HISTORIC HARVEST FESTIVAL - This Sunday!

Join us on Sunday, November 8, 2009 from 2 - 5 pm for the 7th Annual Historic Harvest Festival at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center!

For the seventh year, we will offer this fun, family friendly event! Visit displays and demonstrations - including historic toy demonstrations - as well as games, crafts, and a nature walk! Watch a puppeteer, listen to music from the Kalob Griffen Band, pet the Giant Rabbits, and MORE!

This is a great event - you will not want to miss!

Please join us - rain, snow, or shine! (Forecasts says "Shine" for now!)

If you have any questions, please contact Centre Region Parks & Recreation at 231-3071. This event is being planned by PSU Recreation, Parks & Tourism Management students, with supervisor and guidance from the MMNC Recreation Supervisor, Molly Hetrick, and the PSU RPTM 356 Instructor, Kathleen Raupauch.

Wonderful Wetlands Camp

Wonderful Wetlands Camp is truly the crowning glory of the whole summer! Its the very last camp of the season, its the biggest camp we do at MMNC, and its the final project for the Summer Interns to plan ALL the activities during this camp week!

This year, Wetlands Camp was better than ever! We had great leaders, great campers, and a fantastic crew of guest speakers, including volunteers who taught the "Green Ambassadors" training and the Leave No Trace Traveling Trainers!

Kids participated in daily teambuilding activities that helped them bond and become more connected with their leaders. Below is a picture of a fierce tug-o-war game: Team A (left) won the first round on their own, then we added in the Leaders and Team A won again!

The final round, they added ME (the not very muscular supervisor) to the Team B side, though I was skeptical it would really do any good! It was a close call but a little extra weight from Intern Justin (pictured - center) helped Team B finally win a round! All were happy and celebrated with popsicles!

Kids also enjoyed "Special Places" a journaling activity that has them return to the same spot each day to think, rest, write in their journal, and study how nature changes.

Campers hiked to Spring Creek Park to catch stream critters and understand the importance of clean water.

We also had a visit from Justin's father, Mr. Plank, who brought his box turtles and gave us a great program on raising and protecting box turtles!

And much much more! Watch for more pictures to come from Wetlands Camp and the "Moments at the Marsh" Art Gallery!

Calling all Artists & Photographers!

"Moments of the Marsh"

Art and Photography Show

Saturday, Aug 8, 2009

6 pm - 9 pm

Light Refreshments Offered

Come and view art and photographs that have a Millbrook Marsh Nature Center theme! Some items will be available for view, others will be on a silent auction!
Please join us between 6 and 9 pm for this fun event, planned by Lana Conrad, PSU Environmental Studies student and MMNC Summer Intern! (Help make Lana's special program a success!)

**Art and Photographs are needed for display during this event! If you have any marsh themed art or photos (preferably framed), please contact Lana at lmc313@psu.edu or via cell at 814-935-4549. Items can also be donated to MMNC for the silent auction!**

A New Resident!

In May, the staff reported someone (kids?) was filling little Bathgate stream with twigs and sticks, which was causing the water to back up. They removed it two days in a row -- only to find it returned every morning!

On the third day, we removed a large sapling and discovered the tell-tale marks of a beaver chew on the end of the sapling. A BEAVER?! We have no record of beavers in the marsh area at all, only farther downstream in Spring Creek.

This was VERY exciting and we've been watching for the past month as this industrious beaver creates a dam of twigs and sticks gathered (not all chewed) from the marsh, plus mud, watercress, leaves, corn husks (??), and other items.

The construction is next to the boardwalk, easily viewed by visitors, and a great educational teaching tool for staff and visitors! Nature center staff are monitoring the impact the dam has on the upstream area, but since its mostly meadow area there, the impact has been low so far.

Two neighbors have reported seeing the beaver, a mostly nocturnal animal. Since beavers are also very shy, we hope to keep human/dog/beaver interactions to a minimum.

If you visit the marsh at dusk, move quietly on the boardwalk to the place where Bathgate stream goes under the boardwalk and look to the right. Please never disturb wild animals, just observe.

Pictures are welcome! Here is one taken early in the construction (above). Please click the word BEAVER above (or click here) for the link to a beaver info page. They are fascinating creatures!

Another animal that enjoys the marsh can be viewed in the second photo!

This is a Northern Water Snake, sometimes mistaken as a Copperhead or Cottonmouth, but not poisonous. (Its always best not to handle wild snakes, just observe).

Black Crowned Night Heron at MMNC

Hello Readers!

Wow, has it been a long time since I added to our blog! We've been too busy with spring programs and preparing for Spring to do much blogging, but here are some great photos I want to share with you!

In April, the new Spring Staff members were spending time on the boardwalk preparing for school groups when they noticed a large bird in a tree near Bathgate Springs. We were gawking and looking when a friendly couple came along with binos and a camera.

Lucky for us, because what we were seeing was a Black Crowned Night Heron - an endangered species in PA!

It stayed for about four days, to the excitement of the birding community, then moved on.

Winter Scenes

Special thank you to Dr. Robert Brooks, who provided these amazing photos from a winter walk through MMNC on Sunday, Jan 18th!

All photos: Robert P. Brooks Images

MMNC Update!

Hello Readers!

My goal is to update the blog every Friday, so in considering an update for today, I thought it would be nice to update you on some of the exciting things going on at MMNC:

~ The MMNC Advisory Committee has formed a "Building Subcommittee" to review the plans for the proposed Spring Creek Education Building and keep this project moving forward! On Wednesday, the subcommittee met with the architect and we are all feeling very excited and positive about this project!

~ The Building Fund Campaign is still ongoing! We continue to contact local legislators for support in obtaining the state's funding release ($1.25 million was pledged to the center in 2004). So far the campaign has raised $1,039,655 locally and plans to proceed with Phase One of the Spring Creek Education Building in 2009. But in order to do Phase Two, we need additional support and the release of the state funding, so please help if you can!

~ Program registrations for the Winter/Spring Programs began in January and is ongoing! Centre Region Parks & Recreation has great Winter/Spring Programs and you can now register online! Check it out!

~ MMNC will very soon be advertising upcoming employment positions, so please watch the Help Wanted section on the CRPR website or the MMNC Employment & Volunteer page.

~ Scheduling for school group programs for Spring 2009 has begun! I met with SCASD this week to schedule their Kindergarten and Primary trips for Spring, and had the opportunity to meet with elementary educators in the Bald Eagle Area School District to share information about attending MMNC program. Next week, I will meet with Bellefonte educators as well! All groups - small and large - are welcome. Please check out out the Group Program information!

~ I had the pleasure of participating in the Bellefonte Elementary School RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program this past Tuesday. Throughout the day, a total of 400 kids came through the auditorium and participated in 10-minute programs with me, before picking out a free RIF book to take home. We talked about the nature center, looked at a bear skull, talked about skunks and beavers, looked at Native American artifacts, and touched the snake skin. Kids who had attended programs at MMNC in the Fall or last Spring got some quiz questions from me -- and they did great! I was delighted to see how much they had learned and remembered!

While MMNC is under a blanket of snow right now, we are busy as can be getting ready for the upcoming program season. Please visit the website and join us for programs!