Mothapalooza 2026
Field Trips &
Educational Workshops
Female Luna Moth, by Jerry Dalrymple
Optional Saturday field trips will expose participants to the stunning beauty of the karst country landscapes and Appalachian foothills of the larger region, led by some of Ohio’s most knowledgeable naturalists and botanists. Indoor education workshops will expand your knowledge on a variety of topics. At least 1 month prior to the event, we will be emailing you a survey form that will ask you for your program preferences. Closer to the event, we will confirm your assignments by email, along with any driving directions you’ll need for the weekend.
Saturday Educational Workshops - Indoor
Workshop: Build your own Mothbox
Location: Tremper Mound Manor House
Leader: Andy Quitmeyer
Dr. Andy Quitmeyer, creator of the Mothbox, has offered to lead a workshop for people who want to build their own automated insect monitoring systems.
The cost to attend the workshop is free, but if you would like to assemble your own Mothbox during the workshop under Andy’s tutelage, you have the option to purchase all of the materials you will need from Andy’s team for an additional fee. Simply fill out this Interest Form, and they will handle all of the logistics for you!
Right now, they anticipate that the total cost of each Mothbox “kit” will be around $475, which is just the price of the raw materials, shipping, and tariffs. They will not be making money off this workshop; they just want to help those who are interested in constructing a Mothbox do so as easily and affordably as possible by sourcing the materials for you!
Once they know how many people will be participating and have a final total on what the materials will cost, Andy’s team will contact you with payment instructions prior to the workshop. Space is limited to 20 participants.
Learn more about the Mothbox project here: Mothbox.Org
Workshop: Gall-making Moths |
THIS CLASS IS FULL
Location: Shawnee Lodge & Conference Center
Leader: Yun Park & Yann Kemper
Many organisms, including moths, make their homes within plants. What you may not know is that often, they force the plant to help out. Welcome to the bizarre world of galls, an amazing marriage of botany and entomology that will take your enjoyment of the natural world to the next level! Join naturalists Yann Kemper and Yun Park as they tell stories of Ancient Greek botany, an inspired psychologist, and a biological war spanning over 200 million years. We will conclude by teaching you some of the fascinating galls to find around Shawnee, with identification tips including hostplant specificity.
Workshop: Raising Caterpillars for Education
Location: Shawnee Lodge & Conference Center
Leaders: Mary Lawrence
Discover the wonders of metamorphosis in this workshop about raising caterpillars for educational purposes. Whether you're an educator, nature enthusiast, or simply curious, this class will guide you through the basics of caring for caterpillars, providing proper food sources, and creating a safe environment for their transformation into butterflies or moths. Learn how to incorporate caterpillar rearing into classrooms, nature programs, or personal learning experiences to inspire curiosity and conservation awareness. Photo by Jeff White
Workshop: High Magnification, Low Cost: Macro Photography on a Budget
Location: Shawnee Lodge & Conference Center
Leader: Danae Wolfe, photographer
From insects and spiders to snowflakes and flowers, macro photography can reveal surprising details about the natural world. With just a few simple tools and some practice, high magnification macro photography can be a fun and accessible way to highlight the tiniest details of your garden. In this session, we’ll explore low-cost macro photography setups and techniques, including reverse lens, extension tubes, and mobile macro tips. Get ready to see the world through an entirely new lens! Photo by Danae Wolfe
Saturday Field Trips - Outdoor Excursions
Turkey Creek & Mackletree Run Exploration - EASY | THIS HIKE IS FULL
Leaders: Kelly Capuzzi & Laura Hughes
Distance from Forest Museum: 2 to 5 minutes from the Lodge
Length of Trail:
Difficulty: EASY
Turkey Creek, a pristine cold-water stream, and Mackeltree Run, an exceptionally clear-water creek, offer a wonderful opportunity to explore some of Ohio’s most beautiful aquatic habitats. As we wade through these crystal-clear waters, we’ll search for colorful fish such as rainbow darters, orangethroat darters, southern redbelly dace, sunfish, and suckers, while also discovering sensitive aquatic insects, including mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies, which are indicators of excellent water quality. Please come prepared to enter the stream with waders or sturdy wading shoes. photo by John Howard
Portsmouth Works Caravan Tour - EASY
Leader: Emily Uldrich
Difficulty: EASY
Southern Ohio is globally renowned for its high density of prehistoric ceremonial sites, many of which are unparalleled in their scale and complexity. The Portsmouth Works - possibly the largest ceremonial complex ever constructed in the Midwest, is one such site. Today, it exists largely as small remnants throughout the southern half of Scioto County and across the river into Kentucky's Greenup and Lewis Counties. Emily Uldrich, Executive Director of Main Street Portsmouth in Bloom, has established herself as one of the foremost interpreters of the great Portsmouth Works Complex, making this a one-of-one opportunity to learn everything there is to know about this fascinating hot spot of prehistoric ceremonial activity. For this field trip, we will caravan to each of the best Portsmouth Works remnants that still remain, including Tremper Mound, Infirmary Mound, and Horseshoe Mound. The tour will be capped off with a visit to the Southern Ohio Museum's Wertz Collection, where over 10,000 regional artifacts are housed and displayed, many of which came from sites throughout the Portsmouth Works Complex!
