Cook Forest Area Events

< 2025 >
June 02 - June 08
  • 02
    02.June.Monday

    June Bio Blitz Competition

    All day
    02-06-25-30-06-25
    Clear Creek State Park, Clear Creek Road, Sigel, PA, United States

    Clear Creek State Park
    38 Clear Creek Park Road, Sigel, PA 15860-6702

    Calling all self-proclaimed naturalists! If you are a mushroom hunter, fisherman, birder, or just like walking the trails and discovering the diversity of our parks, we need YOU! To help us learn about the diversity of organisms in our park, we are competing with other parks in a state-wide Bio Blitz competition!

    To participate, download the iNaturalist app on your phone, create an account, and start uploading observations found in your favorite parks! iNaturalist is a free citizen science project application that allows users to locate and identify organisms anywhere in the world! You don’t have to be an expert to join, simply take photos of organisms in the parks you visit (or your own backyard) and upload them to iNaturalist – all of which is done in the app itself. It’s very user friendly and can help scientists discover new populations of organisms and track those that may be declining. It really is an awesome tool for research!

    To get started, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/home and create your account. Then, simply visit our park in June and upload sightings within the park! They will automatically be submitted as part of the Bio Blitz. The more sightings, the more chances our park will win, so record everything!

    Rules for submissions are as follows:

    Recordings of birds and frogs are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough to recognize. You can upload merlin recordings as well through a PC.
    Trail camera photos are accepted and encouraged for nocturnal life. Time and date stamps should be visible. Honors system on this one!
    Plants must be WILD in your park. We will not accept garden grown plants/trees this year. It’s too easy to stand in a butterfly garden and grab dozens of species without moving. They need to be growing wild, whether they are native or invasive. This goes for natives in butterfly gardens as well. I would like to know where these species are growing wild, not where they’ve been planted. If you’re not certain, you can include it, but make note of its uncertain origin.
    No dead animals. Let’s not include roadkill, and absolutely no taxidermy.
    No pets or “escapees”. The bobwhite running around your park is not wild, and neither is the loose dog.

    Sunday, June 1, 2025

    More dates through June 30, 2025

  • 03
    03.June.Tuesday

    June Bio Blitz Competition

    All day
    03-06-25-30-06-25
    Clear Creek State Park, Clear Creek Road, Sigel, PA, United States

    Clear Creek State Park
    38 Clear Creek Park Road, Sigel, PA 15860-6702

    Calling all self-proclaimed naturalists! If you are a mushroom hunter, fisherman, birder, or just like walking the trails and discovering the diversity of our parks, we need YOU! To help us learn about the diversity of organisms in our park, we are competing with other parks in a state-wide Bio Blitz competition!

    To participate, download the iNaturalist app on your phone, create an account, and start uploading observations found in your favorite parks! iNaturalist is a free citizen science project application that allows users to locate and identify organisms anywhere in the world! You don’t have to be an expert to join, simply take photos of organisms in the parks you visit (or your own backyard) and upload them to iNaturalist – all of which is done in the app itself. It’s very user friendly and can help scientists discover new populations of organisms and track those that may be declining. It really is an awesome tool for research!

    To get started, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/home and create your account. Then, simply visit our park in June and upload sightings within the park! They will automatically be submitted as part of the Bio Blitz. The more sightings, the more chances our park will win, so record everything!

    Rules for submissions are as follows:

    Recordings of birds and frogs are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough to recognize. You can upload merlin recordings as well through a PC.
    Trail camera photos are accepted and encouraged for nocturnal life. Time and date stamps should be visible. Honors system on this one!
    Plants must be WILD in your park. We will not accept garden grown plants/trees this year. It’s too easy to stand in a butterfly garden and grab dozens of species without moving. They need to be growing wild, whether they are native or invasive. This goes for natives in butterfly gardens as well. I would like to know where these species are growing wild, not where they’ve been planted. If you’re not certain, you can include it, but make note of its uncertain origin.
    No dead animals. Let’s not include roadkill, and absolutely no taxidermy.
    No pets or “escapees”. The bobwhite running around your park is not wild, and neither is the loose dog.

