Grab your gear and get ready to explore the canals, rivers, streams and lakes in the South Shore. The South Shore has hundreds of miles of water trails and each route offers different opportunities from challenging and scenic to historic and wooded…
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Photo by Amy Nyberg I vividly remember catching my first frog. I was nine years old and was visiting my cousin who lived in rural Ohio. My cousin had just caught a toad and after many tries, I caught a frog...a real frog! (My cousin had much more experience in frog and toad catching than I, she knew full well that a dry toad was much easier to keep hold of than a slippery frog.)…
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It's early April, and any day now, the bison calves will be born. We can hardly wait to see the calves on the Kankakee Sands prairie! Bison were brought to Kankakee Sands in October of 2016 to help us manage the prairie. Since that time, they have been grazing and wallowing and doing all the great things that bison do in a prairie ecosystem…
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For years and years and years, my daughter has longed to have a cat. We just received a call from a friend who has a kitten that needs a home. My daughter is over the moon with excitement! I, too, am feeling excited this week, not because of the kitten that will soon come to live with us, but rather for kittentails (Besseya bullii), a native and state endangered plant in Indiana. This week I will begin growing the seeds of kittentails in our Kankakee Sands greenhouse as part of an effort to try to reestablish this rare plant in the fens of northeast and north central Indiana…
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Photo Courtesy of: Kathy Malone In the evening, when my head feels like it is still spinning from the adventures of the day, sitting outside and enjoying the night helps me to unwind. Even during this cold time of year, bundling up and sitting outside sends waves of relaxation through me when I see the stars and hear the calls of the barred owls…
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When you look at this picture, what do you see? You see the goldenrod seed falling from the head of a goldenrod plant, right? But past that, what do you see? Do you see the seed falling to the ground, being rained on in the spring, growing into a seedling, then a maturing into a flowering plant…
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Ok, I think my family is ready. We have the woodstove going and plenty of firewood to keep the house warm; our winter coats, hats, mittens, and boots are all by the front door; and we have an extra-large supply of non-perishable goods in our pantry in the event that we get snowed in. Yes, we are ready. Bring on the winter weather…
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By: Victoria Miller, The Nature Conservancy My six-month stint as a seasonal Restoration Management Assistant at Kankakee Sands has come to an end. During the past six months, I've experienced so much. One memory that stands out was a July day on the prairie. We were working on creating trails for the Bison Overlook Area at Kankakee Sands in Unit K, west of the Kankakee Sands office…
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By Alyssa Nyberg -The Nature Conservancy When the bison arrive at Kankakee Sands, I don't know what I'll do first. Jump for joy, grab a camera and start photographing, or just sit down and watch. Bison are due to arrive at Kankakee Sands this fall. A small herd of 25 will be making the journey from a Nature Conservancy preserve in South Dakota, to our restoration here in Indiana. Once on site, the bison's job will be to help us manage 1,100 acres of our restoration by eating grasses, thinning out trees, and churning up the soil. Luckily, this is what bison do! Their natural behaviors will result in a greater number of wildflower species and bird species, too…
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By: Samantha Kinsman, The Nature Conservancy When my sister and I were young, we used to take monarch caterpillars into our care and raise them to butterflies. It was a complicated project, usually headed by my sister, that involved finding and collecting teeny tiny monarch eggs on common milkweed plants, monitoring the eggs until they hatched, and getting the microscopic caterpillars situated on fresh milkweed leaves to eat and grow…
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