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Guided family forest walks added to fest lineup

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Children explore the perennially popular corn maze at a recent festival. (Karen Wilcox photo)

Moose Mountains Regional Greenways' 13th annual Woods, Water & Wildlife Festival will take place on Saturday, Aug. 8 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. As always, the event will be held at Branch Hill Farm, 307 Applebee Road in Milton Mills, NH.

This daylong celebration of the great outdoors is an opportunity for families to have fun and experience the delights of natural world together.

Several new entertaining and educational activities will be featured at this year's festival. Children and parents can go on a Guided Family Forest Walk, a fun discovery adventure led by MMRG Education Coordinator Kari Lygren.

Or join consulting forester Dan Stepanauskas for Best Bird and Bat Habitats as he shows sites of bird and bat houses around Branch Hill Farm.

Festivalgoers can also watch a low impact mechanized harvester at work during your Tree Farm Hayride with forester Charlie Moreno. Don't miss the chance to learn about the activities of Strafford County 4H and for your kids to play interactive games at 4H Comes to the Festival! At Growing Heirloom Veggies, Sheehan Lygren will show off his artistic garden and share his gardening and composting skills. Completing the new MMRG Conservation Quest will take your whole family to all our festival activities as you seek the stickers to fill out your Quest card and get your tasty reward.

Returning festival attendees will be happy to see their favorite activities. Volunteer instructors from NH Fish & Game provide poles and bait to kids for Let's Go Fishing! at the Branch Hill Farm pond. Nature experts display rescued animals at the Squam Lakes Wildlife Workshop and Ruth Scruton's Traveling Barnyard has a petting zoo. Junior Ecologist Hayrides to the Salmon Falls River stop for a lesson about the importance of our streams for wildlife and water quality. Kids Discover the Forest and Nature's Playground events give families a chance to explore and play amongst the ferns and tall trees. Cooperative Extension agriculture and forestry experts answer your questions, and volunteers from the NH Farm Museum, local craftsmen, and horse loggers demonstrate traditional rural skills. Kids can get creative in the Tree Cookie Craft Corner, or try building their own birdhouses. And everyone loves to explore the Amazing Corn Maze.

Homemade salads, desserts, hot grilled food, and cold smoothies will be on sale along with T-shirts and raffle baskets of local fresh produce and other items. The festival takes place rain or shine. No pets please. Rest rooms and most events are wheelchair accessible. The cost is $5/person or $10/family and free to ages 12 and under and to MMRG members; all events are included in the admission price. Proceeds and business sponsorships support MMRG's land conservation and educational outreach mission.

MMRG is grateful to its festival underwriters, the Siemon Company and Branch Hill Farm/Carl Siemon Family Charitable Trust, which is also the co-presenter. MMRG would like to thank the following early bird major sponsors: Beverly Siemon, D.F. Richard Energy, Gene Hays, Great East Lake Improvement Association, the Frank Massin Agency, Index Packaging, MapleStone Farm, Mi-Te-Jo Campground, New England Furniture, and Norman Vetter Foundations. Thanks are also due to many more business, organizational, and individual co-sponsors and supporters and to the dedicated volunteers who have already signed up to help out. More volunteers as well as business sponsors are needed. For more information, call 603-978-7125, email info@mmrg.info or visit www.mmrg.info/festival.

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