Category: Nature Notes

Nature Notes: Share the Shore – Protecting Shorebirds During Fall Migration By Dan Scheiman, Visitor Engagement Specialist Fall migration is in full swing. In addition to songbirds, shorebirds are also […]

Nature Notes: Helping Wisconsin Bats By Anna Foster, Program Director Imagine walking down a boardwalk by the light of the moon, feeling the cool breeze from Lake Michigan through the […]

Nature Notes: Human-Wildlife Interactions By Sam Hoffman, Land Manager At some point or another we have all had a memorable experience with wildlife in the outdoors. Time spent viewing animals […]

Nature Notes: Finding Sanctuary in the Swales By Amy Shook, Naturalist As you take a walk through The Ridges Sanctuary, you may notice areas that have no trees, even though […]

Nature Notes: Watching Fawn-dly, Whitetail Deer Fawns By Anna Foster, Director of Programming Door County may be known for its limestone bluffs, ice cream shoppes, and beautiful sunsets, but I […]

Nature Notes: Protect Birds from Window Collisions By Dan Schieman During this past spring migration upwards of 3.5 billion birds were winging their way northwards (and even more will be […]

Forest Days are designed to bring students outside and into their local forest for place-based environmental education. Forest Day lesson topics include the carbon cycle, patterns in nature, the role of decomposers in the forest, food webs, and other interconnecting themes.

Each school forest functions as both an outdoor classroom and the learning material for each lesson; all Forest Day topics can be explored through the physical space of the forest.

On most weekdays around noon, Ridges staff make their way to the center table in the back offices to eat lunch. While this routine might feel repetitive, the conversations from these gatherings are anything but. Around this table, I have learned so much from my coworkers through their fascinations and questions about the natural world.

Birds’ annual cycles are better defined as breeding, non-breeding, and migration rather than by calendar seasons.