Historical societies and environmental commissions get us outside+my Audubon article
A historic house tour and a native plant garden tour got me outside this month.
The hardest part of getting outdoors in fall is deciding which outings to go on. There are just so many. As usual, I overscheduled, and consequently didn’t get on all of them. I missed Asbury Park (N.J.) Porchfest and the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. (There’s always next year.) Also didn’t make the night hike at Harriman State Park with my hiking group.
But I did manage to go on two tours: one run by the Lambertville Historical Society, the other the Madison (N.J.) Environmental Commission—not exactly groups that come to mind when one looks for outdoorsy events. If you’re looking for local, social, dirt-cheap ways to get outside, then check out these types of groups near you.
Historic House Tour
I’m not big on house tours. But when five privately owned homes built in the 1800s open their doors for a day, I’m all in. Extra points when the homes are in an artsy, antique-y town with tons of restaurants, are all within walking distance of one another, near a canal path (D&R Canal), and the entire town’s outfitted for Halloween. Such was the Lambertville Historical Society’s historic house tour last week.
By the way, one house tour had us exiting through the backyard and onto the canal path, which you could take to the next house on the tour. Along the way, I came across some musicians on the back porch of a house.
Native Plant Garden Tour
The Madison Environmental Commission ran a native plant garden tour, and 200 people showed up. One yard had several vendors—a nature bookstore, native plant nursery, local landscape architects, the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, and a local conservation group fighting a nearby development. Free plants and trees were handed out, and my friend and I visited the farmers market, and had dinner at 200-year-old tavern.
Check out historical societies and environmental commissions near you, and sign up for their newsletters. You never know what you might find.
My Audubon Magazine article
A while back, I wrote an article about a program that trained dogs to sniff out invasive insects. During my research, as I watched the dogs find insects hidden in the woods, I met Dr. Linda Rohleder, director of land stewardship at the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference where she built its Invasives Strike Force volunteer program.
When she left the trail conference a couple years ago, she started a nonprofit to help restore forest understory in the lower Hudson Valley and northern New Jersey. Our understories have been decimated by deer overbrowse and invasive plants to the point where we have little left. Wild Woods Restoration Project seeks to change that by using volunteers to collect seed, grow plants, and install them in parks and preserves.
It also rescues native plants from sites scheduled for development. I went on one such rescue, digging up maple viburnum and other plants that would go into nearby woods.
So when an editor at Audubon Magazine sent out a pitch call for articles, I pitched this group. The result is this piece that is running in its fall issue, as well as online—This Hudson Valley Group Puts a Homegrown Spin on Restoring Native Forests. I hope you enjoy reading it.
You had a very productive and memorable month! I really appreciated your Audubon story, as well.