Report fish and wildlife violations to the Turn
in Poachers (TIP)
Program by calling 1-800-532-2020. Provide as much
information as possible while
remaining annonymous. A
conservation officer will be
dispatched to investigate.
The following
programs are available for group
presentations. Some are designed
for elementary children, while
others are designed for middle
and high school students. Most
can be adapted for any age,
including adults! Other programs
can also be given upon request.
Please feel free to inquire
about any of these programs or
about our extensive video
library!
Programs
for Elementary Students:
Animal Adaptations and Defenses Animal Tracks and
Signs Discovering
Insects Winter Bird
Feeding Winter Wildlife
Programs
for Middle and High School
Students: Basic
Canoeing
Composting--Nature's Recycling
Conservation Careers Earth Day Enviroscape Geocaching Groundwater
Detectives Iowa Wetlands
Journey to the Stars
My Side of the Mountain The Navigation
Stars of Lewis and Clark Orienteering
Rain Gardens Skullduggery Space Food Tree Ring
Mysteries Tropical
Rainforests Water Quality
Critters Wildlife
Populations
Programs
that can be adapted for any
grade level: Bats! Birds of Prey
Eagles in Iowa Endangered! Fishing Fun
Freshwater Animals Iowa Furbearers
Iowa Wildflowers Lewis and Clark's
Discoveries
Monarch Magic Native Americans
Owls--Predators of the Night Prairie Life Recycling and
Waste Reduction Snowshoeing The Star Lab
Tree Detectives Turkey Talk
A Virtual Tour Through the Solar
System
Field
Trips
The WCCB also
sponsors field trips to the
following locations. These trips
provide fun and educational
learning experiences for your
students. The activities for each
trip will be customized, depending
upon your wishes, the size and
grade level of your class, and the
length of time involved.
Click on a location to learn more
about it!
The Lime Creek
Nature Center, Mason City Wooded trails, a prairie, a
pond, and a wonderful nature center
all provide countless opportunities
for your students to explore and
discover the natural world of north
Iowa!
Thorpe Park, west
of Forest City
Many activities can be enjoyed from
the shelterhouse, along the scenic
marsh trail, at Lake Catherine, and
throughout the park's prairie areas.
The Rockford
Fossil and Prairie Park, west of
Rockford Students can hunt for
400-million-year-old fossils, then
walk through a wonderfully-restored
prairie. The visitor center contains
many excellent exhibits
demonstrating how the area's land
use has changed.
Smith Lake and the Water's Edge
Nature Center, north of Algona Smith Lake itself
provides many recreational
activities and the area also
contains some nice trails. In
addition, the new nature center adds
to the possibilities! Union
Slough
National Wildlife Refuge, east of
Bancroft
A bus tour through or around the
refuge can give your entire class
the chance to view many of north
Iowa's native species, as well as
many migrating birds. And a
boardwalk gets your class right down
to the water!
Notice:
If you would like a copy of our
Environmental Education Services
booklet that lists the above
services, along with other
services we offer to schools,
you can download it here.
Or, you can contact us to have a
paper copy sent to you. Although
the guide is designed to be used
by school groups, it can also be
used by youth and civic leaders
as a guide to what programs we
have available.
Geocaching
Geocaching is fast becoming a very
popular sport! It combines high-tech
gadgets with outdoor adventure to produce a
fun, family-oriented scavenger hunt.
It's a great way to enjoy the
outdoors, and get a little exercise
at the same time.
The WCCB does allow geocaching and,
currently, there are eleven caches
officially permitted to be hidden in
WCCB areas! To find these caches,
you need to get the coordinates from
geocaching.com,
then use a GPS unit to track them
down!
If you'd like to place a geocache
on WCCB property, you need to fill
out a permit application,
available here.
As soon as it is approved by the
WCCB, you then have permission to
place your cache. It must be
regularly checked and re-permitted
each March.
If you belong to a civic
group, or are a youth group
leader, and would like a program
presented to your group, just
contact Winnebago County
Naturalist Lisa
Ralls.
We can help you out!
