Ann Arbor Learning Commmunity Duck Nests

Earlier this winter, Leslie Park Golf Course was able to help Ann Arbor Learning Community (a local charter school) with Annie's Big Nature Lesson. You can read about Tracey Marchyok and Mr.Dorn's 4th - 5th grade class experience HERE.

On Thursday, March 7th, Wendy Nagle had her class over to the clubhouse to complete the service part of the program. We decided to have the students help build Mallard Duck Nesting Tubes. I got the idea from another golf course blog that I follow, Bear Trace at Harrison Club, in Tennessee.

The tubes are made from 2 inch by 3 inch "chicken wire" rolled into a 12 inch diameter tube. Then some pinestraw is placed around the tube and rolled into a protective barrier for the fledgling ducks. The tubes will be placed in the water to give the ducks a safe place to raise their young.

The kids got into the project with a lot of enthusiasm, as you can see.

When completed, the tubes will be placed on the ponds on #8, #12 and #17. They should look similar to this...

After constructing the tubes, the kids burn off some energy walking back to the science center by rolling and sliding down the hill.

Annie's Big Nature Lesson

As part of Annies' Big Nature Lesson (ABNL), Tracey Marchyok and Kevin Dorn had their 4th and 5th grade class at the Leslie Science and Nature Center for the week of February 11-15.

The mission of ABNL is to immerse children, teachers, and parents in the beauty and wonder of the natural world; to engage them in authentic scientific investigations by observing the local ecology, drawing and writing; to nurture citizens who value and protect natural resources; and to build a school-community partnership that inspires responsible environmental stewardship.

On Wednesday, the students came to the golf course and I talked to them about the best management practices that the golf course implements with a goal of being the best environmental stewards that we can. I talked about some of the wildlife that I see on the course and the ways that we foster habitat in out of play areas. I also talked about the Traver Creek Project and afterword, we walked out on the course to look at the progress on the stream restoration.

I also got some samples of the water that the students did some water quality tests on back at the science center.

One great thing that I learned was that some of the students were in Wendy Nagle's class 2 years ago when we put up some bat houses that they made. Many of the kids remembered me and gave me a very warm welcome. Here is a picture of us putting up one of the bat houses on #3.