Because we are currently unable to offer any guided ecology walks in person, we are providing some new online resources to help guide your explorations of the natural world in Columbia County during this time of physical distancing.
Monday through Saturday, our staff takes turns posting daily photographic essays entitled “Farmscape Wonder Wanders” both on Facebook and in our blog Progress of the Seasons Journal. In these essays, we share what we see, learn, and find interesting during our own explorations of natural areas here in the County. We invite you to “come for a walk” with us and then also to share your own discoveries. The Sunday posts are a potpourri of select seasonal observations contributed by the community. They also contain a brief comparison of this year’s seasonal events with historical events recorded from our area for the same calendar week in the period between 1826-1875.
We also have created a new webpage “Spring Flora of Columbia County,” where—from now until the end of May 2020—we will assemble weekly a virtual bouquet (really, just a pdf poster) of the flowers currently seen in the County. These “What is in bloom?” posters (see example for the week of 21-28 March 2020) have links to species descriptions of each flower to facilitate learning more about them.
We hope these small offerings from the natural world will enrich your days, entice you to experience nature yourself, and bring a little bit of peace into this turbulent time.