Ramblings of a Nature Lover: Blue Heron Station

The last two days were set aside for training. Yesterday we drove to the Blue Heron area, which was a bit of a drive. The station was down by the river. It’s an old coal mining community that’s been partly restored/reconstructed for displays, and visitors can either drive there or ride a train. We just sat at some picnic tables outside until it was time for the train to come.

There were about nine or ten of us there for training. We were going over some of the basics of interpretation, which I’m familiar with but it’s always good to have another perspective. Then the train arrived, with a few people on it – including some families. There was a program on the mining that had been done in the area from the 1930s-1950s, which we all attended – the audience had more park employees than visitors!

After the train left again, we had lunch, then headed up a trail. It was part of the Blue Heron loop, which is several miles round trip, but our destination was the Crack in the Rocks, only about half a mile away. This wasn’t just a walk for fun, though – we were supposed to put together an interpretive guided walk! Each of us would pick a spot and have five minutes to talk about their topic of choice. I decided on the rotting log, which I’ve used in programs before.

It was a really amazing rock structure at the top of the hill! I had my camera with me but didn’t take any pictures, since I knew we’d be back on the same trail today. Of course, there was a cute little toad on the rock, and I had to get his picture since he probably wouldn’t stick around until the next day!

Today we had a lot of time to work on our program. We decided to walk out on the trail again and figure out where everyone wanted to do their talk at. There were several right before the log I had chosen, so I decided to move mine further along, so there wouldn’t be a long section of the hike without a talking point. I found a snag (standing dead tree) that we had looked at the day before. I could work with that – especially since I realized there were logs on the ground all around!

At this point I decided to head back down to the station. I didn’t really have my program figured out – I knew what I was going to talk about, but not what I was going to say!

I sat for a while working out a sort of script – writing out what I might say, just to figure out the flow of it. I was getting near the end when the train arrived, and I had a hard time concentrating after that. I did get all the basic talking points worked out, and I knew the material, so I wasn’t that worried – although a little worry is involuntary in this kind of situation.

After lunch, before the train left, we got to go climb up in the engine! The whistle was really loud from inside the car!

It took a little while for everyone to get ready, but finally we started out on our hike. We started with one person giving a short introduction, then as we walked up the asphalt path toward the trail, we had a stop where someone gave a brief history of the mining community. Once on the trail, we stopped to look at at Jack-in-the-Pulpit, a wildflower that can be hard to spot because of its green coloring. Next came a short presentation on trail erosion, which expanded out to talk about large-scale erosion, including as a result of mining, and contamination being washed into the rivers. This was at a section of trail that was partly washed out, so the message really hit home!

Then it was my turn. The snag was a very large dead tree with fungi growing on it, so it was obvious that something was up… so we looked up and saw that it was dead! I talked about the fact that dead trees are still an important part of the ecosystem, providing food to insects, which provide food for woodpeckers, which also make holes for nesting, which other birds and small animals use as well…

Then I switched to logs, which have even more insects in them, and so are a favorite foraging place for black bears – pause for a bear safety message…

I talked for a moment about the decomposing logs returning nutrients to the soil, and managed to get in a bit about how they help control erosion by slowing down the water as it runs downhill… Then I ended by suggesting that people keep an eye out for other logs and snags as we walked along, in case we might see a woodpecker or something like that.

The final two stops were at the top. One was about the geology, which was fitting since we were under a giant rock – but she had brought smaller samples of rock to pass around, to show the different variations in the sandstone. Then we went up inside the rock for the conclusion, which managed to tie all of our various contributions together in a theme showing that all these aspects were connected in the park, which has a unique biodiversity, geology and cultural history.

It was a really fun experience. After the conclusion was finished we sat around for a few more minutes while each person received a critique of their presentation. Mine was about what I expected – I need to talk slower, make sure I wasn’t trying to cover too much, and my outdoor voice is great for giving presentations! They really liked my enthusiasm and my transition. I always have a hard time with transitions so I was happy about that. And my enthusiasm is what leads me to get talking so fast, because I find it all so very interesting that I want to share as much as possible! So that is an ongoing thing I knew I needed to work on.

This is the first time I’ve done a group program like this. It went pretty well – especially since we only had a few hours total in which to put it all together! It’s definitely encouraging, since I still have to put together several different programs to do at Bandy Creek VC.

I made sure to take pictures this time!