This year the Mountain Science Expo returns to the Arboretum in person!
Join us for a day celebrating the wonders of the natural world! Explore Your Arboretum with nature walks, science exhibits and more. Learn about lichen, forest critters and tree identification with the Youth Education team and our science partners from around our community. Then take part as a community scientist in the City Nature Challenge!
The 2022 Mountain Science Expo will feature walks led by graduates of the Arboretum’s Blue Ridge Naturalist and Blue Ridge EcoGardener certificate programs and Arboretum education staff and science presentations at Willow Pond. In addition, kids crafts, live animal demonstrations and more will acquaint you with the plants and animals that call the Arboretum home.
All activities are free of charge, regular parking fees apply. No preregistration is required.
Enjoy outdoor exhibits about:
- Lichen identification and monitoring by the NC Division of Air Quality
- Tree identification by FIND Outdoors
- Macroinverebrates and creek critters by the Environmental Quality Institute
- And craft making from the US Forest Service
Learn how to participate in the City Nature Challenge, a four-day event that invites you to help observe and upload photo observations of plants and animals to aid scientists to learn more about our region and our world’s biodiversity using iNaturalist, an online network of naturalists and nature enthusiasts.
The North Carolina Arboretum invites you to be a part of something big! The City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a worldwide bioblitz; an event where everyday people are invited to submit photo and/or sound observations of the plants and animals they find. This year’s Mountain Science Expo focuses on the CNC by inviting North Carolinians to visit our state’s arboretum as community scientists. Visitors will use the Arboretum’s 434-acre campus as our laboratory as they attend nature walks, visit exhibit booths, attend field equipment demonstrations and aid our state’s scientists in learning more about the plants and animals that call North Carolina home.
For the dogged and determined observers out there, there will be first, second and third place prizes awarded to the people with the highest number of observations, and those who record the highest number of organisms! Prizes have been generously donated by:
B.B. Barns Garden, Gift and Landscape Company, The Compleat Naturalist and Wild Birds Unlimited.
For more information about the City Nature Challenge, please contact Director of Education Jonathan Marchal at jmarchal@ncarboretum.org.
Want to help make the Mountain Science Expo happen?
We’re looking for volunteers to help with the welcome desk, craft table and general set up and break down. For more info contact voulunteer@ncarboretum.org
All programs and activities are held outdoors, rain or shine, and are free (regular parking fees apply). Members of The North Carolina Arboretum Society always park for free.
This event includes activities for adults, children and families.
Youth Education Programs are supported in part by North Carolina GlaxoSmithKline Foundation; Walnut Cove Members Association; Duke Energy Foundation; The Ramble Charitable Fund; The Ecology Wildlife Foundation; FullSteam Labs; Southeastern Container Inc.; Wild Birds Unlimited Asheville; B.B. Barns Garden, Gift & Landscape Company, The Compleat Naturalist and Hilton Asheville Biltmore Park.