From Wetland Matters, September–October 2010
Oxbow is about nature, and saving habitat, and enhancing biodiversity, but it is also about education. The Oxbow area serves as a large classroom for many learners of all ages. Many of you are familiar with our monthly educational meetings with a wide variety of speakers and with our monthly hikes for birding, plants, and nature (yes, these are educational and not just for exercise). Less familiar are the other activities we do for education. Elsewhere in this newsletter, Velda Miller, head of our educational grant committee, is announcing our grant application process to fund local educational projects that have to do with nature, biodiversity, and sustainability. Also you will find an article by Jill Russell one of the early recipients of our educational grants. I think you will find these interesting and we look forward to having a significant and positive local impact on nature education in the Tristate area. This has been made possible by the generous gift of Ginny (Wiseman) Witte and the wise stewardship of the Board of Directors of Oxbow, Inc. We are always happy to accept other donations to the education fund to advance the nature education of local young people.
But that is not all. Groups of local photographers have gathered to learn nature photography, students from Ivy Tech have come to enjoy a biology 101 lesson, students from The College of Mount St. Joseph learn bird identification and natural history of birds, boy and girl scout groups have learned basic ecology, organized groups of home school children have had elementary biology lessons, the Master’s class from the Environmental Institute of Miami University learns about success of grass roots environmental groups. That is only the beginning with garden clubs, retirement centers, business groups, volunteer groups from other nature centers and more coming to the Oxbow to learn about the unique ecology, geology and hydrology of the area. Throw in a few more “-ologys” such as geology, archaeology, and limnology and you still have not covered all the areas of learning and education that the Oxbow makes available to the residents of the Tristate area.
This role of the Oxbow as an educator is one of the roles we are most proud of. This role continues to expand as we look for more ways to bring the message of conservation of nature to the residents of the Tristate.
