Phone: 207-236-2239
Email: mersprng@gwi.net

We are lucky enough to have our own cider press to use for educational purposes. During a visit to the park, students are able to participate in grinding apples, spreading apple mash in burlap squares, stacking press frames between each layer of apple mash, and then helping to press the apples for cider. Everyone is welcome to try some of the cider they helped to make, but remember... the apples get sweeter as fall progresses and since each variety matures at a different time, this usually dictates what we use for cider. Students will also learn how cider can be stored, about some of the man varieties of apples grown in Maine, and why eating locally grown food like apples is healthier for us and for the environment. If instructors are interested, we can also give several local orchards including an organic one that will let children come and pick apples themselves.

This program takes a comprehensive look at the topic of protective coloration in nature. Under this general heading we examine color, pattern, texture, shape, and even behavior as mechanisms for escaping notice. We even look at the other side of the coin--creatures like salamanders and butterflies whose bright coloration is advertising their disagreeable taste.

Our collection of slides and hands -on exhibits like feathers and animal skins gets kids involved right away, and then it's time for field activities where they take turns at being the hunters and the hunted. Other activities have them designing a camouflaged moth, and hunting for camo-colored toothpicks on the ground in a race against the clock and each other.

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The gray squirrel is one of countless examples of countershading; perhaps the most universal camouflage mechanism of all.

The Kitty Todd Arboretum of native and naturalized shrubs and trees provides Merryspring visitors with an ideal place to study Maine's woody plant ecology. The ten acre arboretum was clear cut just before the land was purchased for the Park in 1974. Since then a wide variety- over 74- of new plants have appeared, most of which were brought to the arboretum by nature. We have developed a well-labeled guide to where specimen plants can be found and many more exist throughout the park. This area of the park is also an example of how managing land can increase chances of plant survival and diversity.

Students will be shown the common tree and shrub species that greatly influence Maine's environment. Depending on their age, students may learn some of the more obscure species and botanical names of plants as well. The importance of some of these plants will be discussed. We are also in the process of developing an herbarium so that this program can be taught during winter months and taken outside of the park to classrooms.