What's Your Nature?
Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!
Fall Trails Series - Foliage Walk on the Saddlemire Trail
The Canton Recreation Department is partnering with Nature Up North to provide a Canton Trails Series this fall. Join us each Friday afternoon in October as we feature one of Canton’s beautiful trails! Each Trails Series event will begin with a guided activity (30-45minutes) after which you will be invited to continue to explore the trail on your own. This family friendly program is open to all, and children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
Northern Oysters
Carnivorous oysters are lurking about in the North Country, and residents who venture into the woods are advised to carry butter and a skillet at all times. Oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus, native wood-decaying fungi often found on dead and dying hardwoods, are delectable when sautéed in butter. Maybe hikers should carry a few cloves of garlic and a press as well. It’s good to be prepared.
Woods Walk with Joel
Join Joel every Wednesday starting September 27 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. for a guided hike on our trails. Enjoy walking in the woods and learning about the names, habits, and habitats of the plants and animals found in Robert Moses State Park.
Dress for the weather!
Nicandri Nature Center is funded by the New York Power Authority.
Maple Monitoring with the St. Lawrence Sustainability Students
St. Lawrence students in the Sustainable Communications class joined Nature Up North on campus to learn tree identification and to start collecting data for the Monitor My Maple citizen science project. After a tour of the four maple species found on the St. Lawrence campus - sugar, red, silver and norway - they jumped into data collection, pairing up and exploring campus trees on their own. While clearly still suffering from the recent tent caterpillar outbreak, maple trees near the SLU fitness center are bursting with seeds and already starting to change color!
Naturalist Festival - SLU Sustainability Site
Nature Up North and the St. Lawrence Sustainability Program invite you to an afternoon of back-to-back nature walks presented by a naturalists and professors at St. Lawrence, Clarkson, and Cornell Cooperative Extension. Walks will range from 45 minutes to 1 hour and will focus on a range of topics, including mushroom identification, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and wild edible plants.This event is free and open to the public, and all ages are welcome. Water and limited snacks provided.
Carthage Black River Trail
This would have been a wonderful, short walk through the woods if it wasn't riddled with trash. It was a nice easy hike for my dog and I but I was constantly looking at the ground which took away from the experience. There were condoms and broken glass, which poses an obvious threat. I also found an entire couch. Other than the litter issue the trail was well maintained. It is a shame that such a nice trail was so dirty.
Wanakena and the Oswegatchi
Very nice paddle around the river. First trip out we did 7.5 miles. Nice scenery with lost of birding opportunities. Plante of waterfowl can be seen including mergansers, ducks and loons. Very enjoyable place to kayak and spend the day.
Ampersand Mountain
This mountain is fairly difficult but worth the effort. It is part of the Saranac 6 as well as the ADK 29ster challenges. The last portion of the mountain is rocky and very brutal. At one point you have to stick your foot into a tree trunk and lift yourself straight up. Not for the faint of heart.
St Regis Mountain
I did this mountain as part of the Saranac 6. It is also part of he ADK Firetower Challeng. The first 2/3 of the mountain are deceptively easy. It starts out fairly flat, just some tree routes that may trip you up. The last 1/3 is quite steep and rocky. It can also be a bit slippery after the raid so keep that in mind. Would recommend to anyone in mountain climbing shape.
Nicandri Nature Center
This is a very fun thing to do if you happen to be waiting in between ships at the Seaway. Admission is free and the facility is amazing. There are a lot of live animals as well as taxidermied ones. There also backpacks available for kids to rent to use on the nature trails. They are filled with field guides and other useful things. Would recommend to anyone who's in the area for even a short time.