Shepherdstown resident Nancy Stewart looks through books on conservation-related topics, at the Four Seasons Books booth in the Dr. Robert Scott Beard Memorial Lobby on Saturday. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — On Saturday afternoon, American Conservation Film Festival Director Hilary Lo could be seen busily greeting festival goers and filmmakers alike in the Dr. Robert Scott Beard Memorial Lobby, between film screening blocks in the Frank Arts Center Theater.

After looking at records from the past three days of the festival, which started on March 7, Lo could confidently say that this year’s festival saw a noticeable rise in attendance from 2023.

“The turnout has been great! We had 200 last night and 175 already, earlier this afternoon,” Lo said. “We’ve had really good attendance.”

According to Lo, these positive statistics might be most directly related to the fact that life has mostly gone back to normal for film enthusiasts, almost one year past the end of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“This is definitely the best we have had since before the pandemic,” Lo said. “It’s been a really good bounce back!”

An American Conservation Film Festival attendee walks toward the Frank Arts Center Theater on Saturday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

In between the festival’s film blocks on Saturday afternoon, attendees had various opportunities to continue learning about conservation. Four Seasons Books could be found selling conservation-related books in the Dr. Robert Scott Beard Memorial Lobby. A number of conservation-related nonprofits were on-hand in the Frank Arts Center entrance, to share their conservation work with festival goers, including the Potomac Valley Audubon Society, the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center and the West Virginia Land Trust.

“We’re a land protection organization,” said West Virginia Land Trust Executive Director Brent Bailey. “We buy land and set up preserves. We set up properties for people to use all around the state for hiking and mountain biking and access into rivers.

“We have nine preserves around the state that are open to the public,” Bailey said. “Especially during COVID, we found that parents just wanted to go outside with their kids — they wanted to be able to go outside to safe places. Since COVID, however, we have seen that people are still going to our preserves! It accelerated interest in the outdoors in people, and they have kept staying outside. One of the funny things about COVID, was that it showed us that people really are eager to have safe places for recreation near where they live.”

For Shepherdstown resident Sandy Brown, this year’s festival was an unmissable experience.

“On Thursday I went to see the film about chestnuts — that was very, very cool,” Brown said, referring to the final film that night, “Clear Day Thunder: Rescuing the American Chestnut. “I ended up running into the python lady here yesterday, so I then had to go see her film, too!”

A sign marks one of the entrances for the American Conservation Film Festival, which was held in the Frank Arts Center from last Thursday through Sunday. Tabitha Johnston

The short film she was referring to, “Python Huntress,” documented the work of Python Elimination Specialist Donna Kalil in the Florida Everglades. It was screened in the second short film block on Saturday afternoon.