    Sunday, June 1, 2025

    More dates through June 30, 2025

  • 04
    04.June.Wednesday

    Sawmill Theatre: "Play On"

    All day
    04-06-25-07-06-25
    Cook Forest Sawmill Art Center, Cooksburg, PA, United States

    Clarion County Community Theater presents “Play On!”  This is a hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script.  Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance, in which anything that can go wrong, does.  When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theater during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax and a thoroughly hilarious romp.  Even the sound effects reap their share of laughter. Written by: Rick Abbott

    Suitability: All Ages

    Cautions: alcohol and sound of gun shots

    June Bio Blitz Competition

    All day
    04-06-25-30-06-25
    Clear Creek State Park, Clear Creek Road, Sigel, PA, United States

    Clear Creek State Park
    38 Clear Creek Park Road, Sigel, PA 15860-6702

    Calling all self-proclaimed naturalists! If you are a mushroom hunter, fisherman, birder, or just like walking the trails and discovering the diversity of our parks, we need YOU! To help us learn about the diversity of organisms in our park, we are competing with other parks in a state-wide Bio Blitz competition!

    To participate, download the iNaturalist app on your phone, create an account, and start uploading observations found in your favorite parks! iNaturalist is a free citizen science project application that allows users to locate and identify organisms anywhere in the world! You don’t have to be an expert to join, simply take photos of organisms in the parks you visit (or your own backyard) and upload them to iNaturalist – all of which is done in the app itself. It’s very user friendly and can help scientists discover new populations of organisms and track those that may be declining. It really is an awesome tool for research!

    To get started, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/home and create your account. Then, simply visit our park in June and upload sightings within the park! They will automatically be submitted as part of the Bio Blitz. The more sightings, the more chances our park will win, so record everything!

    Rules for submissions are as follows:

    Recordings of birds and frogs are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough to recognize. You can upload merlin recordings as well through a PC.
    Trail camera photos are accepted and encouraged for nocturnal life. Time and date stamps should be visible. Honors system on this one!
    Plants must be WILD in your park. We will not accept garden grown plants/trees this year. It’s too easy to stand in a butterfly garden and grab dozens of species without moving. They need to be growing wild, whether they are native or invasive. This goes for natives in butterfly gardens as well. I would like to know where these species are growing wild, not where they’ve been planted. If you’re not certain, you can include it, but make note of its uncertain origin.
    No dead animals. Let’s not include roadkill, and absolutely no taxidermy.
    No pets or “escapees”. The bobwhite running around your park is not wild, and neither is the loose dog.

    Sunday, June 1, 2025

    More dates through June 30, 2025

  • 05
    05.June.Thursday

    Sawmill Theatre: "Play On"

    All day
    05-06-25-07-06-25
    Cook Forest Sawmill Art Center, Cooksburg, PA, United States

    Clarion County Community Theater presents “Play On!”  This is a hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script.  Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance, in which anything that can go wrong, does.  When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theater during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax and a thoroughly hilarious romp.  Even the sound effects reap their share of laughter. Written by: Rick Abbott

    Suitability: All Ages

    Cautions: alcohol and sound of gun shots

    June Bio Blitz Competition

    All day
    05-06-25-30-06-25
    Clear Creek State Park, Clear Creek Road, Sigel, PA, United States

    Clear Creek State Park
    38 Clear Creek Park Road, Sigel, PA 15860-6702

    Calling all self-proclaimed naturalists! If you are a mushroom hunter, fisherman, birder, or just like walking the trails and discovering the diversity of our parks, we need YOU! To help us learn about the diversity of organisms in our park, we are competing with other parks in a state-wide Bio Blitz competition!

    To participate, download the iNaturalist app on your phone, create an account, and start uploading observations found in your favorite parks! iNaturalist is a free citizen science project application that allows users to locate and identify organisms anywhere in the world! You don’t have to be an expert to join, simply take photos of organisms in the parks you visit (or your own backyard) and upload them to iNaturalist – all of which is done in the app itself. It’s very user friendly and can help scientists discover new populations of organisms and track those that may be declining. It really is an awesome tool for research!

    To get started, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/home and create your account. Then, simply visit our park in June and upload sightings within the park! They will automatically be submitted as part of the Bio Blitz. The more sightings, the more chances our park will win, so record everything!

