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Kansas City, Mo. – There’s an athletic art to splitting a piece of firewood for the fireplace, just as there’s a culinary folk art to making syrup with sap from a backyard tree. Both will be among the skills on display when the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) presents the annual Urban Woods program from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center in Kansas City.
Urban Woods is a celebration of wintertime outdoor skills and wood products. MDC staff will demonstrate safe and effective wood cutting and splitting techniques. Fire starting skills will be demonstrated. Tree sap starts running in February, and Discovery Center staff will have some trees in the outdoor garden tapped. Staff will have syrup boiling and taste tests are available for visitors.
Staff and volunteers will also host activities for children such as crafts. Visitors can try outdoor skills such as throwing the atlatl dart, a primitive hunting method. Most of the activities will be in the Discovery Center’s outdoor native plant garden. But indoor exhibits about trees and wood products will also be displayed. The KC Woodturners will be on site and showing how they craft beautiful products such as decorative bowls from wood.
Urban Woods is open to all ages. Registration is not required. For more information about the Gorman Discovery Center at 4750 Troost Ave., call 816-759-7300 or visit https://mdc.mo.gov/discoverycenter.
