There’s something about having your feet in water that is a thrill. As a kid, I jumped and splashed in puddles and ponds just to see how big an impact I could have. Now, as an adult, I enjoy watching kids jump and splash, but my way is different now… I prefer to walk slowly through the water…
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While the March prairies are still sleeping and the woodlands are just beginning to break bud, our Indiana wetlands are waking up. Wetlands are critical habitat for so many plant and animal species. One of our first Indiana wetland residents to begin filling the spring air with its call is the…
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Well, shucks, try as I might, I have not yet been successful in seeing a northern shrike at Kankakee Sands. Even though more than 450 beautiful bird species have been documented in Indiana over the years, this winter, I had my sights set on just one—the clever northern shrike. Classified as a…
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Twenty-five years ago, Kankakee Sands wasn’t. It wasn’t a prairie, it wasn’t home for a herd of 100+ bison, it wasn’t managed with fire, and it wasn’t visited by families and friends. It simply wasn’t. But today, it is! This very December marks the 25 th year that the Indiana Chapter of The Nature…
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Without a doubt, September is the month of the monarch. I am loving all the monarch photos that people are posting to social media and sending to me via text and email. The photos of the brightly colored, seemingly perfect monarchs are stunning. With their bold and bright, orange and black wings…
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In third grade, my teacher Mrs. Curran introduced all 27 of her students to the scientific method. It felt so hard to remember all those steps to the scientific method, and in the right order, but the first one was easy to remember and easy to do: observation. All I had to do was look at something…
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I overlook things all the time – but insects don’t. I walk, bike, and drive the roadsides of Kankakee Sands every day, nearly oblivious to the thousands of hoary vervain ( Verbena stricta ) that I am passing. But the insects are keyed in—they know that this plant is a treasure. Hoary vervain grows…
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Nature isn’t always what it seems —a chatty little grasshopper sparrow taught me that. For the first ten or so years that I worked at the Kankakee Sands Nursery, I was always looking down, either at the native plants that I was planting into the soil or at the seeds that I was harvesting for our…
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Skunk Cabbage: The Smell of Spring After a long gray Indiana winter, it’s a real joy to smell skunk cabbage ( Symplocarpus foetidus ), one of Indiana’s native, fascinating flowers. The name says it all—it does not smell like roses! But seeing and smelling skunk cabbage is a sure-fire, sweet sign that…
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With its short days, grey skies, and cold temperatures, February in Indiana can be trying even for the ruggedest soul among us. But, I love winter. Without winter, our Kankakee Sands prairies would not be the amazing, life-filled, flower-flowing, insect-buzzing places that they are. The success of…
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