Millburn's Arboretum Offers Falls Programs For Kids

Cora Hartshorn’s fall enrollment is open enjoy nature education.

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum is launching its fall programs just in time for back to school to supplement Millburn's education out in nature. "Dirty hands equal engaged hands," the environmental educator, Erica Fisher, said. "If they're not getting some kind of dirt on them, what are they really learning." The Arboretum’s after school program kicks off the week of Sept. 11. Designing their own opossums, owls and raccoons masks for the displays kids will learn about these nocturnal creatures. Other areas explored by participants include chipmunks and fall’s beautiful foliage. "It's just a way to have fun with science and nature," Fisher, who teaches the classes, said. "Once outside anything can happen." All classes are catered to the age …

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Help Out the Arboretum

Shopping at the Whole Foods in Vauxhall tomorrow helps out the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum.

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum is asking for residents help to support the new bee hive and enviromental programs by just buying groceries that they need anyway. The Whole Foods Market in Vauxhall, 2245 Springfield Ave., is donating five percent of the store's net sales directly to the Arboretum. The store is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.  “We are thrilled that Whole Foods Market has chosen the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum for its 5% Day.  Please show your support by shopping at Whole Foods Market on Thursday, June 28,” said Judy Trigg, the arboretum’s Executive Director.  “Fourth of July is just around the corner and Whole Foods Market is a great place to get healthy, organic and environmentally friendly foods and supplies for the big day.” The …

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Bees Return To The Arboretum

A Saturday afternoon event welcomes a new bee hive.

Millburn's Cora Hartshorn Arboretum welcomed back its resident bees after this year's accidental extermination in the Share the Buzz event. On May 1, when the Arboretum asked an exterminator to come in, he thought there was a bee problem and sprayed into the PVC piping of the old hive a representative at the organization said.  The Arboretum spent all year reestablishing the bee colony but gave the organization a chance to make a whole new wood support for the hive.  "I think it was a well attended event," Judy Trigg the new executive director said. "I was very happy that a lot of new people came." The event was held from 1 to 3 p.m. with over 40 residents in attendance doing arts and crafts and admiring the new hive.  Representatives from…

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Arboretum Gets New Executive Director

Meet and Greet was held last Thursday night to meet new executive director, Judy Trigg.

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum has hired a new executive director, Judy Trigg, who said her main goal is to involve the community more. "I'd like to see us reach out to different people in different age groups," Trigg said at the "Meet & Greet" event last Thursday, June 14, from 5 to 7 p.m. Which, so far, she has hit the ground running. She's already contacted the senior citizen community to set up events. Also, a family camping trip has been set up for October, as well as a camping night, locally in the Arboretum trails to get the younger ones involved with their parents. Trigg looks to involve more teens and adults in the programs available.  Trigg brings in a lot of experience in running places like the Arboretum. She just left a position…

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Meet the New Arboretum Executive Director

Board of trustees invites local residents.

Between 5 and 7 p.m. today, the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum is hosting a "Meet & Greet" event to introduce its new executive director, Judy Trigg.  The board of trustees invites the general public to attend this free event tonight.  Founded in 1923 by Cora Hartshorn, whose father developed Short Hills, the arboretum includes both a garden and untouched woodlands in its 16-acre tract. When Hartshorn died, she willed the arboretum to the town for all to enjoy. There are trails in the woods behind the stone barn, which anyone can use. The arboretum staff just asks visitors to close the gate behind them when they use the trails. The stone barn is a historic structure from Hartshorn's days and was renovated in 2007, which included an addition. …

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Learning About Birds at the Arboretum

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum is holding a mini-camp during February vacation.

Preschoolers are learning about animals during the winter during a mini-camp at the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum this week during February school vacation in Millburn-Short Hills. On Wednesday, they created a mural of a cardinal before heading outside for a short walk in the woods. Erica Fisher, aboretum educator, had them look for animals outside, including for birds like cardinals.

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Learning about Bees, Butterflies and Birds at the Arboretum

The exhibit is on Thursdays and Fridays through Aug. 20.

It might be hard to find the queen bee, but you have a pretty good chance of seeing a cardinal or gold finch. An exhibit at the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum gives visitors a chance to learn about bees, butterflies and birds and see them up close. The exhibit is on Thursdays and Fridays at 1-3 p.m. with a variety of self-guided activities. The staff is also on hand to answer questions. The activities include finding the queen in the display bee hive, learning how bees dance to tell others where there's pollen, looking through a microscope at catepiller eggs and watching birds from an observation area. There is a $10 suggested donation for the exhibit, and it runs through Aug. 20.

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Arboretum Offers Exhibit on Bees, Butterflies and Birds

The exhibit opens Thursday and runs through Aug. 20.

Interested in learning more about bees, butterflies and birders? The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum has an exhibit starting this week on the topic. The "Bees, Butterflies and Birds" exhibit will run Thursday through Aug. 20. It consists of self-directed activities centered on over 7,000 honeybees living in an indoor observation hive, a set of habitats where Monarch butterflies are in various stages of development and an indoor bird observation room that looks out over our woodlands and bird feeders. The Arboretum staff can answer questions as visitors watch bees leave and enter the hive through a tunnel to the outdoors, tend the queen, raise their young, make wax to build the comb and fight off intruders. Self-directed activities include …

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Arboretum Buzzed with Activity for Arbor Day

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum held a fund-raising Ar-B-Que on Saturday.

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum was a busy place Saturday with an "Ar-B-Que" to celebrate Arbor Day. Arbor Day was on Friday, and Saturday's event was to raise money for the arboretum's environmental programs. There was a bee expert on hand to speak about the new observational bee hive. There also was a scavenger hunt, native plant sale and food for visitors. Third graders who came picked up a free tree.  

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Young Boat Builders Work Will Be on Display

The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum's boat building class will have a boat for viewing on Saturday.

Every week they hammer, they saw, they sand. And in the end, they'll have a boat worthy of rowing. The Cora Hartshorn Arboretum has been hosting a boat building class with Millburn-Short Hills and Union kids the last five weeks. During that time they've been drawing the plans and building the boat. This last week they had the sides and seats in place and were working on fastening the bottom. "It's starting to look like a boat," said Jacob Bezama, of Union. The work thus far will be on display at the arboretum's "Ar-B-Que" on Saturday at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The kids in the class are Bezama, Ronald Branymun, of Union; Corey Berntstein, of Millburn; Matthew Bezama, of Union; Jonathan Rosen, of Short Hills and Jacob Wright, of Union.

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