Floods, Flowers and Feathers Festival is May 13

During Cheney Mayfest on May 13, Turnbull will be hosting their sixth annual Floods, Flowers and Feathers Spring Nature Festival.

The event will also celebrate Turnbull’s 80th birthday and the community will have a chance to enjoy nature and learn more about the refuge itself.

“It has been really nice to work with Mayfest,” Sandy Rancourt, the visitor services manager at Turnbull said. “It is a great collaboration with two organizations. We appreciate their efforts.”

With how successful the festival has been with Mayfest, the refuge staff now plans it around the weekend of the event.

“It was not our intention to host with Mayfest in the beginning, but they provided an ideal spot for Turnbull and it has been this way for four years now,” Rancourt added.

The activities will last from 8 a.m.– 4 p.m. at the refuge with about 18 to choose from. One of the first events on the agenda is a fire demonstration that allows participants to get experience in handling fire suppression equipment. The demonstration will be lasting throughout the day and people can drop in at anytime.

Other activities include: auto tour bike ride, bird and wildflower walks, a bird banding demonstration, scavenger hunts, mosquito/tick activity, Ice Age Flood Institute Geology tour, live raptors, pond life, a refuge history, a management tour and more.

All events are free and open to the public, but some activities do require registration. The registration forms can be found at http://www.fws.gov/refuge/turnbull. On the website, the times, location and a more in-depth description on each event can also be found.

Along with hosting the annual event, Turnbull will also have about 16 booths and displays in downtown Cheney during Mayfest. Some of them will be from the Eastern Washington University Biology Department, Friends of Turnbull, Ice Age Floods Institute, Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, National Weather Service and Spokane Clean Air.

Cheney Parks and Recreation will be helping with transportation from downtown to the refuge. The van and car space is limited, so reservations will need to be made. Mayfest hopes to have a more consistent shuttle in the coming future to make it easier for commuting back and forth between the two spots.

Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].