Talk of the Town - Whitley County

 

(Talk of the Town photos by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Above, a group of students makes their way to the next station for learning during the Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District's 26th annual Fifth Grade Field Day. Below, a volunteer leads a group of students on a sunny walk toward the 4-H Center Building last Thursday. 

By Nadean Eldien

The Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District hosted its 26th annual conservation field days for fifth grade students from Whitley County Consolidated School, South Whitley and Smith-Green Community School systems at the 4-H Center in Columbia City.

This year seven different topics were featured to give the students an understanding of soils, wildlife, water safety, 4-H, recycling, the Emerald Ash Borer Problem, and a visit to the Learning Museum where this year’s topic was corn.  The event takes three days to get all of the school systems through the program.  

Joe Huntsman showed the students the importance of having ground cover such as grass to help keep your soil from eroding.  He explained how some erosion problems could be corrected and how important our top soil to us and why we need to take care of our soils.

Gene Haskins had a collection of animal furs and stuff animals that are native to Indiana and our area of the state that he shared with the students.  He explained how the animals live and what is needed for them to have a healthy habitat for them to remain in Indiana.  

Erik Bolt and Darren Reed, who are conservation offices for our area, used one of their boats to demonstrate the importance of water safety and what to do if a problem does happen while you are in or on the water.

David Addison, who is with the Whitley County Cooperative Extension Service brought a collection of 4-H projects and posters that the students could see to spark ideas for them if they would like to join 4-H and have for a project at fair time.

Jorell Tucker, who is with the Whitley County Solid Waste District, explained the importance of recycling and what can and can’t be recycled in Whitley County.  Mr. Tucker had examples of products that had been made from recycled plastic jugs, paper and even old dollar bills.  He explained that everyone in Whitley County should be recycling because this is a service that we all pay for whether we use it or not.

Gary Moughler with the Natural Resources Conservation Service explained the problems that the Emerald Ash Borer has created in our state and to our Ash Trees.  He helped the students to be able to indentify with the problem through a learning game, which kept the students up and active.

The Fifth Graders got to go through the Learning Museum and this year’s topic on corn.  Bill and Cheryl Lincoln assisted Ron Myer with this stop.  The children learned about the history of corn, how it is raised and what products are made from corn.

After the students had visited all seven of the stops, they were served a lunch provided by the volunteer board members and associate members from the Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District.