Staff Report
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Children's activities, educational programs, workshops and a garden dedication will be featured at the Otsego Lakes Festival on Saturday.
Organized by Otsego County's Water Quality Coordinating Committee, the festival began in 2005, but there was no festival in 2009. The festival's return comes with a new name; it was previously known as the singular Otsego Lake Festival. Otsego County Conservation Association Administrative Director Darla Youngs told the Cooperstown Crier the name was changed to reflect a focus on all water bodies in the county and not just Otsego Lake.
"We didn't want to single out one lake because they are all important," she said.
Saturday's event will feature activities presented at past festivals, including fish printing with the Cooperstown Art Association. This hands-on art activity will allow children and adults to make prints on cloth, paper and T-shirts using real and rubber fish, according to a media release.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener Annette MacLeod will lead a workshop on the use of rain gardens to protect water quality. Al Keck of the Watershed Supervisory Committee will present information on the WSC's onsite systems inspection and upgrade program, plus information pamphlets on the care and feeding of such systems. SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station interns will lead biology, ecology and water activities about plants, fish, crayfish, bugs and water in the expanded Kids' Tent.
As in past years, the festival will showcase nonprofit groups from throughout the region that support water quality initiatives and the Envirothon Committee and the Hartwick American Legion Auxiliary will sell food. Other exhibitors include:
Cooperstown Art Association, Richard Duncan, Lake and Valley Garden Club, Natura Productions, Natural Resources Conservation Service, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, New York State Federation of Lake Associations, Otsego County Conservation Association, Otsego County Planning Department, Otsego Lake Association, Otsego Land Trust, Safe Kids of Otsego County, SUNY-Oneonta Biological Field Station, Otsego 2000 and Otsego County Water Quality Coordinating Committee.
The OCWQCC was established in 1992 as a sub-committee of the Otsego County Soil and Water Conservation District. It is composed of people representing state and local government agencies, non-profit organizations, academic institutions and lake associations.
For more information about the Otsego Lakes Festival or the OCWQCC, contact Youngs at 547-4488 or visit www.occainfo.org.
