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Save The Date
2026 Monarch Festival
August 29 & 30

About The Festival

The annual Habitat For All Monarch Festival is MLT's largest educational event. Spanning two days, the Festival is a free, family-friendly event that promotes habitat and biodiversity conservation by inspiring us to reimagine our backyards as sanctuaries for pollinators and ourselves. It reminds us that being outdoors for play, discovery, and habitat creation makes for a better world for all.

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Weekend Agenda

Ethan Tapper is a man of many talents - forester, author, digital creator and a member of a punk band. Through his work as a private and community forester, Ethan has witnessed a spectrum of forest management approaches from clear cut to hands off.  

 

How to Love a Forest walks us through the fragile and resilient community that is a forest, introducing us to wolf trees and spring ephemerals, to the cryptic creatures of the rhizosphere and the necrosphere. It helps us reimagine what forests are and what it means to care for them.

 

This world, Tapper writes, is degraded both by people who do too much and by those who do nothing. As the ecosystems that sustain all life struggle, we straddle a status quo that treats ecosystems as commodities and opposing claims that the only true expression of love for the natural world is to leave it alone.

Saturday, August 23

Keynote Speaker: Ethan Tapper

Bingham Auditorium
Gould Academy, Bethel
6:00 p.m.

Sunday, August 24

Valentine Farm 162 North Road, Bethel

MLT Annual Meeting

11:00 - Noon  Opening remarks by Ethan Tapper

Monarch Festival

4:00 - Noon

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All Day Activities (12:00- 4:00)

  • ​Habitat For All Garden is Open

  • Turtle Rescue League & Live Turtles

  • Self-guided Birding Trail

  • Natural Dye Painting

  • Artisan Vendors

  • Xerces Society Booth

  • Make a Bud Vase Pooh Corner Farm 

  • BAAM Activity - Pollinator Headbands

  • Spin Art with Art Van

  • Self-guided Storybook Walk

  • Earn a Junior Naturalist Badge

  • Lawn Games

  • Mahoosuc Land Trust Information

  • Extra Raffle tickets available until 3 pm​

Timed Activities

12:00-3:00 - Lunch Available: Burgers, Dogs, Salads, Cookies, Drinks (as supplies last)

12:30-3:00 - Bugs in Maine and Beyond

1:00-1:30 - All About Monarchs (Big Tent)

1:30-2:00 - Children's Storytime (West Loop Picnic Table)

1:30-2:00 - Bird Walk (Meet at parking lot kiosk)

1:30-3:00 - Monarch Tagging (Pollinator Alley)

2:00-3:00 - How To Make A Flower Bouquet Demo (Main Tent)

2:00-2:45 - Family Friendly Woods Walk (meet at parking lot kiosk)

2:30-3:00 - BAAM Pollinator Parade (meet at parking lot kiosk)

3:00 - Raffle Ticket Sales End

3:00-3:30 - Bird Walk (Meet at parking lot kiosk)

3:30 - Raffle Winners Announced

4:00 - Festival Ends

2025 Highlights

2025 Festival Sponsors

The Gamble Family

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