celery pond

The National Wildlife Federation’s “Award-Winning” children’s magazines are $15 each for a year’s subscription. Their web site, NationalWildlifeFederation@nwf.org gives info for placing the order.

“For a true gift that will stay with youngsters for years to come….”, it’s your choice: Wild Animal Baby, Your Big Backyard, or Ranger Rick.

Each is “carefully crafted to meet the needs of each age group. Every page is filled with engaging text and charming pictures to stimulate a child’s sense of wonder and development.”

An old issue of Ranger Rick mysteriously came to my mailbox a year ago, a gift from a friend who was an art teacher in the Chicago area. She used the magazine for her many years in her teaching as it had a superbly illustrated article on the wetlands and their underwater life. (It also inspired some motifs for the professional prints for which she is known.)

The magazine was tagged to look at the beautiful hand-drawn and colored 2-page spread which showed all the creatures in the underwaters of a wetland, in the article appropriately called “The Secret Life of Ponds.” The article provided a lively blog entry last fall.

In April, during the South Haven ecology weekend for kids, we handed-out black and white copies of the magazine pictures at our CPA table. The kids loved them and immediately took crayons to color them on-the-spot. They took them home with smiles on their faces. Some even said knew some of the creatures; others asked what the creatures were.

We recommended that they visit Celery Pond with their parents or teachers to find out more about our “pond.”

What a great way to lovingly nurture the special children in your life while opening them to appreciate more of nature. And, you can both share that adventure together!

Information and pictures from the magazine could inspire you all to take a trip to Celery Pond. It could inspire the kids to draw or write about the adventure, or they might simply be thrilled with seeing a turtle or a frog. You’d both have that living experience to share together!

A note too from the EPA agency in Chicago. A lovely brochure picked up this spring during the Earth Day hosted for South Haven’s community, was a flyer labeled “You Can Help!”

“Get to know a wetland and experience the thrill of hundreds of ducks taking to the wing. Listen to thousands of frogs serenading on a summer’s evening. Discover the delicate beauty and dazzling colors of wetland flowers. Visit a wetland near you.”

“You can help protect our nations’ wetlands by simply learning and caring about them.”

The conference intends to build and strengthen the network of collaboration in areas of higher education, state and local governments, business and civil society. This is a quest with a higher purpose: to start pooling mutual talents to reduce our energy footprint.

The times are a-changing for us all. More environmentally aware people are coming to the table as the recent election results in South Haven confirm.

There is a new emerging collective identity of educational experts linking to governments, working together for conservation and solutions to energy demands. We are thrilled to see this happening in Michigan and elsewhere. It’s imperative to work together for these goals.

For $75 you can join the venue for valuable exchanges. Share information and collaborate with other like- minded people to find practical solutions on critical issues before the State and Nation. Join in this effort to inaugurate an educational network for all levels of society from the local to state to national officials.

Registration starts a 8am, with the daylong conference beginning on Friday, November 17th at 9-6pm. The location is at Eberhard Center, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids.

The sponsors are the Michigan Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (which includes in its membership Celery Pond Advocates Inc.). Other sponsors include the MDEQ and the State Energy Office.

Coastal wetlands, such as Celery Pond, reduce potential flooding. It is important to preserve, and often restore wetlands, to help to this end.

Hurricane Katrina lives too in memory. The destruction caused by that storm was partly due to the overbuilding in wetland areas, which could no longer stave the storm’s high waters to any effect. This lesson is still with us as reconstruction/relief to the area is ongoing.

With environmental concerns occupying much of the campaigns of certain political candidates, at all levels of government, it behooves us all to make wise decisions and smart choices.

Keeping a wetland intact with its hydrology gives the transition zones between deeper water and uplands. Functioning like a natural tub, wetlands store flood waters that overflow riverbanks and surface water that collects during storms, etc.