COOPER TOWNSHIP, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — There’s a whole lot in store at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, as it celebrates the 55th year of a seasonal favorite, the Maple Sugar Festival.
Running Saturday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., festival-goers can take part in a two-day pancake breakfast, learn more about the trees that make sap, and browse the Maple Market exhibit featuring vendors selling unique and seasonal goods.
Communications Director Lisa Panich says the event will include educational programs that bring visitors young and old up close to nature. The birds of prey exhibit is featured on the festival’s roster, and rides will be available on a horse-drawn wagon at the historic DeLano Homestead.
The festival also offers “Creature Features”, where attendees can meet the nature center’s animals outside of the glass.
Pioneer sugar makers will be open to fielding questions on how the maple’s signature syrup gets made and nature center staff will hold demonstrations of tapping the trees on the grounds for sap.
“We kind of call this a celebration of the arrival of spring,” Panich says. Tapping season, when sugary sap gets collected from trees, begins in February and ends in April when spring arrives in full swing.
The festival is tapped off each day with an ice cream dessert smothered with maple syrup available to patrons.
“So even if someone doesn’t like for instance maple syrup, and not many people don’t, there’s plenty to do out here,” said Panich.
Festival admission is free for nature center members. Non-member prices for tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for children ages 4 through 17, and free for children 3 and under.
The Kalamazoo Nature Center is located at 7000 N. Westnedge Avenue in Cooper Township. More information can be found at the nature center’s website.
