Sunday At Orchard Hill—

An Educational Walk In The Woods

The public is invited to join members of Town & Country Garden Club, which has been working with Newtown Lions Club and Girl Scout Troop 50599, for the 4th Annual Town & Country Nature Walk.

That event will return to Orchard Hill Nature Center on Sunday, May 15. Residents of all ages are invited to visit the nature center on Huntingtown Road, from 2 to 5 pm, to walk its trails, learn to identify plants along the way, answer questions and win prizes, and enjoy refreshments. Members of all three groups will be on hand for the event, which is free of charge.

Well before the public arrives on Sunday, the Girl Scouts will be at the nature center. The girls and their co-leaders, Clare Harrison and Gina Wolfman, will continue working toward their Bronze Award project. The Reed School students began their project last year when they created posters about wildflowers for the 2010 Nature Walk.

This year the girls are focusing on invasives. On May 5 they spent their troop meeting creating posters that will be hung at the nature center on Sunday to educate those who attend the Nature Walk about the plants that can be very harmful to environments into which they are introduced. Under the guidance of Town & Country Garden Club members, the Girl Scouts will spend four hours on Sunday removing invasives from the nature center before the public arrives at the nature center.

“Between that, and then greeting the public and answering questions for the duration of the nature walk, the girls will be putting in an eight-hour day,” Ms Wolfman said.

Garden Club members have also been updating signs to be placed along the trail to identify wildflowers, plants, and trees found within the nature center. The event will also encourage participants to explore the center’s waterfall and walk its boardwalk through ferns and wetlands.

All participants will receive an free plant or seed packet, and depending on the number of correct answers submitted, some participants will win prizes for their nature knowledge. A set of Frends Ear Buds, a plant from Planter’s Choice and a hanging plant from Hollandia Nurseries are among the prizes to be awarded.

Appropriate outdoor clothing and insect repellant is strongly suggested.

For more information, or in the event of rain on Sunday afternoon, call Margareta Kotch at 203-426-5426.