June 30, 2004

Hikers explore creepy crawlies

GT Conservation District staff lead Discovery Hikes for children

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

photo
Photo by R-E staff
      "I like bugs a little bit, but I don't like them when they crawl on you."
      Delving into the world of creepy crawlies, more than 70 members of the YMCA Summer Camp Program turned over logs, chased down flying insects and hunted under rocks Thursday morning at the Grand Traverse Natural Education Reserve.
      Guided by staff from the Grand Traverse Conservation District, they discovered snakes, millipedes and spiders, beetles, crickets and butterflies.
      And Reanna Averill, 8, a member of the camp, overcame her wariness to explore the world of bugs.
      Already having learned at school that insects have six legs, she got an up close and personal look at members of the species. She and her friends gathered specimens in baggies and brought them back to the Reserve's picnic pavilion to view through a magnifying glass.
      "I saw ants, too, a bunch of them," said Averill of the hike, which included a visit to an oversized anthill. "The queen over there is huge, and that ant hill is huge, too."
      This summer, the Grand Traverse Conservation District is again offering their Discovery Hikes for children and families. In addition to a series of public hikes, held on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings in July and August, district staff will also create custom hikes for groups.
      Both the scheduled public and the custom hikes cover topics ranging from wetlands, wildflowers and butterflies to moths, rocks and streams.
      The hikes are geared to children ages 5-12, with the Saturday morning public hikes open for adults and families. The hikes are usually between 1/2-2 miles long and last for 1-2 hours, with travel over varied terrain. Participants can complete a related craft project after the hike.
      The guides are drawn from the Grand Traverse Conservation District staff to keep the ratio of guides to hikers at 10:1. All hikes are free but district staff requests pre-registration so enough guides can be available.
      In an era of computer games and high tech entertainment, nature still rates with kids, said Cindy Retherford, education specialist with the Grand Traverse Conservation District
      "The younger kids just love nature, they're just like little sponges, they soak it up," Retherford noted. "Today we had a Birds and Nesting hike and they collected stuff to make nests with and also collected pine cones to make bird feeders using peanut butter."
      Retherford said the District has been offering free hikes for years but just last year began promoting them seriously. Including hikers who visited during the summer and the school year, both last fall and this spring, more than 2,500 children visited the Grand Traverse Natural Education Preserve. This year, District officials hope to see those numbers grow.
      "You don't really have to sell kids much on it, they love it," Retherford said. "And it's a good way for them to get out and realize how beautiful nature is and observe it first hand."
      Promoting responsible use of and respect for the land is one of the goals of the Discovery Hikes program.
      "We try to bring into play on each hike our job as stewards of the land, that it is the responsibility of each of us to care for the land," she noted.
      The next schedule public Discover Hikes are the Nature Scavenger Hunt on Tuesday, July 13, and the Stream Searchers hike on Thursday, July 15, both at 9 a.m. Both will be held at the Pavilion Picnic area south of the Traverse City Area Public Schools bus garage on Cass Road.
      For more information on future Discovery Hikes, which will be held throughout July and August, contact the Grand Traverse Conservation District at 941-0960 or visit their website at www.gtcd.org