Category: Nature Notes

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.

Nature Notes: Lake Level Changes: The Impact of Unpredictability in a Warmer Winter By Anna Foster, published February 4th, 2024 As we delight in above-average temperatures this January, it’s easy […]

Nature Notes: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year By Dan Scheiman, published on December 23, 2023 On Saturday, December 16, I participated in the Ephraim Christmas Bird Count. As […]

Nature Notes: A Buzzing Sanctuary By Libby Humphries, published September 25, 2023 During the warmer months at The Ridges, a symphony of insects can be heard from the front garden […]

Nature Notes: Monarch Madness By Anna Foster, published August 17, 2023 A symbol of summer, monarch butterflies are widely recognized for their bright orange, black, and white spotted wings. Their […]

Nature Notes: Hine’s Emerald – The Hidden Gem of the Sanctuary By Jackie Rath, published July 27th, 2023 Did you know that one of the most precious species of The […]

Nature Notes: Research + Recovery: Protecting and Preserving Native Orchids By Tony Kiszonas, Director of Research The Ridges Sanctuary has tremendous plant diversity including native terrestrial orchids.  Following the idea […]