    Rules for submissions are as follows:

    Recordings of birds and frogs are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough to recognize. You can upload merlin recordings as well through a PC.
    Trail camera photos are accepted and encouraged for nocturnal life. Time and date stamps should be visible. Honors system on this one!
    Plants must be WILD in your park. We will not accept garden grown plants/trees this year. It’s too easy to stand in a butterfly garden and grab dozens of species without moving. They need to be growing wild, whether they are native or invasive. This goes for natives in butterfly gardens as well. I would like to know where these species are growing wild, not where they’ve been planted. If you’re not certain, you can include it, but make note of its uncertain origin.
    No dead animals. Let’s not include roadkill, and absolutely no taxidermy.
    No pets or “escapees”. The bobwhite running around your park is not wild, and neither is the loose dog.

    Sunday, June 1, 2025

    More dates through June 30, 2025

  • 06
    06.June.Friday

    Sawmill Theatre: "Play On"

    All day
    06-06-25-07-06-25
    Cook Forest Sawmill Art Center, Cooksburg, PA, United States

    Clarion County Community Theater presents “Play On!”  This is a hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script.  Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance, in which anything that can go wrong, does.  When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theater during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax and a thoroughly hilarious romp.  Even the sound effects reap their share of laughter. Written by: Rick Abbott

    Suitability: All Ages

    Cautions: alcohol and sound of gun shots

    June Bio Blitz Competition

    All day
    06-06-25-30-06-25
    Clear Creek State Park, Clear Creek Road, Sigel, PA, United States

    Clear Creek State Park
    38 Clear Creek Park Road, Sigel, PA 15860-6702

    Calling all self-proclaimed naturalists! If you are a mushroom hunter, fisherman, birder, or just like walking the trails and discovering the diversity of our parks, we need YOU! To help us learn about the diversity of organisms in our park, we are competing with other parks in a state-wide Bio Blitz competition!

    To participate, download the iNaturalist app on your phone, create an account, and start uploading observations found in your favorite parks! iNaturalist is a free citizen science project application that allows users to locate and identify organisms anywhere in the world! You don’t have to be an expert to join, simply take photos of organisms in the parks you visit (or your own backyard) and upload them to iNaturalist – all of which is done in the app itself. It’s very user friendly and can help scientists discover new populations of organisms and track those that may be declining. It really is an awesome tool for research!

    To get started, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/home and create your account. Then, simply visit our park in June and upload sightings within the park! They will automatically be submitted as part of the Bio Blitz. The more sightings, the more chances our park will win, so record everything!

    Rules for submissions are as follows:

    Recordings of birds and frogs are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough to recognize. You can upload merlin recordings as well through a PC.
    Trail camera photos are accepted and encouraged for nocturnal life. Time and date stamps should be visible. Honors system on this one!
    Plants must be WILD in your park. We will not accept garden grown plants/trees this year. It’s too easy to stand in a butterfly garden and grab dozens of species without moving. They need to be growing wild, whether they are native or invasive. This goes for natives in butterfly gardens as well. I would like to know where these species are growing wild, not where they’ve been planted. If you’re not certain, you can include it, but make note of its uncertain origin.
    No dead animals. Let’s not include roadkill, and absolutely no taxidermy.
    No pets or “escapees”. The bobwhite running around your park is not wild, and neither is the loose dog.

    Sunday, June 1, 2025

    More dates through June 30, 2025

  • 07
    07.June.Saturday

    Cook Forest French & Indian War Encampment

    All day
    07-06-25-08-06-25
    Cook Forest Sawmill Art Center, Cooksburg, PA, United States

    Cook Forest State Park will host a series of living history events depicting life during the French & Indian War.  Highlights of this full two-day encampment include woodland natives, cannon and musket firing, cooking, primitive skills, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, pottery, children’s games, sutler camp, renown living historians, French & Indian War Era artisans, and live tactical engagements.  Every battle is different!  Take a walk back in time along the Black Bear Trail by the Sawmill Center for the Arts during open camp hours to view   British, Colonial, French, and Native American re-enactors as they portray lifestyles of the 18th century.

