Ithaca Garden Network

Ithaca, NY --- Do you love spending time in the forests, meadows and other natural areas of the Finger Lakes region?  Do you care about preserving the integrity of the natural world and do you want to share this love with others?  If so, consider joining a new educational program at Cornell Plantations: the Natural Areas Academy.

The Natural Areas Academy is designed to offer an engaged, educational experience through workshops, field trips, and hands on volunteer stewardship projects.  Experience gained in the Natural Areas Academy will prepare participants for proactive and independent conservation roles and to become mentors themselves, as part of the Plantations natural areas program.

To begin, the Natural Areas Academy will offer a monthly series of workshops.  These workshops will cover a number of essential natural area stewardship techniques that participants can then put into practice. Upcoming workshops include Preserve Monitoring, Invasive Species Management, Trail Maintenance, Native Seed Collection, and Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Monitoring. Academy members will also participate as volunteers to gain additional first hand experience while assisting in the management of one of Cornell Plantations diverse natural areas.

The workshop series begins with the Natural Areas Academy Orientation on Saturday, March 20 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., in the Lewis Education Center classroom (located at One Plantations Road in Ithaca on the Cornell campus).  The orientation will introduce attendees to Cornell Plantations, the Natural Areas Academy Program, and additional volunteer and educational opportunities.

To register for the Natural Areas Academy and Plantations’ volunteer program, or for more information, please visit the Natural Areas Academy website at http://www.cornellplantations.org/NAA , or contact Kevin Moss, community outreach coordinator, at km274@cornell.edu , (607) 254-7430.

Cornell Plantations is the arboretum, botanical garden, and natural areas of Cornell University and is a member of Ithaca’s Discovery Trail partnership.  For more information, visit www.cornellplantations.org .