A new entity made a surprising splash at the recently held Greene County Fair.

Greene County Conservation Naturalist Jacob Fernholz says they played a role in several programs while at the fair, including an archery range, a representative with Saving Our Avian Resources (SOAR) with some raptor birds, a booth with artifacts and living animals both local and beyond, along with an appearance by Smokie the Bear and talking about animals that were once native to Greene County long ago as part of a Greene County Historical Society program.

In total, Fernholz states about 250 kids and another 160 adults attended and interacted with their programs at the fair, which he was kind of surprised by.

“Especially at the booth, they were like, ‘Oh cool, we’ve never seen a bear skull before,’ or ‘We’ve never seen a bear pelt,’ ‘Oh wow you’ve got snapping turtles on a table we can actually see and watch them through the glass (tank), that’s pretty cool.’ Yeah, getting up and over 400 people to stop and take more than two, three, five seconds at the booth, and come through and shoot a bow for not just one or two times, like we had a couple of kids that came through five (and) ten times going through and shooting a bow. It was quite awesome to see that interest.”   

Fernholz appreciates and thanks the Greene County Fair Board for their interest and allowing the County Conservation Board to have a presence at the fair. He is hoping to continue to be at the fair with similar and adding different content and programs to draw even more interest to the outdoors.