NatureFest

When: Saturday, March 22, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Where: Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Tickets: Free with Museum Admission. Advance Registration Strongly Recommended

Join Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s scientists, educators, and community partners for NatureFest! Browse the full schedule below and plan your day. Whether you’re looking for family-friendly fun or a deep dive into land stewardship and invasive species research, there’s programming for nature lovers of all ages.

NatureFest Schedule:
Family-Friendly Activities, 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., drop-in any time

Enjoy hands-on activities throughout the museum to explore environmental topics in our region and connect with more than a dozen local organizations working to protect our rivers, parks, wildlife, and more.

Activities are designed for kids ages 5-12 and their families, they include:

• Learning about invasive species in our area, including freshwater mussels living in our rivers.

• Sorting through leaf litter to look for tiny snails.

• Seeing plant specimens from the museum’s herbarium and finding out how scientists use them to study climate change.

• Making and taking home a coloring page based on herbarium specimens.

• Meeting artist Koichi Watanabe and learning about his decades long explorations of itadori (knotweed) around the world.

• Finding out how to join the City Nature Challenge and contribute to active scientific research by making observations and uploading photos.

Pop-up Tours of Uprooted: Plants Out of Place, 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m., Meet in Hall of Botany
Be among the first to visit the groundbreaking exhibition Uprooted: Plants Out of Place on a 30-minute tour with a museum educator. See both exhibition locations (Hall of Botany and Third Floor Overlook) and ask questions as you go.

Symposium: Stories of Land Stewardship, 1:00-3:30 p.m., Earth Theater
1:00-1:30 p.m., Stewardship Mistakes: Museum researchers Ainsley Seago, Nicole Heller, Jon Rice, and Mason Heberling tell short stories of human-driven species introductions and land management with unintended ecological outcomes. Explore popular science examples from around the world, which serve as cautionary tales of human interference and hubris.

1:30-3:30 p.m., Stories of Land Stewardship: Tim Byan (Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania), AJ Monsma and/or John Creasy (Garfield Community Farm), Jared Belsky (Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy), and Gavin Deming (Allegheny Goatscape) discuss their important work with invasive species management and holistic land stewardship. Learn about the diverse array of invasive species solutions taking place in Pittsburgh and ask your burning questions.

Film Screening of Seeing the Unseen: Aquatic Invaders & What’s at Stake, 3:45-4:30 p.m., Earth Theater
Watch a short film by the Western PA Conservancy and Great Lakes Media & Film about aquatic invasive species threatening the Lake Erie watershed and nearby regions. Learn how conservation-minded people, groups, and organizations (including the Conservancy) are working on efforts to combat and reduce the threat of invasives in these important and vital ecosystems. This film provides actions and measures anyone can take to slow the spread of invasive species entering the watershed.