The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
HIBERNATION FEST
Great Swamp Conservancy celebrates the winter season despite the warm weather
“Cave drawings was my favorite thing. And I liked the marshmallow game.”
— Rosalind Skidmore
CANASTOTA, N.Y. » The Great Swamp Conservancy’s Winter Hibernation Festival may have lacked some hallmarks of the season, but families were still able to enjoy themselves on Saturday with an assortment of outdoor activities.
While cross county skiing and sledding wasn’t on the ticket due to the recent thaw, participants could still have fun outside and go on a horse drawn carriage ride, roast marshmallows and watch as Canastota Boys and Girls Scouts built an igloo.
“We got our skiis ready, we got our snowshoes and we had sleds ready, so that’s a big part that was cut out,” Assistant Executive Director Marilyn “Rusty”
Patane said. “Last year around, it was very cold.”
That didn’t mean there wasn’t anything for the younger generation to do. Activities like the hands-on fossil exhibit, where chil- dren learned about ancient creatures that lived in the area, let kids dig through the sand for shells. Some even got to take their own fossil home. And if they wanted to leave their mark, children could make their own ancient cave paintings, too.
“Cave drawings was my favorite thing,” 3-year-old Rosalind Skidmore said. “And I liked the marshmallow game.”
Marshmallow toss, making mobile of migratory birds, true or false bear facts and making your own bird feeder was just some of the things children did at the Hibernation Festival.
There’s a lot planned for future once spring starts.
Executive Director Barbara Henderson said there are a lot of schools in the area who will be making the Great Swamp Conservancy a field trip destination and get to learn about the swamp itself by walking the trails and see the animals that live in the area.
“I really think it awakens an interest in them to what’s here and understand that swamp isn’t a bad word like it was when we were growing up,” Henderson said. “It used to be a place you wanted to get rid of. They would drain the swamps to make agricultural fields, then when we realized back in the ‘60s and ‘70s how important they are.”
To let people know how important it is to protect places like the wetlands, the Great Swamp Conservancy will have an Earth Day Extravaganza on April 22.
Camille Warner, conservation educator at the Great Swamp, said it will be a family friendly event to celebrate the importance of protecting the environment, featuring arts and crafts, live music, games and a tree planting ceremony.