Shawnee Fall Nature Safari

Midwest Native Plant Society will present a fall weekend event, centered at Shawnee State Park and including locations in Adams and Scioto Counties, the weekend of September 8 through 10. Registration and fee is required. For full details, and to register, visit the Society’s web site, at https://www.midwestnativeplants.org/NatureSafari.

We hope you will join us for this wonderful safari-style weekend immersed in nature. Our home base will be Shawnee Lodge & Conference Center located in Scioto County and surrounded by the beautiful Shawnee State Forest, and only 20 minutes from many diverse and pretty amazing locations in Adams County/the Edge of Appalachia Preserve and the Sunshine Corridor.

We will focus on late summer blooming native flora and the bees and butterflies that are dependent on them. We are fortunate to have keynote speakers who are trained in entomology and the natural sciences.

We are looking forward to hearing Dr. Olivia Carril, Jim McCormac, Dr. Randall Mitchell, and Judy Semroc. In addition, these experts will be joining you in the field for Saturday daytime trips and Friday and Saturday evening events.

Our daytime and evening field trips are with skilled and experienced leaders to help you learn and to explore the flora and fauna of the hills of Southern Ohio. There will be a focus on native plants and how they support our native wildlife, but we will have themed trips for wildflowers, trees, native bees, butterflies, birds, herps, caterpillars, moths and more!

• We will have a variety of Nocturnal Activities, such as astronomy, viewing night insects with a focus on moths, field trips to find caterpillars, night scouting for insect songs and more.  Usually, night trips will drive no further than 1/2 mile from the lodge.  Some evening activities are weather dependent.
• On Sunday we close our conference with a keynote presentation. There will be a chance to register for a photography workshop (Limit 8). To visit on your own, we compiled this list of unique habitats that we like to visit.