Simon Farm Lichens Walk - MODERATE |
THIS HIKE IS FULL
Leader: Elijah Crabtree
Distance from Forest Lodge: 12.6 miles
Length of Trail: 1.5 miles
Difficulty: MODERATE
Join Arc Naturalist, Elijah Crabtree, for a guided hike through the brand new 1.5-mile Simon Woods Trail at the Historic Simon Farm. The Simon Woods & Farm Preserve is a historic 5th-generation farmstead backdropped by several hundred acres of Mature-Old Growth Mixed Oak forests across rugged hollows and steeply ascending ridgetops. For this hike, Elijah will explain some of the distinguishing ecology of Simon Woods and how it has informed the fascinating cultural history of the farm. Afterwards, Elijah will take the group on the trail to search for lichens while explaining their natural history and regional diversity within mixed oak forests.
Raven Rock - HARD
Leaders: Austin Newton & Ann Geise
Distance from Forest Lodge: 11 miles
Length of Trail: 2.5 Miles
Difficulty: Challenging, due to a long, strenous upward climp on rocky path
Raven Rock is a 98-acre preserve in Scioto County with a historic promontory overlooking the scenic Ohio River Valley. While various legends exist as to how the hill received its name, from the air, it takes on the shape of a bird with outstretched wings. Native Americans utilized the overlook as a lookout point for incoming travelers along the Ohio River, which was a major transportation route. Early white settlers began visiting the site in the early 19th century, where numerous carvings were etched into the sandstone and can still be seen today. This field trip will be primarily a hiking field trip. The Raven Rock trail, over the years, has been considered to be a notoriously difficult hike, with a straight shot up the hillside directly to the famous promontory. A recent trail reroute has made the trail longer and steadier with much more reasonable terrain. Nevertheless, this is still a strenuous hike, so please consider any physical limitations you may have before signing up for this hike.
Quiverheart Gorge - HARD
Leader: Lexie Stevenson
Distance from Forest Lodge: 24.7 miles
Length of Trail: 3.5 miles
Difficulty: Challenging due to rocky trail and multiple short ascents and descents
Tucked away within the rolling hills of northeastern Adams County, Quiverheart Gorge Preserve is home to the largest dolomite gorge and waterfalls in the entire county - a sister steep-sided canyon to the Sanctuary and Clifton Gorge filled with stunning rock formations. Spectacular cliff overlooks, deep rock recesses, karst landscapes, and boulder-strewn talus slopes dominate the scenery in all directions. Lots of niche habitats abound, including cedar glades, karst cliffs and rims, and lush moss-covered glens. Quiverheart is an ecologically safe haven, endowed with both geological drama and soul-satisfying serenity. photo by Brian Prose
Additional Weekend Activities
Sam Jaffe’s Caterpillar Lab
Location: Shawnee Lodge & Conference Center
Time: Friday - Sunday
Sam Jaffe is the founder of Caterpillar Lab, a New Hampshire nonprofit that fosters appreciation and care for the complexity and beauty of the natural world by using the mind-bending, gorgeous creatures we know as caterpillars as a gateway experience. Sam is back in Ohio with his practiced talents of putting together a caterpillar lab “on the road.” Witness his collection of live caterpillars feeding on their native food sources over the weekend, and marvel at their colors and diversity of form. Caterpillars will be returned where they were found at week’s end to continue their metamorphosis.
Film Showing in Portsmouth: The Extraordinary Caterpillar
Location: Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center
Time: Friday 3:30pm
Participants are invited to attend a special screening of “The Extraordinary Caterpillar“ at the Southern Ohio Museum Center in downtown Portsmouth, roughly a 21-minute drive from Shawnee Lodge.
“This inspiring documentary brings communities together and empowers families everywhere to become guardians of the natural world – proving that when we work together, even the smallest actions can create extraordinary change.”
We recommend watching the film, which is only available for special viewings, and then staying in town and enjoying dinner in Portsmouth.
Friday Night Bioblitz at Tremper Mound Preserve
(Advanced Mothing Option)
Location: Tremper Mound Preserve
Friday: 9:30pm
For those interested in contributing to a focused biodiversity survey, a mothing bioblitz will take place at the Arc of Appalachia’s 706-acre Tremper Mound Preserve. Participants will collaboratively catalog the diversity of moths and other nocturnal insects present at this unique location that is also home to the charnel house (now a mound) that served the 25-square-mile Hopewell Culture Portsmouth Works, a native American sacred landscape that is 2000 years old. Tremper Mound is roughly a 25-minute drive from the lodge.
Sunday Tour of Tremper Mound Preserve
Location: Tremper Mound Preserve
Sunday at 10:30am
Enjoy this one-hour-long tour of the remarkable Tremper Mound, a 2000-year-old earthwork still visible to the eye today. The mound was once an integral part of the immense Hopewell ceremonial complex of earthworks that was developed on both banks of the Ohio River, known today as Portsmouth Works. Tremper Mound is one of the few standing reminders of the architectural scale and grandeur achieved in the engineering feat of Portsmouth Works. It is also one of only two mounds that have even been discovered in the Hopewell Culture’s midwestern territory to cache the pinnacle of Hopewell art - sacred animal effigy pipes that captured likenesses of the wildlife with whom the people shared their world.