<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Pine Fest-A Pine Barrens Multicultural Celebration!<div><br></div><div>Saturday, May 17</div><div><div>10 AM to 8 PM</div><div>Charge Pond Campground Pavilion</div><div>Myles Standish State Forest</div><div>Rain or Shine</div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Celebrate the globally rare Southeastern Massachusetts Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens Ecoregion right where you live with a day of special programs and playful learning activities designed to show you and your family how people past and present depend on and interact with our unique landscape. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Find out how this forest came to be by visiting the Flora II, a nature science lab on wheels. Help make an authentic Wampanoag shelter. Meet Frederick Law Olmstead. Listen to stories by Big Ryan and his puppets. Learn to shoot a bow and arrow, paddle a kayak, and ride a horse. Hike with a forester and learn the secrets of making charcoal and baking bread over a campfire. Find out how to use that GPS in your smart phone. Enjoy local food and music throughout the day. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Games, local vendors, arts
and crafts and demonstration stations for children, teens and adults throughout the day. Stay the whole day and then as the sun falls behind the trees, roast marshmallows around a camp fire while singing camp songs and listening to evening bird calls. </p><p class="MsoNormal">All
of this is happening on the banks of beautiful Charge Pond, Myles Standish State Forest—the heart of one of the few remaining pitch pine-scrub oak forests that once covered the North Atlantic Coast. </p><p class="MsoNormal">You live in a special place called the Pine Barrens. Let those who know and
love this region share their passion with you.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Pine
Fest will be easy to find. Enter
Myles Standish State Forest and follow the Pine Fest signs to Charge
Pond. There’ll be plenty of free
parking. Bring your bicycles and start at 9:00 AM from Fearing Pond with an official safety check-up of your bike by “Gilly” Gilbert.
From there you can take a guided ride to the event at Charge Pond. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">If
you like, you can spend the night. Camping is open and reservations are
available through <a href="http://ReserveAmerica.com">ReserveAmerica.com</a>.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Pine
Fest is sponsored by the Southeastern Pine Barrens Alliance (SEMPBA) and the
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) through the generosity
of the Massachusetts Cultural Councils of the towns of Carver, Duxbury,
Middleborough, Plymouth and Wareham and the A.D. Makepeace Redbrook Project. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Pine Fest is free and handicapped accessible. </p><p class="MsoNormal">For more
information go to <a href="http://www.pinebarrensalliance.org">www.sempba.org</a>. Sign up for archery and campfire baking by sending an email to <a href="mailto:sempba@pinebarrensalliance.org">sempba@pinebarrensalliance.org</a>. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
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