Office hours
By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.
Photo: Daniel Barringer
I don’t spend a lot of time in the office—there’s a lot of land out there to manage. But in the winter we have reports to fill out, events to plan, and presentations to prepare. So when the weather is icy or extremely cold you may find me in the visitor center barn office.
We use reports to track hazard trees, record preserve visitation, and track every piece of equipment and preserve infrastructure along with its expected lifespan and current condition. Not to mention we document every cent we spend!
I’ve also been keeping up to date a presentation on managing invasive plants, and recently added one on landscaping with native plants; now I’m preparing one on the barns of Crow’s Nest for an event here on March 29.
Speaking of events, last year we held 20 public events here (not including our own summer camps and Nature Clubs, our monthly volunteer days, and not counting outside groups using our facilities). So far in 2025 we have 15 scheduled at Crow’s Nest in the first six months alone, including our always-popular Hepatica Hike, monthly Sound Meditations in the barn, the aforementioned Barns of Crow’s Nest slideshow and hike (a rare opportunity to see inside the barns), a Mycology Foray with Tianna Godsey, Fairy Village Crafting with Devon Funt, Birding with Jeff and Angela in May, and our Contra Dance in June. More events are constantly being added and we’re working on our fall lineup now. And you heard it here first: we’re super-excited to be planning a barn concert with singer-songwriter Edie Carey on December 5. You can see all of our events here.
So amid the paperwork you might imagine my delight to have a visitor in the office, a tiny reptile. That’s the ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus edwardsii) pictured above and, for scale with a pen, below. They’re common, though usually they’re under leaves and rocks, so we don’t see them all that often. This one showed up by my desk in the office, and was returned to the wild under some leaves in a protected spot (where it may very well find a way inside again). With an office in a converted barn, wildlife makes a regular appearance.
Photo: Daniel Barringer