The Naturalist’s Blog

Week of March 29, 2026 – April 4, 2026 by Kaylen Iorio, Environmental Educator Throughout the year, 3rd graders throughout the Syracuse City School District are receiving Nature in the City (NITC) lessons revolving around water. In their first lesson, students identify parts of the water cycle and discuss how humans impact this cycle. They also observe how pollutants like pesticides, road salt, and trash can get into our waterways when large storms [...]

Week of March 22, 2026 – March 28, 2026 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator Have you ever been outside on a warm (or not so warm) spring day and suddenly noticed a giant flock of birds? This has happened to me a few times this year, and it’s not always in an expected or exciting location. I’ve seen huge flocks of Snow Geese while taking trash out to the dumpster, robins [...]

Week of March 15, 2026 – March 21, 2026 by Amelia Gross, Environmental Educator The culminating Nature in the City lesson for 4th graders, “From the Bottom Up”, integrates the topics of energy, interactions within ecosystems, and the equally important subject of historic female scientists. Classes investigate how energy moves through food chains by focusing on top predators in Syracuse, like the Cooper’s Hawk. They also look at the real-world example of what [...]

Week of March 8, 2026 – March 14, 2026 by Katie McLaughlin, Environmental Educator Snowpants and shorts in the same week? Sounds like March is upon us! With the below freezing temperatures at night and above during the day, it also means that it is MAPLE SEASON! At Baltimore Woods we tap just 10 trees to collect sap and demonstrate the different methods of collection during field trips, but would you [...]

Week of March 1, 2026 – March 7, 2026 by Kaylen Iorio, Environmental Educator March has always been my least favorite month. It’s not quite winter and not quite spring, and the transition between seasons feels long and drawn out. However, as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to appreciate those in-between months because quite a lot is happening in the natural world! Maple sugaring runs deep in Central New York’s history [...]

Week of February 22, 2026 – February 28, 2026 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator If you’ve visited Baltimore Woods recently, you may have noticed bustling activity at our birdfeeders. With periods of bitter cold and snow the past few weeks, these feathered friends are especially hungry. We have been hard at work tallying birds through our Project FeederWatch program, in which we record all bird species and individuals seen in the backyard [...]

Week of February 15, 2026 – February 21, 2026 by Amelia Gross, Environmental Educator Every time I’m congested, struggling to breathe out of my nose, and wondering how many more tissues I can possibly go through, I tell myself the same lie: “When I’m done being sick, I will appreciate my normal breathing more.” This lasts for a day or two at most, before I forget I was ever sick and [...]

Week of February 8, 2026 – February 14, 2026 by Katie McLaughlin, Environmental Educator On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I am out with a homeschool group exploring the preserve. Thursdays this year are a new experience for all of us as we are piloting a Bushcraft Trail School program for teens (and pre-teens). Jeff Devine and I take this small group of young teens out onto our newest part of Baltimore [...]

Week of February 1, 2026 – February 7, 2026 by David DuBois, Director of Stewardship We devote a lot of time and energy discussing the negative environmental impact that our species can wreak on the world around us. From land clearing to development, there is no question that human impacts have the potential to negatively impact the environment. However, humanity’s power to do great damage is coupled with an equally amazing [...]