See spectacular views from the top of Blue Mountain and learn about hawk banding here and its contributions to raptor conservation.
See spectacular views from the top of Blue Mountain and learn about hawk banding here and its contributions to raptor conservation – inclement weather date 1/3/21
Join the WCLV and the Bertch Hokendaqua Catasauqua Watershed Association for a guided hike led by Jim Wilson to see breathtaking views of the Lehigh Valley and Pocono Mountains from the Little Gap Hawk Watch on the summit of Blue Mountain. We may even see late migrating hawks and eagles. Bring your binoculars! We’ll stop by the Little Gap Hawk Banding Station on our way up to the hawk watch, where we’ll learn how 50 years of hawk banding at this station has contributed to raptor conservation throughout the Americas. Enjoy a moderately difficult hike about 2 hours long, 2 miles in total length, starting at noon on 12/20; inclement weather date January 3rd.
Virtual Event: Learn what history, science and Native Americans have to say about ambiguous stoneworks found throughout the Northeast Woodlands—including here in the Lehigh Valley—and how public and private organizations are coming together to document, preserve and protect them.
The Mystery of Constructed Stone Landscapes in our Woodlands & Wetlands Jim Wilson, Northampton County Parks & New England Antiquities Research Association
Watch the recorded presentation on the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley Facebook page – it was recorded on Facebook live.
Thursday, March 18, Illicks Mill
Ceremonial Stone Landscapes is the term used by the United South & Eastern Tribes (USET), a nonprofit intertribal organization of American Indians, for stonework sites in eastern North America. USET states that, for thousands of years before the immigration of Europeans, the medicine people of the USET Tribal ancestors used these sacred landscapes to sustain the people’s reliance on Mother Earth and the spirit energies of balance and harmony.
Whether these stone structures are massive or small, stacked, stone rows or effigies, these prayers in stone are often mistaken by archaeologists and State Historic Preservation Offices as the effort of farmers clearing stone for agricultural or wall building purposes. That long held view is now shifting and is being reevaluated in Pennsylvania, which is rich in stone landscape structures, including here in the Lehigh Valley.
In this presentation, you’ll see scores of photographs of local “prayers in stone,” learn how the dates of these structures can now be determined and how the PA State Historic Preservation Office is working with citizen volunteers to document ceremonial stone landscapes across the Commonwealth.