    Saturday, June 7

    1000am-600pm    Event Open

    1000am-1100am  Blacksmithing Demonstration – by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    1000am-400pm    Cooking Demonstration – by Geoffrey Domowicz, Compagnie LeBoeuf chef, along Black Bear Trail at the main encampment site

    1030pm-500pm   French & Indian War Era Art & Demonstrators – meet with distinguished artists, authors, artisans, and demonstrators in the Old Sawmill Classroom

    1030pm-500pm   Sutler Row Demonstrators – Want to meet with skilled artisans to make a trade or purchase?  Looking to get into the hobby and need clothing & accoutrements?  Meet tinsmiths, cordwainers, leather workers, cooks, gunsmiths,  clothiers, weapons outfitters, and gourd makers in the long field on your right as you come into the main Sawmill entrance.

    1100am-1130am  Cannon & Musket Firing Demonstration – by the camp Corps of Artillery, located in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    1130am-1200pm Peril in the Forest – tactical engagement in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    100pm-200pm     Nasty Ned the Frontiersmen: 18th Century Teller of Tales & Historical Fact’– by Paul Stillman, living historian from Historically Speaking, at the Sawmill Theater

    200pm-300pm     18th Century Children’s Games – by the Noel family-Compagnie LeBoeuf, along Black Bear Trail at the main encampment site

    300pm-600pm     Powderhorn Fabrication Workshop – by Paul Stillman, living historian from Historically Speaking in the Old Sawmill Classroom, $25 for materials

    300pm-500pm     Blacksmithing Demonstration – by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray’, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    330pm-400pm     Cannon & Musket Firing Demo  – by the camp Corps of  Artillery, located in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    400pm-430pm     Peril in the Forest – tactical engagement in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

     

    Sunday, June 8

    900am-330pm      Event Open

    900am-930am        18th Century Sunday Service     by Rick Sanguigni of ’Friends of Dennis Murray’, located in the main encampment site along Black Bear Trail

    930am-1100am    Blacksmithing Demonstration     by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray’, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    930am-300pm      French & Indian War Era Art & Demonstrators     Meet with distinguished artists, authors, artisans, and demonstrators in the old Sawmill Classroom

    930pm-300pm     Sutler Row Demonstrators – Want to meet with skilled artisans to make a trade or purchase?   Looking to get into the hobby and need clothing & accoutrements?  Meet tinsmiths, cordwainers, leather workers, cooks, gunsmiths, clothiers, weapons outfitters, and gourd makers in the long field on your right as you come into the main Sawmill entrance.

    1015am-1045am  18th Century Children’s Games – by the Noel Family-Compagnie LeBoeuf, along Black Bear Trail at the main  encampment site

    1100am-200pm    Turkey Wingbone Call Fabrication – by Paul Stillman, living historian from Historically Speaking, in the Old Sawmill Classroom, $15 for materials

    1130am-1200pm In Defense of the Homeland– morning surprise tactical assault at the main encampment site along Black Bear Trail

    1230pm-200pm   Blacksmithing Demonstration     by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray’, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    200pm-230pm     Cannon & Musket Firing Demonstration     by the camp Corps of Artillery, in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    230pm-300pm     Peril in the Forest – tactical engagement in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    Sawmill Theatre: "Play On"

    All day
    07-06-25-07-06-25
    Cook Forest Sawmill Art Center, Cooksburg, PA, United States

    Clarion County Community Theater presents “Play On!”  This is a hilarious story of a theater group trying desperately to put on a play in spite of maddening interference from a haughty author who keeps revising the script.  Act I is a rehearsal of the dreadful show, Act II is the near disastrous dress rehearsal, and the final act is the actual performance, in which anything that can go wrong, does.  When the author decides to give a speech on the state of the modern theater during the curtain calls, the audience is treated to a madcap climax and a thoroughly hilarious romp.  Even the sound effects reap their share of laughter. Written by: Rick Abbott

    Suitability: All Ages

    Cautions: alcohol and sound of gun shots

    June Bio Blitz Competition

    All day
    07-06-25-30-06-25
    Clear Creek State Park, Clear Creek Road, Sigel, PA, United States

    Clear Creek State Park
    38 Clear Creek Park Road, Sigel, PA 15860-6702

    Calling all self-proclaimed naturalists! If you are a mushroom hunter, fisherman, birder, or just like walking the trails and discovering the diversity of our parks, we need YOU! To help us learn about the diversity of organisms in our park, we are competing with other parks in a state-wide Bio Blitz competition!

