Greene County Conservation is hosting a free event on Saturday where participants could be part of a larger program with the two school districts in the county.

Naturalist Jacob Fernholz has partnered with Tiffany Morgan, who is the director of the Iowa PBS Phenomena Blitz, and invites everyone to Spring Lake Park from 9am-noon on Saturday to explore the area and ask questions about what they see. Fernholz points out the Phenomena Blitz is about having people take pictures of things they see and have questions about that they may not know the answers to.

“You’ve got maybe a weird looking frog, I’ve never seen that frog before, what species is it? Maybe it’s a hole in the tree, what’s utilizing that hole in the tree is it an owl, is it a squirrel? Maybe there’s something deeper. Why do we have gravel on the base of our Spring Lake?”

Fernholz says attendees will meet at the main shelterhouse at Spring Lake where they can get a camera and learn from Morgan about tips of taking good photos before everyone ventures into the park taking pictures. He explains the goal of this event is to create a possible program that he hopes will develop into a bigger idea.

“And if we have any curriculum that’s derived from this directly from Greene County, we’re going to roll that into, hopefully, School of the Wild. This is another new thing that’s going to be coming out here this year.”  

Fernholz reveals that School of the Wild will take all sixth graders in the county and for one week in September, they will be at Spring Lake Park learning about different nature and environmental topics, which may include a curriculum from the Phenomena Blitz. Saturday’s event is free and open to the public, Fernholz suggests participants dress according to the weather, which will be held rain or shine.