Shaver’s Creek events canceled due to coronavirus pandemic

We are sad to report that we must cancel the Maple Harvest Festival for 2020.

Penn State President Eric. J. Barron and Penn State health and safety officials announced on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, that due to the coronavirus pandemic, Penn State would move to remote learning for all classes beginning Monday, March 16, through Friday, April 3, with a plan to resume face-to-face classes on Monday, April 6, at the earliest. As part of this announcement, the University also has indicated that all non-essential events should be canceled, rescheduled, or offered virtually through Monday, April 6, regardless of the size of the event.

At this time, all in-person events at Shaver’s Creek have been canceled from Monday, March 16, through Friday, April 3. This unfortunately includes the Maple Harvest Festival originally scheduled for March 28 and 29. Due to the constraints of the event and the spring schedule ahead, this event will not be rescheduled later in 2020.

Shaver’s Creek intends to refund all festival tickets and will share additional information about refunds early next week. If you are interested in supporting Shaver’s Creek in other ways, please consider applying your refund to the Honorary Animal Caretaker program or keep your eye out for our upcoming Birding Cup fundraising event.

This will also affect a variety of school visits and public programs scheduled over the next few weeks. Please visit our website for up-to-date program listings and rescheduled events going forward.

We want to extend a huge thanks to all of our interns and full-time staff that have been working tirelessly to prepare for the Maple Harvest Festival and to the hundreds of volunteers that were ready to help make it a magical weekend.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has signed an emergency disaster declaration for the Commonwealth. For the latest information about the presence of coronavirus in Pennsylvania, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Tips on preventing the spread of the virus can be found here: sites.psu.edu/virusinfo/health-information

This decision was made out of an abundance of caution and with your health and the well-being of our community in mind. We encourage you to take advantage of the spring-like weather outside in the natural world in the weeks ahead. Listen for returning phoebes in your neighborhood and wood frogs quacking in vernal pools. Contribute to citizen science with tools like eBird and iNaturalist. Never stop discovering!

Thank you for your patience during this difficult and developing situation.