OCCA Releases Event Schedule

OTSEGO COUNTY—The Otsego County Conservation Association announced a full slate of upcoming events for the new year. An OCCA educator will lead a homeschool nature walk at Gilbert Lake State Park at 1 p.m. on Friday, January 12. The program will feature a detailed exploration of the winter landscape.

OCCA will also start its new “Earth and Me” lunch series at 1 p.m. on Friday, January 12. Each month, participants will have a chance to gather over a soup lunch provided by OCCA at the Freight Wheel Café in Hartwick and hear an engaging speaker. The talks, curated by the OCCA Board of Directors, will explore connections to the Earth. The inaugural speaker will be local herb expert Gert Coleman. A retired associate professor of English, Coleman lives on 106 acres in Middlefield and grows herbs, flowers, trees, and at-risk native plants with her husband. She has authored numerous books and articles on herbs and recently completed a piece on yarrow. For more information on upcoming programs, visit https://www.occainfo.org/.

Finally, OCCA has asked members of the public to consider becoming Hemlock Hunters. This volunteer program offered by OCCA and Mohican Farm will train local residents to locate and report hemlock woolly adelgid, an insect pest that threatens the native eastern hemlock tree. For more information, contact programdirector@occainfo.org.