Spring is officially here and with that comes new life, the sun, and Earth Day (April 22^nd)! It is hard to believe that this time last year we were gearing up to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day at all three of our centers. Because of the pandemic, and wanting to keep everyone safe, we decided to cancel our celebration. Not only was canceling sad for us, but it also was sad for you! Truthfully, the hundreds of volunteers that usually come for Earth Day were missed tremendously at all three of our locations. We missed the hundreds of pounds of trash pulled out of our parks and waterways, we missed the piles and piles of invasive species being removed, the trails being maintained, the smothering fabric being removed. Our land stewards and facilities teams spent last spring and summer just trying to catch up on all the work that our wonderful volunteers would have helped us with in celebration of Earth Day. We were reminded how much we love and appreciate our volunteers, and how much our natural areas rely on the work you do every time you volunteer with us, whether it's Earth day or not.

Snakes get a bad rap. For many of us, it is instinctual to feel a sense of imminent danger when these critters are near. As many of you may know, snakes are reptiles. Herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians) stems from the Greek word ‘herpton’ which literally refers to things that creep and crawl. The first time I held a snake was in high school. At the time, I was intimidated to touch a scaly Red-tailed Boa in front of me—as were many of my fellow classmates (crouching on chairs with hesitant and fearful glances). Despite all that, I slowly reached out my hand and was met with smooth overlapping scales and a small flickering forked tongue. From then on I was in awe of these critters and became passionate about snake conservation efforts.