A joint venture between the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore and the National Aquarium invites locals to a wildlife gardening workshop on Saturday.
“The Great Snake Hunt” is the theme, and Matthew Benedict, a herpetologist from the National Aquarium will help attendees uncoil the mysteries of native snakes at the third workshop in the Wildlife Gardening series sponsored by Waterfront Partnership.
The workshops are held in Rash Field Park every third Saturday from May to October. Locals and curious gardeners of all abilities are invited to learn, volunteer, and help implement conservation gardening methods across Baltimore’s waterfront.
These workshops focus on local wildlife and plants and have helped the environment by building pollinator gardens to support monarch butterflies, attracting birds to local yards and parks with DIY birdfeeders, building frog “hotels,” and much more. The workshops are all led by an experienced local urban ecologist.
“Wildlife gardening creates sustainable environments for surrounding creatures, helps fight climate change and is a conservation approach Waterfront Partnership uses throughout its 10 acres of waterfront parks and habitat corridors,” reads the press release announcing the “The Great Snake Hunt.”
Attendees of the workshop have the chance to positively impact their communities by improving the quality of their air and water, reducing flood risk, promoting biodiversity, and mitigating the damage of climate change.
There are 27 species and subspecies of snakes in Maryland, only two of which have “medically significant venom,” according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Those two are in the viper family (Viperaidae): the copperhead and the timber rattlesnake.
There is also the rare Mr. Trash Wheel snake, but that snake was only spotted once and no other snake like it has ever been encountered by Mr. Trash Wheel since 2015.
“The Great Snake Hunt” Wildlife Gardening workshop will take place on Saturday, July 20, 2024 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at Rash Field Park, located at 201 Key Highway, Baltimore, MD. The workshop is free and open to the public.
For more information and to register, click this link.