Editor’s Note: Listings in Trail Mix are free. Email: outdoor@recorder.com. The deadline is Thursday by noon. Questions? Call 413-772-0261, ext. 276. Weather may cancel or force the rescheduling of some of these events.
Great Falls Discovery Center
Kidleidoscope Fridays: 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Fridays. Come each week to learn about our wildlife neighbors who share our home in the Connecticut River Watershed. Kidleidoscope is a free child-friendly, hands-on environmental experience for young children. Each topic includes a story, interactive activities and a craft to introduce you and your child to the natural world. For ages 3 to 6. For more information, call 413-863-3221.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
Second Saturday Family Science Series: 10 to 11 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month. Free. Rregistration is encouraged at bit.ly/2zof6XW. Groups of six or more call ahead at 413-256-6006.
Girls into the Wild: Thursdays, 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., Sept.12 to Dec. 19 (no program October 31 or November 28). Sometimes, girls just need to run, explore and play outdoors. Girls into the Wild is designed to get girls outside, playing and engaging with nature in their own way. Instructor Katie Koerten will offer games and activities that each girl can participate in at her own comfort level, from climbing trees to playing camouflage in the forest to running and whooping wildly through fields — all while noticing the birds that are singing, the flowers that are blooming and the animals that are leaving tracks behind. Families provide their own transportation to the Hitchcock Center for the Environment. Members: $355. Non-members: $426. Ages 8 to11, grades 3 to 5
Davenport Conservation Area
Self-guided walking trails: The Davenport conservation area, owned by the towns of Petersham and Athol, has miles of fairly level hiking trails around a 60-acre pond. The area can be entered from a parking lot opposite 30 Doe Valley Road in Petersham. This little known area has no trail maps and is not found in the North Quabbin Recreation Guide. This is an easy self-guided walk, where blue heron, beavers, deer, moose, and much other wildlife can be found. The area has some interesting history of the Shays Rebellion and a sawmill owned by Joel Davenport in the 1899s. For more information call 978 724 3318.
Grown in Westhampton
The High Cost of Cheap Food: Pesticide Residues: Tuesday, July 30, 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Westhampton Library. Ed Stockman of Regeneration Massachusetts will lead a presentation and discussion on the true and externalized costs of food. Learn about glyphosate (Roundup) in the GMO/industrial agriculture as well as recent independent food testing research. A discussion on how to avoid food-born pesticide residues will follow along with ample time for questions and answers. Stockman is an agrobiologist, a fourth-generation farmer and the co-founder and Education Director of Regeneration Massachusetts. He is the former (retired) NOFA/Mass Organic Extension Educator and has served in the Peace Corp Alternative Agriculture Program as a volunteer and trainer in Ecuador. His on-farm research — Organic Agrosystems Research — conducts applied agricultural research. Stockman lives and farms in Plainfield.
Second Saturday Family Science Series:
Homeschool Discovery Days: