September, time to celebrate our labors, time to go back to school; a gateway month with sundown walking backwards, occurring earlier each day.  This month gives us our first intimations that winter is, indeed coming.  September has been designated: National Mushroom Month, Healthy Aging Month, National Piano Month, National Organic Harvest Month, Biodiversity Month, Classical Music Month, Honey Month, Hispanic Heritage Month (By Presidential Proclamation in 1989), National Yoga Awareness Month, World Animal Remembrance Month, and Better Breakfast Month.

    There are some important environmental observation days in September:  Conservation Week  (second full week) and Clean up the World Weekend (third weekend), an annual environmental campaign.  Coastal Cleanup Day (third Saturday) highlights the California Coastal Commission's year ‘round Adopt-A-Beach program; World Rivers Day (last Sunday) and World Water Monitoring Day (September 18) emphasize the importance of water to our world.  National Hummingbird Day (first Saturday), Fish Amnesty Day (fourth Saturday), International Rabbit Day (fourth Saturday), and National Wildlife Day (Sept 4) remind us that we share this world with an amazing variety of creatures both similar and dissimilar to ourselves, as well as the world community of plants, also celebrated by National Threatened Species Day (Sept 7), encouraging us to help conserve unique native fauna and flora.  In 1994, the UN General Assembly proclaimed Sept. 16 the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, commemorating the 1987 signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.  World Carfree Day (always Sept 22) is a showcase for how our cities might look, feel and sound without cars, and Public Lands Day, involves citizen volunteers in cleaning and maintaining nearby public lands.

We also celebrate people in September, with Labor Day (first Monday), Grandparents’ Day (first Sunday after Labor Day), Swap Ideas Day (Sept 10), Family Day and Stepfamily Day (Sept 16), Citizenship Day (Sept 16), Native American Day  (4th Friday in Sept), and  National Good Neighbor Day (Sept 28).  Some birthdays we celebrate this month are Jane Addams (born Sept 6, 1860), pioneer settlement social worker, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in women's suffrage and world peace, “Grandma Moses” (born Sept 7, 1860), Anna Mary Robertson Moses, a renowned American folk artist, "Johnny Appleseed" Johnny Chapman (born Sept 26, 1774),  American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present day West Virginia, and Chinese philosopher Confucius (born Sept 28, 551 BCE), whose birthday is also called Teacher’s Day.

ASPI's FB page is alive with images from the Toodle Langa camps - two with a focus on recycled art and one Zombie camp - held at the ASPI Rockcastle Wilderness Site.  Toodle Langa's founders, Christina and Darren, wanted to give kids a real camp experience, tents, composting toilets, outdoors!  It was lovely - even through the torrential downpours of two camps, food was cooked, friendships forged, art created.  ASPI is excited to work with Toodle Langa for some weekend camps and workshops - the two October camps are Wilderness Art and Zombie Survival (Just in time for Halloween)!  See the Toodle Langa Website for more information and registration.

The MASH camp from the Rockcastle County Hospital visited - 20 middle school students.  We hunted for arthropods, tested pH, and hiked!  The picture above is the campers on the footbridge of the Michael Zalla Trail.  Everyone who disparages the state known as "Middle School" should meet these kids.   

We hosted the Boy Scouts - who shored up and created part of our new Solar System Trail, working on their Trail Blazing badges.  A day care group stopped by for a hike and some bug-catching fun!

Besides the Toodle Langa camps, we have visitors from the National Challenge Academy and Notre Dame Service Learning programs scheduled for this fall - and our Harvest Festival.  The Harvest Festival is open to public and all participants of all of the ASPI programs.  There will be food, games, and fun - October 18, 2:00-4:00.

The Rockcastle Wilderness Homeschool  schedule will be published soon.

What other programs would you like to see at the Site?  Our new listings of school field trips is here.  Share with teachers you know!