Parks and People is an adventure in learning about the natural world around you.  By focusing on resources found in your own neighborhood, you will learn about the makeup of  the natural world, its function and the value that it provides to the community.  This adventure is a one-year journey that will help you to become more knowledgeable about nature and the city.

This Summer, there will be three outdoor workshops that will kick off the Parks and People initiative.  The following workshops will be held at Emerson Wight Park, and you are encouraged to attend.  They will be fun, entertaining and a great opportunity to learn.  The workshops are open to folks of all ages, so bring you friends and families to the event.

Details on the next upcoming workshop is shown below:

LEARN ABOUT BIRDS

July 29, 2015
4:00 – 6:00 PM
Emerson Wight Park, Marble Street, Springfield, MA

Come learn about birds in the South End Neighborhood of Springfield. They help pollinate, eat a lot of bitting insects and add to the quality of life in our neighborhood. Also having a lot of different birds can tell us the health of the environment around us.

Plan to attend this FREE informational event, which features demonstrations, outdoor experiments and refreshments. This event is open to ages, including adults. Even if you don’t live in the South End, please come to the event.

This neighborhood learning, fun session, features several researchers, who will lead you on a fun, exciting look at the birds in the city. We will learn about how you can participate in helping to care and maintain bird populations in your yard, in our parks and along our streets. This will be a FUN event, and don’t worry if you don’t know much about birds; you will know a lot more when you leave the event.

Come to Emerson Wight on Wednesday, July 29th from 4:00 – 6:00 PM —

• Learn Something New
• Easy to Understand Science
• Fun Filled and Fast Paced
• Food and Drink

The program is called “Our City Forest” – a free program for area students run by Springfield Parks Department, ReGreen Springfield, and the U.S Forest Service.

The thought is if they work with kids early on, it provides long-term benefits for students and the city. “The neat thing about this project here. It’s taken place in an area…an area of a lot of crime, but if we can have the youth focus in on projects where they won’t join a gang. The idea is to keep them out of the gangs, in school, enrich their education,” explained David Bloniarz of the U.S. Forest Service.

The mission is to use hands-on activities, like tree bingo, to learn what we can find in our own urban activities.  “What they can see in their own urban spaces.  We’re not looking at big deers or things like that.  We’re looking at raccoons, coyotes, birds, and all the other things they’ll see in Forest Park, Blunt Park, or Van Horn,” said Bloniarz. “It gives you a learning experience for life and to encourage you to do things to help out the community,” added 10-year-old Samara Abraham.

Click Here to learn more about the ‘Our City Forest’ program.