In celebration of Earth Day, on Saturday, April 21, at 10 a.m., a “Woodswalk” is being held in Schenectady’s Pine Barrens Preserve.

The event is being hosted by the Friends of the Woodlawn Preserve; Capital/Mohawk Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management, known as PRISM; and the New York Forest Owners Association, Capital District Chapter.

Walkers, dressed to foil ticks, are to meet, rain or shine, at the information kiosk at the end of Gifford Rd. in the 600 block, one mile south of State Street near the Schenectady-Niskayuna line.

The Woodlawn Preserve is a patch of the Albany Pine Bush in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Schenectady. It is the only remaining example of this rare ecosystem in that area, a combination of swamp, wetlands, water bodies, and dune vegetation. The pitch pine-scrub oak barrens has some of the largest sand dunes in the Albany Pine Bush while containing wetlands that are headwaters of the Lisha Kill.

Participants will learn about native and invasive plant species by observing their interaction and impacts throughout the 115-acre preserve. Consulting forester Jeff Kehoe and invasive-species specialist Spencer Barrett will host a two-hour walk through wet meadows and forested sand dunes.

Kehoe is a lifelong neighbor to the preserve and has watched the changes to the preserve’s plant community since the mid-1980s when the city of Schenectady completed excavation of the more than 15-acre retention basin, now known as Van de Loo Pond. Kehoe has been a member of the New York Forest Owners Association, Capital District Chapter since 1999 and is a graduate of  the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Barrett is the terrestrial coordinator for PRISM and oversees PRISM’s terrestrial management prevention, education, and outreach programs covering over 3 million acres of New York State from Columbia to Washington counties and west to Herkimer County. Invasive species are non-native species that cause or are likely to cause ecological, economic, or human harm.