Whitmore offers two more nature walks

DAMASCUS - Naturalist, Nathaniel Whitmore will be at Damascus Forest two days in a row, Saturday, Sept. 9 and Sunday Sept. 10, leading wild edible and medicinal plant tours. The focus for Saturday is on the identification and use of trees. The focus for Sunday is wild edible and medicinal mushrooms. The herbaceous plants found along the way will also be discussed. Both days the walks will start at 1 p.m. They will last 1.5 to 2 hours. Attend both, or just one. Nathaniel passes a hat for voluntary donations. Damascus Forest is township owned land open for public use. It is a small but beautiful and diverse piece of land. It is located on MacCubbin’s Road in Damascus, which is off of the River Road between Narrowsburg, N.Y and Milanville in Wayne County. The trees in this area are not only sources of shade and wood for buildings and tools, but also offer much in the way of nourishment and medicine. Currently, we rely mostly on stores for our foods and medicines. However, as this land is forest in its native condition, people living here once relied heavily upon the trees. Acorns were a staple food, hemlock was an important source of vitamin C and a remedy for colds- the examples go on and on. Mushrooms are also abundant in this area, and now that we are moving into the cooler rainier weather of late summer and autumn, it is once again mushroom season. We have here some of the most famous mushrooms in the world. We have prized edibles like oysters, chanterelles, porcini, and morels, as well as medicinal mushrooms with both glorious histories of use as well as extensive modern research proving their benefit. For more information about the walks, or to otherwise contact Nathaniel, call 570-224-0264.