Perfect day, plentiful crowd make for fantastic fest

Savannah Renner, 2 1/2 of Rochester, visits with a goat at Ruth Scruton's Traveling Barnyard Exhibit at MMRG's Woods,Water and Wildlife Festival at Branch Hill Farm on Saturday. (Lebanon Voice/Harrison Thorp photos)

MILTON MILLS - It was ideal weather for the 13^th Annual Woods, Water and Wildlife Festival, and nature lovers from all over took advantage of both on Saturday.

"It is a fabulous day for us," said Virginia Long, development and communication coordinator for Moose Mountain Regional Greenways, a land conservancy that sponsors the festival along with Branch Hill Farm where it's put on.

With an hour left nearly 600 had already attended the festival, which is a major fund-raiser for MMRG.

Some three dozen family exhibits, walks and other attractions were scattered about beautiful Branch Hill Farm, including fishing, forest walks and the ever-popular corn maze.

New this year was a 4H exhibition, a Milton Free Public Library table that offered coloring pages designed by Susann Foster Brown that depicted environmental history and guided family forest walk.

Smoky the Bear visits with Annaliese Stephens, 3, of Rochester at Saturday's Woods, Water and Wildlife Festival in Milton Mills.

Perhaps the most popular addition was MMRG Conservation Quest, in which families who visited every exhibition got a sticker to fill out a card that could be turned in for a tasty treat.

And there was plenty of that, with the smell of cheeseburgers and sausage subs wafting through the air.

Music was also in the air with the downhome fiddling of the York River Ramblers trio.

Long said she was thrilled with the amount of families attending, adding that is what the festival is really all about.

"It's all about getting kids outside and having fun with their families in nature," she said.