Day 4: The Great Lakes Odyssey

Today, we spent an incredible morning at Indiana Dunes National Park with 75 fourth graders from Discovery School! 🎒🦋 The students took a journey through the Great Marsh, where they learned about its history, how it's treated for invasive species, went on a native plant treasure hunt, built their own wetlands in a bottle, and even created a beautiful dragonfly art piece! ✨

A huge thank you to Rangers Dan, Steve, Daniel, Evan, Chris, Mary-Ann, and Billy for making today unforgettable. 💚 Ranger Dan shared why this marsh was chosen for restoration, while Ranger Steve brought his interpretive skills to life in the marsh. The resource management team (Daniel, Evan, Chris, Mary-Ann, and Billy) showed us how they tackle the heavy lifting to keep this ecosystem thriving. 💪🌱

After the students left, we got hands-on with planting plugs in the marsh, learned how snowshoes are used to navigate the wetlands, saw how backpack sprayers help control invasive species, collected seeds from Sweet Joe-Pye-weeds, and even met "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha," the park's marsh master! 🌾🏞️

And this was all before 2 pm! 😅 The rest of our day will be filled with editing, creating content, and maybe a quick nap. 😴
Tomorrow, we’re LiveStreaming from the Great Marsh Observation Deck, hoping for a few more sandhill crane sightings! 🕊️