Nature Center

The lowdown -- Create holiday ornaments from natural materials at Oregon Ridge Nature Center this weekend. The center will provide teasel, nuts, pine cones and other natural materials for the decorations. If you go -- The event is 2 p.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The center is at 13555 Beaver Dam Road in Cockeysville. $2 per person is due in advance. Call 410-887-1815 for reservations. Stories at Cylburn The lowdown -- Today, Cylburn Arboretum hosts a Children's Nature Story Hour. Kids ages 3-6 and their parents can listen to stories and tour the gardens from 10 a.m.-11 a.m. If you go -- The story hour is $1 per child and free for adults.

Owings Mills Groundbreaking today for new Irvine center A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. today at the site of the new Irvine Nature Center, 11201 Garrison Forest Road, Owings Mills. Scheduled to open in the fall of 2007, the 116-acre campus will include festival space with an amphitheater, gardens, picnic area, trails and various environmental habitats. A new exhibition hall, designed in partnership with the Maryland Science Center, will feature interactive, educational exhibits.

Bats. Electric bug zappers. Tiny fish. Insecticides. As mosquito-control devices, they all work. And they all don't. The quest to repel mosquitoes has led people to try some unorthodox methods. But a nature center in Itasca, Ill., tried one this summer that was particularly pungent: garlic. It's a garlic-oil product marketed as harmless to the environment but effective in killing and repelling mosquitoes. But, like most repellents, it showed mixed results. Fred Maier, director of the Spring Brook Nature Center, said his workers sprayed garlic oil on an acre of woods June 13 and July 6, then used two traps -- one placed on the sprayed land and one on unsprayed land.

Beyond a gravel path, past a grass field and hidden by towering trees in Owings Mills, a small group of young men and women dismantle an old barn. While two workers put all their strength into knocking boards free with sledge hammers, another passes the wood to the last team member, who rips out the nails. They are members of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, and their goal is to salvage any wood to save the Irvine Nature Center some money when it breaks ground this fall on a new facility next to the barn site, on 116-acre location off Garrison Forrest Road in Owings Mills.

NATURE'S PANTRY Check out Mother Nature's food Saturday at Oregon Ridge Nature Center's "Food of the Forest and Field" program. Guests will learn about edible plants in the park and how to cook them. Come back Sunday to mix and mingle with butterflies at the center's "Butterflies: Nature's Festival of Color" program. Both days' events require reservations. ....................... Both events are from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. "Food of the Forest and Field" is Saturday, and the "Butterflies: Nature's Festival of Color" is Sunday at the Oregon Ridge Nature Center, 13555 Beaver Dam Road in Cockeysville.

Bear Branch offers summer programs Bear Branch Nature Center at Hashawha Environmental Center offers programs for all ages. End of School Campfire for all ages from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday. Hot dogs, s'mores and campfire stories will be featured. The cost is $3 for members and $5 for nonmembers. "Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs," fly fishing for teens ages 11 to 15 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Lake Hashawha. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will offer beginner fly fishing.

Caitlin Dunbar loved the outdoors and was active in Girl Scouts. "We called her our tree-hugger," said her father, Alex Dunbar. "Caitlin was really interested in adventure, excitement, things like that." As a youngster, Caitlin spent as much time as she could at Girl Scout Camp Conowingo, a 600-acre property owned and operated by the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland. She attended summer camps there and was particularly enchanted by an oar hanging on the wall in the lodge, signed by previous generations of Girl Scouts, including her mother, Marty Dunbar.

CENTRAL Flowers and jazz in Westminster The Westminster Flower and Jazz Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday along Main Street downtown. A 5-kilometer Fun Run/Walk will be held on the Wakefield Valley Trail on Tahoma Farm Road. Events include a 200-yard dash for children at 8 a.m.; a one-mile fun run at 8:15 a.m. for ages 7 and older; and the timed 5K run at 8:30 a.m. Registration is required. The festival will feature flowers, plants and displays from Cowlick Nurseries, M&W Nursery, Sue's Flowers and Wakefield Valley Nursery.

On a brisk sunny afternoon, several mothers and their children carried galvanized buckets, drills and hammers into the woods surrounding Bear Branch Nature Center in Westminster. They identified the tallest, hardiest maple trees, mostly by their silvery white bark, and set to work on the first phase of a process that could end with maple syrup. "Mom, drill please," said Victoria Dinisa, 9, of Littlestown, Pa. "I need to make a big hole." Actually, Victoria only needed to twist and turn the hand drill, called a brace and bit, long enough to place a 2-inch hole in the thick bark.

Chinese New Year The lowdown -- The Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks' Carrie Murray Nature Center will host an arts and crafts event to mark the Chinese New Year on Saturday. Chinese legend holds that those born in the year of the dog share that animal's loyalty, stubbornness and eccentricity. Say goodbye to 2005, the year of the rooster, and hello to the dog days of 2006 with an afternoon of family activities. If you go -- The Nature Center is in Gwynn Falls/Leakin Park at 1901 Ridgetop Road.