UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penn State School of Forest Resources will host families, friends and Nittany Lion fans at Pennsylvania Forest Fest, a celebration of 2011 as the International Year of Forests. Festivities will be free and open to the public.
The event is scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 25, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at The Arboretum at Penn State, on the corner of Bigler Road and Park Avenue at the University Park campus.
Forest Fest will feature forestry demonstrations, exhibits, educational activities for children and adults, food, and live entertainment. Scheduled activities include the following:
10 a.m. -- Bird-watching walk
11 a.m. -- Identifying the American chestnut tree and its wood
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- Arborist tree-climbing demonstrations
11:30 a.m. -- Mushroom-hunting walk
Noon -- Log rafts and the history of logging in Pennsylvania
12:30 p.m. -- Tree-identification walk
1 and 2 p.m. -- The Penn State Woodsman Team, demonstration of competitive lumberjack events
1:30 p.m. -- The chemistry of leaf pigmentation
In addition, musical performances will be offered on the hour, beginning with Hannah Bingman at 10 a.m. Performances by Grain, Pure Cane Sugar, Colebrook Road and Van Wagner will follow.
Alcoholic beverages, food, lawn furniture, pets, bicycles and sports equipment -- including footballs and Frisbees -- are prohibited at the event site, the H. O. Smith Botanic Gardens.
The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 the International Year of Forests to raise awareness of how forests enrich our environment. The aim is for citizens worldwide to experience the forest and to understand how our vitality is linked to our ecosystem. For more information, visit http://www.CelebrateForests.com online.
The School of Forest Resources in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences provides professional education and research dedicated to the management of forest resources and their use by society.
To learn more, visit the Web at http://www.sfr.psu.edu/public/pa-forest-fest online.