By Avice Meehan

With its abundance of natural resources and environmentally-oriented residents, Norfolk will provide numerous opportunities to appreciate the natural world both before, during and after the official observance of Earth Day on April 22. Think native shrubs, making tea for the garden, a walk among spring ephemerals and a playful opportunity to transform a tiny pinecone into a bumblebee. It’s all part of this year’s focus on pollinators by the Norfolk Nature Alliance. Registration for all events is through the Norfolk Hub at www.norfolkhub.org.

To get a jump on Earth Day planning, join Margery Winters from the Roaring Brook Nature Center in Canton for a talk at the Hub on April 4 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. to learn about the important role that native trees and shrubs play in supporting pollinators. Winters is a naturalist and instructor at Roaring Brook and manages the native plant gardens there.

The Norfolk Conservation Commission will bookend Earth Day with two events. The first is all about “Compost Tea for Gardeners” and is billed as a hands-on opportunity to brew a nutritional beverage for your garden in a five-gallon bucket. That will be held Saturday, April 18, from 10:30 to noon, at the Hub. The expert leading the program will be Monique Bosch, whose day job is working as the soil health manager for the CT NOFA, the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut. On the side, she runs a worm composting company called Wiggle Room with her son Justin.

A week later, on Saturday, April 25, the commission will host a talk by Bridghe McCracken, the founder of Helia Native Nursery in Alford, Mass. That’s at 4 p.m., also at the Hub. Anyone who has visited Helia—and it is worth a trip on an open day—knows it as a rich source of inspiration, plants and seed mixes. McCracken, a horticulturist and landscape designer, focuses on propagating plants native to the Berkshires.

For additional inspiration, gardeners and budding naturalists might consider joining Mike Zarfos on April 25 at 10 a.m. for a spring ephemeral walk through the Great Mountain Forest. Depending on the day and how the season progresses, walkers may spot trout lilies, bloodroot, Dutchman’s breeches, red trillium and jack-in-the-pulpit, each adapted to take advantage of the brief window of sunlight in early spring. The walk will set off from the GMF Chestnut Grove at 395 Undermountain Road in Falls Village and last about 90 minutes.

Ahead of the afternoon chamber concert at the Norfolk Library (see adjacent story) the young and young-at-heart could join Vicki Nelson at the United Church of Christ from on Sunday, April 26, from10:15 to 11:15 a.m. to learn about bees and how to buzz like a pollinator. Participants will make one pinecone bee to take home and one to leave behind. Looking ahead to May, animal-lovers should mark their calendars for a talk on Saturday, May 4, at 1:30 p.m., at the Hub, to learn more about the fisher cat from wild-life biologist Ginny Apple. A master wildlife conservationist with the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Apple will describe the secret life of this remarkable forest predator and the conservation efforts that have helped restore this elusive animal to our forests.