Vernal Fling is the unofficial kickoff for spring celebrations in Woodstock, an event where we celebrate the season while recognizing leaders in environmental work with the William R. Ginsberg Stewardship Award. This year we will be inaugurating a new award, the Emerging Leader Award. We will be honoring the Longyear family — Kathy, Matt and Heather — as our Ginsberg Award winners and Zoe Keller as our Emerging Leader winner.

Attendees of all ages will enjoy delicious bites, intriguing drinks and opportunities to take home lovely gifts through both a raffle and a silent auction while supporting our conservation efforts.

This year’s featured art is “Planting Utopia (Tree of Life)” by Julia Whitney Barnes. It will be available to add to your home at the Vernal Fling silent auction.

Purchase tickets here.

Join WLC, the Ashokan Watershed Stream Management Program, Jennifer Zackin of “Mapping the Sawkill,” and others for an afternoon of community dialogue and interactive mapping at the Woodstock Library. This free series is part of the Ashokan Watershed Conference ‘Summit to Stream: Building a Resilient Watershed Together’. Together participants will explore what has been learned from past experiences with flooding in this region and examine how landowners and stewards can protect our watershed through collective action.

This workshop traces the evolving relationship between people and the Sawkill Creek from Lenape fishing practices and floodplain agriculture, to European colonists harnessing its waters for the tanning industry, to its role in 20th-century municipal infrastructure. Participants will explore how these shifting uses reflect changing values, including the rise of tourism and its influence on environmental preservation in the region. The program will take place primarily at the Woodstock Historical Society, concluding with a short walk to Tannery Brook to connect these stories to the present-day landscape.