    To participate, download the iNaturalist app on your phone, create an account, and start uploading observations found in your favorite parks! iNaturalist is a free citizen science project application that allows users to locate and identify organisms anywhere in the world! You don’t have to be an expert to join, simply take photos of organisms in the parks you visit (or your own backyard) and upload them to iNaturalist – all of which is done in the app itself. It’s very user friendly and can help scientists discover new populations of organisms and track those that may be declining. It really is an awesome tool for research!

    To get started, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/home and create your account. Then, simply visit our park in June and upload sightings within the park! They will automatically be submitted as part of the Bio Blitz. The more sightings, the more chances our park will win, so record everything!

    Rules for submissions are as follows:

    Recordings of birds and frogs are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough to recognize. You can upload merlin recordings as well through a PC.
    Trail camera photos are accepted and encouraged for nocturnal life. Time and date stamps should be visible. Honors system on this one!
    Plants must be WILD in your park. We will not accept garden grown plants/trees this year. It’s too easy to stand in a butterfly garden and grab dozens of species without moving. They need to be growing wild, whether they are native or invasive. This goes for natives in butterfly gardens as well. I would like to know where these species are growing wild, not where they’ve been planted. If you’re not certain, you can include it, but make note of its uncertain origin.
    No dead animals. Let’s not include roadkill, and absolutely no taxidermy.
    No pets or “escapees”. The bobwhite running around your park is not wild, and neither is the loose dog.

    Sunday, June 1, 2025

    More dates through June 30, 2025

  • 08
    08.June.Sunday

    Friends of Cook Forest: Women’s Hike Series

    All day
    08-06-25
    Campground Road, Leeper, PA 16233
    Enjoy an evening nurturing your mental and physical health.  Moderate level hiking.  Approximately 2 hours long.  Open to all women (ages 14 & up).  Please meet at the Nuthole Pavilion at the entrance to Ridge Camp.  For more information, please contact Meredith Reinhart at (814)319-4621.
    Sunday, June 8, 2025 5pm to 7pm

    Cook Forest French & Indian War Encampment

    All day
    08-06-25-08-06-25
    Cook Forest Sawmill Art Center, Cooksburg, PA, United States

    Cook Forest State Park will host a series of living history events depicting life during the French & Indian War.  Highlights of this full two-day encampment include woodland natives, cannon and musket firing, cooking, primitive skills, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, pottery, children’s games, sutler camp, renown living historians, French & Indian War Era artisans, and live tactical engagements.  Every battle is different!  Take a walk back in time along the Black Bear Trail by the Sawmill Center for the Arts during open camp hours to view   British, Colonial, French, and Native American re-enactors as they portray lifestyles of the 18th century.

    Saturday, June 7

    1000am-600pm    Event Open

    1000am-1100am  Blacksmithing Demonstration – by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    1000am-400pm    Cooking Demonstration – by Geoffrey Domowicz, Compagnie LeBoeuf chef, along Black Bear Trail at the main encampment site

    1030pm-500pm   French & Indian War Era Art & Demonstrators – meet with distinguished artists, authors, artisans, and demonstrators in the Old Sawmill Classroom

    1030pm-500pm   Sutler Row Demonstrators – Want to meet with skilled artisans to make a trade or purchase?  Looking to get into the hobby and need clothing & accoutrements?  Meet tinsmiths, cordwainers, leather workers, cooks, gunsmiths,  clothiers, weapons outfitters, and gourd makers in the long field on your right as you come into the main Sawmill entrance.

