On Saturday, June 2, at 11 a.m., naturalist Steve O’Neil will present an educational program at Foothills Equestrian Nature Center all about animal tracks and tracking western North Carolina native animals.

O’Neil, founder and executive director of Earthshine Nature Programs, is a naturalist and science educator whose mission is to connect people with nature and misunderstood animals such as reptiles, amphibians and opossums. He spent his early years chasing snakes, lizards and salamanders all over the mountains and beaches of North Carolina.

During his college years, O’Neil studied wildlife and fisheries management, recreation management  and zooarchaeology. When not in the lab or library, he could be found in the classroom or fields and forests leading others in pursuit of wild animals and wild places.

Over the last two decades, O’Neil has conducted several reptile, bat, bear, and vulture conservation, ecology and environmental education. He has also done research projects studying these species.

Steve’s passions are wildlife conservation, public nature education, renewable energy and electric vehicles, and playing his didgeridoo. Steve has conducted volunteer conservation and research projects of his own design, putting in hundreds of hours each year keeping track of several Eastern box turtles, timber rattlesnakes and rat snakes via radio tags at Earthshine Discovery Center in Lake Toxaway and in the Dupont State Forest area.

O’Neil will visit FENCE and present a detailed program on his findings on the movements, habitat selection and life history of these creatures. In this program, O’Neil will bring along some living examples of the animals he has followed, as well as examples of the equipment, photos, videos and maps he uses to follow them in their natural habitats.

The program is free and open to the public, and is made possible by the Kirby Endowment at the Polk County Community Foundation.

FENCE is located at 3381 Hunting Country Road in Tryon, North Carolina. For more information on this or other upcoming events, call 828-859-9021 or email info@fence.org.

-Submitted by Amy Schmitte