Nature Event Features CSI: Great Swamp

If you're a devotee of the "CSI" shows, you know forensic science isn’t just for people with lab coats and police badges. What you may not know is thatyou don’t always need computers and fancy equipment to figure out “whodunit,” especially where Mother Nature is concerned.

Learn more about it Sunday, when the Great Swamp Watershed Association hosts a wintertime Nature Detectives Hike at the Jockey Hollow Unit of Morristown National Historical Park.

Naturalists and conservation biologists use basic forensic techniques all the time as they go about the business of studying and monitoring the plants and animals living around us.  This event is your chance to pick up a few simple tips and tricks for sleuthing out the world around you from what could be called the CSI: Great Swamp team.

Taking center stage for the hike is a married couple: GSWA Director of Education Hazel England and conservation biologist Dr. Emil DeVito. The duo will lead event attendees in hot pursuit of some the region’s wintertime wildlife. They'll show how they figure out which animals are active in winter by tracking footprints.  They'll unmask the identities of birds by listening to their songs.  They'll uncover secret hiding places for chipmunks, mice, and other small mammals.  

The event starts Sunday at 10 a.m.; admission is free (though donations will be accepted) and families are encouraged to attend. To register online, visit the “Highlights” section at the GSWA website. to register online right now!  Families with children are encouraged to attend. 

Hike participants will meet outside the Jockey Hollow Visitor Center located off of Tempe Wick Road in Harding Township.

For more information, send email or call 973-538-3500 x22.