BY ZACH PATBERG STAFF WRITER
Young people will have the opportunity to learn about the environment and how to keep it vibrant during the 13th annual Fall Forestry Festival being held by the Forest Resource Education Center in Jackson on Saturday.
"That's why it's free," said Mandy DiMartino, a spokeswoman for the center, which covers 640 acres in Jackson. "So we can spread environmental awareness for kids."
The festival will offer 30 nature-themed exhibits — such as pumpkin painting, birdhouse building, a sawmill demonstration and a hayride through the Pinelands. There also will be 10 guided hikes through the autumn forests, including one focusing on identifying types of trees.
Bob Birdsall, a well-known Pinelands photographer, will be signing copies of his newest book, "People of the Pines."
The event also attracts Scout troops, because many of its programs satisfy badge requirements. Last year, Miss New Jersey United States 2006 winner 26, led Girl Scouts on a discovery hike to identify forest foliage. The hike earned the girls their first requirement toward a junior outdoor creativity badge.
Then there are exhibitors such as the Nymans, a husband-and-wife team from Evesham who carve wood wildlife figures. Ray Nyman, 72, started carving decoys in 1961 while still a hunter.
He no longer hunts, he said, but is very interested in keeping the decoy tradition going.
"Now that it's pretty much faded out and been replaced by plastic (decoys), we go to the festival to keep the art alive. It's the oldest-known American art, started by the Native Americans," he said as he was painting a full-size green herring to be used at the forest education center.
He and his wife Barbara, 69, will have their display table inside the education building, flanked by a man who carves a 5-foot tall Jersey Devil as a display, and another who carves wood games and puzzles. This will be the Nyman s' eighth year at the festival.
The center, part of the New Jersey State Forestry Service, bought the Jackson property in the early 1980s, DiMartino said. In 1997, it began running educational programs.
On its 640 acres is a 45-acre tree nursery that grows 300,000 seedlings each year that go toward the reforestation of New Jersey.