News Archives
Here you can read about things that have happened at Merry Lea over the past year. For more news you can down load the Merry Leaflet newsletters.
Rieth Village Receives Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence
FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Representatives from Goshen College's Rieth Village of Wolf Lake, Ind., and Rieke Packaging Systems of Auburn, Ind., were honored with a Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence during the 11th annual Pollution Prevention Conference and Trade Show in Plainfield, Sept. 17, 2008.
Enchanted Forest introduces children to another kind of night life
annual Halloween alternative offers a night hike by lantern light with stops along the way where children can meet and talk with the animals that live at Merry Lea. This year's Enchanted Forest took place on October 24 and 25 and featured a skunk, a muskrat, an opposum, a bear, a deer, a woodcock, a garden spider, a monarch butterfly, a frog and a toad. Les and Gwen Gustavson-Zook offered live music.
Enchanted Forest is especially geared for children ages K-3rd grade, but people of all ages can enjoy the hike and learn something new about local fauna. Next year's Enchanted Forest is scheduled for October 23 - 24, 2009.
Rieth Village about to Buzz with May Term Activity
At least twenty-four Goshen College students will call Rieth Village home during the month of May, as they come to study either environmental education or ecology.
Paul
Steury’s Bio340 class attracts primarily elementary education majors
eager to learn to share outdoor experiences with their future classes. Bio340
students study natural history and assist in delivering school programs
such as Exploring Nature, Rock Cycle, Water Quality and Wetlands. Richard
Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit
Disorder is a key text. The group will also consider the impact of No Child
Left Behind legislation on environmental education and become familiar with
corrective measures such as the No Child Left Inside Act.
Ryan Sensenig, chair of the environmental science department at Goshen
College, will teach the ecology 
course. His
ten ecology students will make good use of Merry Lea’s 1,150-acres.
Their fieldwork includes mist-netting for birds, water testing via canoe,
sampling tall-grass prairie vegetation and trapping small mammals. In one
behavioral ecology lab, they will test optimal foraging theory.
Each morning, the group will enjoy "Coffee & Nature Writing" discussions during which they will read and discuss poetry, short stories or natural history essays chosen and presented by a student. “I want to emphasize learning about the natural world in ways that speak to the spirit as well as the mind,” Sensenig says.
All students living at Rieth Village receive a tour of the buildings’ sustainable features and are challenged to think about lifestyle issues.
Oak Openings Visitors Wowed by Lupine, Ragwort
Rivers
of skunk cabbage and ribbons of lupine greeted the 17 travelers who attended
Merry Lea’s day trip to the Oak Openings region of northwestern Ohio.
The tour visited the Oak Openings Preserve Metropark and the Kitty Todd Nature
Preserve near Toledo, Ohio on May 17.
Bill Minter, Merry Lea’s land manager, guided the group to this unique
set of ecosystems just off of Interstate 80. The unique glacial geology of
the area has created a haven for rare plants and butterflies. At Oak Openings,
Minter pointed out the contrasts between the dry, sandy ridges where lupine
grows and nearby low, wet swales.
At Kitty Todd, Merry Lea travelers joined Jackie Riley, a Nature Conservancy
volunteer who works with Kitty Todd’s butterfly monitoring program.
Riley showed the group how butterflies are counted and led them on a quest
for the rare karner blue butterfly.
No karners were sighted, but some of the group got a good look at a vivid
red summer tanager and an indigo bunting. Another highlight included acres
of ragwort abloom in the woods, yellow as far as the eye could see.
Midwest Birding Expedition Explores Southern Indiana
Friend
of Merry Lea Paul McAfee generously volunteered his time identifying birding
hotspots and local experts for the annual Midwest Birding Expedition to
visit. This year’s trip ran from May 9-12 and lodged at McCormick’s
Creek State Park near Spencer, IN. Paul writes:
It was with much anticipation that we wrestled the Goshen College bus out
of the Merry Lea parking lot onto the highway that led to beautiful southern
Indiana for the annual Midwest Birding Expedition.
Our plan was to hit the spring bird migration head-on and see the tremendous
variety of songbirds that course through Indiana on their way to their breeding
grounds. We succeeded in finding 145 species of birds including 27 species
of warblers.
We found several of our target birds, including the King Rail, Blue Grosbeak,
Yellow-bellied Warbler, Prairie Warbler, and Hooded Warbler. We learned
from our local guide, Lee Sterrenberg, that the King Rail only nests in two
locations in Indiana, one of which was Goose Pond in Greene County where we
listened to three different birds calling continuously the whole time we were
there.
Cathy Meyer, who is a naturalist for Monroe County Parks and a member of the
winning Birdathon team for the Monroe County Birdathon,, took us to all of
the best places in Monroe County, including the Bean Blossom area and Monroe
Reservoir. It was hard work, but we found many species of warblers and
other songbirds, as well as Forster's & Caspian Terns; Laughing, Ring-billed & Herring
Gulls; several Blue Grosbeaks and a flock of Bobolinks.
Lisa Zinn from Merry Lea was the resident bird song identifier as well as
the sing-along leader during the long drives. Mabel Brunk, Al & Els Shelley,
Marlene Krause, Darci Zolman and Bob Guth were our energetic and capable birdwatchers.