Join Knox-Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District (KLSWCD) and the Maine Forest Service for a walk & talk “Identifying Woodland Shrubs,” on Thursday, Aug. 16 from 3-5 p.m. at Georges River Land Trust’s Appleton Preserve. At this time of year some shrubs are still flowering, but most are in fruit, which is an important source of food for wildlife – and a great boon to identification.

This free tour is the seventh in the 2018 series of Knox-Lincoln Small-Scale Woodland Stewardship Tours, which are designed to highlight woodland stewardship and conservation practices of private landowners and is open to landowners, loggers, foresters and others interested in the stewardship of small woodlands. MFS District Forester Morten Moesswilde and KLSWCD Program Manager Hildy Ellis will lead the tour along the trail system of the 124-acre Appleton Preserve, which offers up-close vies of the St George river. They will be joined by Georges River Land Trust Stewardship Project Manager Brent West, who will relate the history of the preserve and plans for interpretive signs highlighting the importance of forest habitat.

The tour will begin at 3pm at the preserve parking lot near the intersection of Route 131 and Route 105, where Route 105 crosses the St. George River in Appleton. Tours take place rain or shine (barring lightning and blizzards), so please dress for weather, as well as field and bug conditions. For more info about the series and to register for this free tour, contact Knox-Lincoln SWCD at 596-2040, hildy@knox-lincoln.org or www.knox-lincoln.org/woodland-stewardship-tours.