    1100am-1130am  Cannon & Musket Firing Demonstration – by the camp Corps of Artillery, located in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    1130am-1200pm Peril in the Forest – tactical engagement in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    100pm-200pm     Nasty Ned the Frontiersmen: 18th Century Teller of Tales & Historical Fact’– by Paul Stillman, living historian from Historically Speaking, at the Sawmill Theater

    200pm-300pm     18th Century Children’s Games – by the Noel family-Compagnie LeBoeuf, along Black Bear Trail at the main encampment site

    300pm-600pm     Powderhorn Fabrication Workshop – by Paul Stillman, living historian from Historically Speaking in the Old Sawmill Classroom, $25 for materials

    300pm-500pm     Blacksmithing Demonstration – by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray’, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    330pm-400pm     Cannon & Musket Firing Demo  – by the camp Corps of  Artillery, located in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    400pm-430pm     Peril in the Forest – tactical engagement in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

     

    Sunday, June 8

    900am-330pm      Event Open

    900am-930am        18th Century Sunday Service     by Rick Sanguigni of ’Friends of Dennis Murray’, located in the main encampment site along Black Bear Trail

    930am-1100am    Blacksmithing Demonstration     by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray’, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    930am-300pm      French & Indian War Era Art & Demonstrators     Meet with distinguished artists, authors, artisans, and demonstrators in the old Sawmill Classroom

    930pm-300pm     Sutler Row Demonstrators – Want to meet with skilled artisans to make a trade or purchase?   Looking to get into the hobby and need clothing & accoutrements?  Meet tinsmiths, cordwainers, leather workers, cooks, gunsmiths, clothiers, weapons outfitters, and gourd makers in the long field on your right as you come into the main Sawmill entrance.

    1015am-1045am  18th Century Children’s Games – by the Noel Family-Compagnie LeBoeuf, along Black Bear Trail at the main  encampment site

    1100am-200pm    Turkey Wingbone Call Fabrication – by Paul Stillman, living historian from Historically Speaking, in the Old Sawmill Classroom, $15 for materials

    1130am-1200pm In Defense of the Homeland– morning surprise tactical assault at the main encampment site along Black Bear Trail

    1230pm-200pm   Blacksmithing Demonstration     by ‘Friends of Dennis Murray’, across from Sawmill Craft Market

    200pm-230pm     Cannon & Musket Firing Demonstration     by the camp Corps of Artillery, in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    230pm-300pm     Peril in the Forest – tactical engagement in the woods along Black Bear Trail across from the old Sawmill Classroom

    June Bio Blitz Competition

    All day
    08-06-25-30-06-25
    Clear Creek State Park, Clear Creek Road, Sigel, PA, United States

    Clear Creek State Park
    38 Clear Creek Park Road, Sigel, PA 15860-6702

    Calling all self-proclaimed naturalists! If you are a mushroom hunter, fisherman, birder, or just like walking the trails and discovering the diversity of our parks, we need YOU! To help us learn about the diversity of organisms in our park, we are competing with other parks in a state-wide Bio Blitz competition!

    To participate, download the iNaturalist app on your phone, create an account, and start uploading observations found in your favorite parks! iNaturalist is a free citizen science project application that allows users to locate and identify organisms anywhere in the world! You don’t have to be an expert to join, simply take photos of organisms in the parks you visit (or your own backyard) and upload them to iNaturalist – all of which is done in the app itself. It’s very user friendly and can help scientists discover new populations of organisms and track those that may be declining. It really is an awesome tool for research!

    To get started, visit https://www.inaturalist.org/home and create your account. Then, simply visit our park in June and upload sightings within the park! They will automatically be submitted as part of the Bio Blitz. The more sightings, the more chances our park will win, so record everything!

    Rules for submissions are as follows:

    Recordings of birds and frogs are acceptable, as long as they are clear enough to recognize. You can upload merlin recordings as well through a PC.
    Trail camera photos are accepted and encouraged for nocturnal life. Time and date stamps should be visible. Honors system on this one!
    Plants must be WILD in your park. We will not accept garden grown plants/trees this year. It’s too easy to stand in a butterfly garden and grab dozens of species without moving. They need to be growing wild, whether they are native or invasive. This goes for natives in butterfly gardens as well. I would like to know where these species are growing wild, not where they’ve been planted. If you’re not certain, you can include it, but make note of its uncertain origin.
    No dead animals. Let’s not include roadkill, and absolutely no taxidermy.
    No pets or “escapees”. The bobwhite running around your park is not wild, and neither is the loose dog.

    Sunday, June 1, 2025

    More dates through June 30, 2025