Smart Children In The Park

It's time again for the  W.I.S.E. (Wisconsin Interstate Scout Explorers) Kids program at our favorite state park.  WISE Kids is an older kids version of Nature Story Time. This is the group we piloted two years ago.  A sort of "No Child Left Inside" program. Julie, resident naturalist, has provided a program for the kids that includes some hiking off trail in the park, canoeing, nature journaling, and listening to a portion of a read-aloud each week. 

We started out the program day with a trip into the woods to check out the Great Blue Heron rookery.  All but a few young have fledged at this point. 

We talked about some of the work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.  

"In the Wisconsin Interstate Park the C.C.C. developed, under the direction of the technical staff of the National Park Service (NPS), a survey of the park and a master plan for trails and rustic shelters. All buildings were built from stone that came from a quarry in the park following the guidelines of Albert Good, an architect noted for his rustic designs. The C.C.C. boys cleared a trail along the St. Croix River by removing rocks using a variety of methods, such as crowbars, block and tackle, and even the "Indian method" of "fire and water." Rocks were heated for several hours or even days. Once heated through, cold water was poured on top to crack and shatter them. In 1937, the first camp razed the old bathhouses in the park, brought in new sand for a beach on the river, and built a trailside shelter, and a log restroom. The second CCC camp completed a new bathhouse, a shelter along Horizon Rock trail, a park office, a picnic shelter by the beach, as well as picnicking and parking areas."

Here Julie tells the kids how to identify white pines by the number of needles they have per cluster.  there are five, same as the number of letters in the word white.

One of the kids happened upon this teeny tree frog in the grass.

The kids hiked around Lake of the Dalles,

stopped at Romance Isle to enjoy the scenery and a story,

and continued up to Ravine Trail.  An especially difficult portion of this trail has been under reconstruction for several weeks now by a group of young conservationists.  They are finally done with their project and we were some of the very first visitors to test out their work of art.  All the work was done by hand, as the C.C.C. boys did back in the '30s. This is the top of the "staircase" on Ravine Trail.  Here the kids ham it up with the conservationists,

and hear about how all this hard work was accomplished.

I've it time and time again; we are so lucky to have such a wonderful park so near our home.  I can't think of a better way to have spent the first three hours of my day.