The Naturalist’s Blog

Week of August 24, 2025 – August 30, 2025 by Lizzy Suzedell, Environmental Educator When we think about the weather, measurements like the temperature, clouds, rain, and wind always come to mind. However, to make a forecast, one of the most important considerations is the air pressure. We hear meteorologists talk about it all the time on TV as high and low pressure systems approach, but what does that actually mean [...]

Week of August 17, 2025 – August 23, 2025 by Katie McLaughlin, Environmental Educator Have you heard of the 3 R’s? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This camp season at Baltimore Woods, campers had a wonderful opportunity to learn about the recycling rules for Onondaga county! While many of us know our basics of what to recycle like paper and plastic – there are certain rules that go along with each of those [...]

Week of August 10, 2025 – August 16, 2025 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator After a sweltering summer day, you might enjoy spending some time outdoors in the cool night air. Night is a lovely time to have a cookout, enjoy a summer park concert, or search for nocturnal critters who are also active. About a week ago, we set up black lights for our night buggin’ program at Baltimore Woods. [...]

Week of August 3, 2025 – August 9, 2025 by Kaylen Iorio, Environmental Educator Here at Baltimore Woods we have some very special staff members (in addition to the humans) that will usually greet you with a smile! I’m talking about our ambassador turtles: Fern, Geronimo, Lucy, and Mr. T! Ambassador animals play an integral and unique role in any nature center, allowing visitors to closely observe them and form meaningful connections. [...]

Week of July 27, 2025 – August 2, 2025 by David DuBois, Director of Stewardship Late summer is the time of goldenrods. From every highway verge and overgrown edge, their golden colors erupt onto the scene, brightening up the space with yellow so vibrant it can only be described in a self-referential way, as goldenrod. Their affinity for common spaces and unignorable hue have given this amazing plant a reputation as [...]

Week of July 20, 2025 – July 26, 2025 by Katie McLaughlin, Environmental Educator This year I had a few of my Trail School students tell me that they want to be me, teaching others about nature, when they grow up. Yes- I totally teared up when they told me that, but it got me thinking about the story of how I came to be an Environmental Educator. I was always catching frogs, [...]

Week of July 13, 2025 – July 19, 2025 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator I recently went on a trip to the coast of Maine, which included a visit to my college campus. It had been a few years since my last visit, but many things remained the same. I especially enjoyed visiting my tree friends! There is a very old, castle-like stone building in the middle of campus, and in [...]

Week of July 6, 2025 – July 12, 2025 by Kaylen Iorio, Environmental Educator Summer camp at Baltimore Woods is right around the corner! The staff has been working hard to prepare the trails and make sure the camp spots are safe and set up for fun. Soon we’ll be hosting kids looking forward to exploring the wonders of Baltimore Woods. From flipping rocks in the stream to building forts deep [...]

Week of June 29, 2025 – July 5, 2025 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator A heat wave last week brought both high temperatures and high humidity to Central New York, making it feel as muggy and oppressive as the tropics. This weather got me thinking a lot about how heat and humidity create different climates around the country. Humidity is the measurement of the amount of water vapor in the air. [...]