The Troy Fair

These will NOT be the snakes at the Fair.

By: Kevin Brown, Ag Team leader
Enough said, right.  The Troy Fair.  The biggest event to hit Bradford County since (I don’t know, dinosaurs??  LOL).  We have rides and animals and attractions and (oh yea) FOOD.  It is not an official count, but I think we have been going at this for just shy of 150 years.  That is a long time.  The fair is an enjoyable time for whatever reason you go.  There will be cattle and sheep and chickens and whatever animals you can think of.  We will have the normal- fish, snakes (I hope.  I have to catch them yet and NO these ones in the picture are not the ones that I will have at the fair!), critters, and educational stuff.  I hope to see you there.  If you are a regular reader, you can feel free to stop in and tell me what a wonderful job I am doing, or that I have lost my mind and don’t have a clue what is going on out there in the real world.  Either way, I will enjoy the conversation.

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​A highlight from previous years has been having the snakes.  I have never seen a creature that has more divided feelings in humans than they do.  First, I never realized that there were so many people in the county that had snakes themselves.  There are a lot, but you would never know it.  I also never realized that men, as a whole, are way more afraid of them than women.  Sorry guys.  And if a woman is afraid of it, she will shy away from where I am standing and keep moving along.  If a guy sees it, and doesn’t like them, he is at the other side of the building in three steps.  Or maybe even outside if he can get there quickly enough.  And women that don’t like them will still be brave enough that if their kids will touch it, so will they.  Nope, not men.  They are outta’ there!!
Snakes are actually a pretty good thing to have around, in most cases.  Yes, some are venomous, but typically are not an issue for humans if we mind our own business.  Mice carry a ton of diseases, none of which we want.  Snakes eat mice.  Sounds like a good trade off to me.  They also like a multitude of small mammals, and this keeps the environment in check.  Without them, we would risk having an imbalance of animals around us.  They can eat insects, mice, frogs, salamanders, slugs, etc.  Speaking of slugs, I don’t know why they would eat them.  They are nasty on every level.  And they might be the only thing that really does, save the wolf spider.  Who wants them around?  They are the biggest, ugliest thing in the world.  LOL
Enough about snakes, let’s talk the planet.  That is what the Conservation District is about.  What do we need in our lives daily to live and breathe?  Air, water, soil and sun.  These are the four things that we try to concentrate on for conservation practices.  From these four things come food, shelter, clothing, etc.  Everything we need to live.  Let’s treat them accordingly.  John James Audubon once said that “a true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children”.   WOW.  Powerful stuff.  Most parents absolutely bend over backwards to give their children everything they could ever want.  Why not start with the most important thing in the world, the world (in better shape than we were given). 
The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com.