Did you know that almost every student in Nebraska knows more about the ocean and rainforest's than the habitat in their own backyard? This is astonishing to think about when the nearest ocean or rain forest is a plane ride to the coast away. The premise of the "retreat"-which was put on by Nebraska Game and Parks-was to inform educators about the opportunities within a car's ride away and to put practical resources, guides, posters, literature, and prairie plants in our hands.
Our first outing was a two and a half flower identification walk that had most of the environmentalist freaking out do to the early blossoming of prairie plants. The two hour observation of flowers found me and one of my team-mates grimacing at the very idea of walking in the early morning heat at snails pace. My other team-mate was in flora/fauna heaven. One cool thing I found about exploring prairie plants was being introduced to them. I've never been in a "prairie" setting let alone loaded down with real equipment for exploring. I tend to LOVE and HATE the outdoors. I can only handle it in small portions because of the "creepy crawlies," and yet understand the connection we all have to the earth and the responsibility we have to learn about it and take care of it.
The afternoon agenda was to learn the difference between a 3 month/6 month/1 year prairie burn, take some time for "quiet meditating," lunch, pelt and skull observations, reptile and amphibian handling (yuck!) The evening consisted of several lectures, games (which, I have to pause and say that watching several grown educators run around a prairie field pretending to be deer is quite interesting) We had a wonderful dinner catered by Famous Dave's (who knew they delivered to the prairie?) and s'mores by sunset. We then turned into Doan College for our late night accommodations.
Bright and early the next morning brought a bird walk and a bird banding demonstration. This by far was my absolute favorite thing about the entire prairie experience. I even had the opportunity to hold and release a banded bird. It blows my mind that one day someone will find that banded bird dead most likely, call it in, and I will have had the chance to be apart of something scientific. Oh the joys of learning! After "birding," we settled in for more lectures, more games, "sweeping" the grass for critters, Indian Tacos, and ended with a presentation on how the Natives used the prairie and it's offerings to survive. Native Americans totally blow my mind with their resourcefulness and ability to make magic out of nothing. Good thing I went with one and a nature expert, otherwise I wouldn't have lived to tell this tale.
GO OUT AND EXPLORE!
