Vibrant People of Elkhart County: Luke Gascho
Luke Gascho is a professor in the Sustainability and Environmental Affairs Education Department at Goshen College and the executive director of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center.
Archives for Merry Lea Category
Wood Ducks, Marl Soil, Chorus Frogs and More: Natural Surprises Await Researchers and Students at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College
Located near scenic Wolf Lake in Indiana, Merry Lea boasts geological riches of an unusually wide variety such as peat bogs, a marl pit and glacial gravel formations. Merry Lea is also home to wetland, prairie, and savanna restorations and participates in sustainable agriculture.
Merry Lea supports regional food system with seed swap
Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College hosted the Michiana Regional Seed Swap January 19 at Goshen High School, featuring eleven vendors, more than a hundred guests and thousands of locally adapted seeds.
Kinderforest program gets Goshen kids out of the classroom and into the woods
About once a month, 24 students from the Goshen College Laboratory Kindergarten class — a partnership between the college’s education department and Goshen Community Schools — spend the day climbing trees, building shelters and making mud pies in Witmer Woods, through Merry Lea’s Kinderforest program, the first of its kind in Goshen.
Merry Lea Executive Director Luke Gascho announces retirement plans
Luke Gascho, Merry Lea's executive director, announced his intent to retire on June 30, 2019.
Merry Lea students forage on canoe trip along Elkhart River
Every year in September, Joel Pontius leads students in Goshen College’s Sustainability Leadership Semester on an eight-day canoe trip from the headwaters of the Elkhart River at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center to Lake Michigan.
Five students finish summer intensive
Five college students have just finished the Agroecology Summer Intensive program at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center's Rieth Village. It's been a broad ranging experience for them, from visiting area farming enterprises to leading lunch discussions to caring for goats.
Animals, fruits and nuts coexist in Merry Lea pasture
In a 5-acre pasture at the Merry Lea Sustainable Farm, you’ll find cows and chickens sharing the land with some unusual roommates — nut trees, fruit trees, grapevines and raspberries.
Merry Lea welcomes largest environmental education graduate program cohort
The Master’s in Environmental Education program (MAEE) at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College welcomed its largest cohort ever in July 2018.
Merry Lea featured on Farmerama podcast
The Farmerama podcast talks to John Mischler, Merry Lea’s Director of Agroecology, and Ellie Schertz, the Assistant Farm Manager, as well as two students who’ve chosen to return to Merry Lea and volunteer for another summer (begins at 21:30).