operating foundation (see www.branchhillfarm.org).