 Before we start talking more about the Marsh, I'd like to tell you how we got there. How I got to where I am, and Bob Coyne knows that story. Way back in 1957, a group of conservation-minded people got together, and they formed a group called the Sheboygan County Conservation Association. Has anybody ever heard of them? Well, they're a big thing in Sheboygan County. They have over 28 different clubs and over 2,000 different members, women, men, and some kids. Well, their big thing was they wanted to serve the outdoor community, protect and maintain the habitat, educate and provide opportunities for all to enjoy the great outdoors. Some of these members were like pioneers because way back in the 1950s and 60s when they first started, they did not have enough funds to even mail their mailings. They had to pull their money to buy stamps. We've come a long way. Up to date, the Association holds a banquet every year, and that banquet so far has produced just shy of a million dollars that they have put back into the county in different projects. They also do like wild turkey surveys. They donate to different organizations in one of them is Camp Laicota, and Mainland, they do trees for tomorrow, and a whole mess of other things. I got involved with the Association back in 1992 as a charter member of a group called Twike County Sports Women. We're located in basically employment, but we have members that come from far in Laicota also. And as a member of that club, our club joined the Twike County Conservation Association, and every club that belongs has two delegates. And you come to the meeting once a month, you hear what we're doing, you hear what's going on, and if the community association needs help or whatever, your clubs step up and help. Well, if anybody knows me or about me, I kind of have a tendency to get involved with things, sometimes too much, right there. Anyway, through my course with the Association, I served, and as of today, I'm still the only woman that's ever been president of that organization for five different years. And I'm really proud of that. We did a lot of things. We started the stewardship fund in Sheburton County. That was the challenge, but it was very interesting. Also, we formed a Mung Conservation Group. And I had the privilege of working with the Mung. And it took about maybe, let me say, three, four years before we finally pulled it all together. And they were members of the Conservation Association. They also served on the board. Another thing that the association does is they buy land. If there's some land that is for sale that might be adjoining some state land, it's going to be good for habitat, excuse me, in conservation. They will buy it if they possibly can. And then we're more than likely to turn it over to the state. We do turn some over to the county, but the primary land gets turned over to the state. And it is there for everybody to use. One other thing we've done, we work with the DNR and we support them. We send donations and we help them with different projects throughout the county. And we stock fish, we stock pheasants. Every year about 2,000 pheasants are put out in the wild for everybody to hunt. We don't always tell you where we are, but they're out there. So, as you can tell, the Conservation Association used to be primarily a little boys club, you know. But then, way back like I said in 1992 I think it was, they met me. And another lady from the mine, Dorothy Bear. Dorothy was an owner of a bait shop in Plymouth, and her and I went to represent our club at these meetings. Well, I'm happy to say that today we have two women that serve on the executive board, and we have another woman that serves on the board. So, we've come a long way, and we have a long way to go. We're trying to educate the youth, trying to get them involved in conservation, because if you take a look around at this room, you can tell we're going to need somebody to fill these chairs in years to come. And if we don't get our youngsters involved in the outdoors and in conservation, this is never going to continue. And before I turn it over to Sarah, Sarah does a lot of good things with our youth, and it tags off of who we are as the Conservation Association. Years ago, I can't even remember the exact date. They started a place in Plymouth called the Outdoor School Center. It's a log house that's on the Fairgrounds property. Awesome building. The sportsmen, they built that. 4-H clubs helped, but in the long run, it wasn't sustainable that they could continue holding classes there. And they formed a partnership with Camp Waikota. And Camp Waikota is the educational part of our association. We try to do what we can to help them, and they do an awesome job. Another thing, the Conservation Association has won a number of awards. We've been the Conservation Congress Club of the Year. We have been Outstanding Lakes Stewardship Governors Award. We've won the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation Award two different times. And also an award from the Wisconsin Outdoor Alliance Conservation Legacy Award. I mentioned that we won the Wildlife Federation Award. Well, as a member of the Conservation Association, that organization became a member of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation. And the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation goes to bat to fight for our rights, not only in Madison, but also higher up. We try to preserve and do what we can to preserve what we have. And we also have started a group, this is the 6th year. In 2013, we started a group called Conservation Leadership Corps. We take students from throughout Wisconsin, colleges. They don't necessarily have to be from Wisconsin, but they have to attend the Wisconsin College or be a senior in high school. We select as many as 14 for the year, and we provide four different classes for them. We teach them on advocacy, and how to write resolutions, how to go and meet your senators or your legislators, and how to speak before them. And then in April at our annual meeting, we give them a $250 scholarship. Plus, during this whole year, they got their meals free, their transportation free, and their lodging. And when we graduate the next class, next month, we will have just shy of 80 members since we started this program. And I'm proud to say that three of the members have been from Sheboygan County. So that's very important. Another thing with the Conservation Association, back in 2005, a group was called, this form that's called the Friends of the Boat in Sheboygan Marsh, and we became incorporated a couple years after that. But this group of interested conservation minded educational people, they wanted to do something that everybody could enjoy. So we decided we were going to build a tower. We built the tallest wooden tower in the state, and it's out at the Sheboygan Marsh. There's 144 steps going up, and 144 coming down. There are four landings, midway up, there are benches. You can sit and just overlook the view and just rest. And it's not hard to climb. The steps are enclosed, so if you're afraid of heights or anything, you don't have to worry about looking down and seeing anything you don't want to see, because it's all closed off. Well, the Sheboygan County Conservation Association donated the first $5,000 to this project, and that's how it got started. Also, the Friends of the Sheboygan Marsh, like I said, we were going to do this tower. Well, during the course of us trying to put this together, we ran into a few snags, like every other project usually does. We put out the bids, and the bids came back very high. And then some friend of our group suggested we become incorporated, where that opened up a whole new world for us. We were able to raise the funds, and the students that attended Sarah's classes out there had a great article of what they thought of the program and what they learned. And two of those students happened to be daughters of Reed and Steve Schmidt from the Joe Schmidt & Sons Construction Company. So they reached out to us, and they offered to build the tower for us for the money we had raised at that time, and we could pay it off interest-free. Who can refuse that? So anyway, like I said, we started with this project in 2005, and it seemed like it was forever, before we were ever going to get that built. The big thing with the marsh, if you've ever been out there, you know it's kind of wet a little bit, and I'm on a mucky, and the big thing was to try and find a spot where we could put the tower. We finally did, and we finally got it built. I'm going to tell you just briefly a little bit about the marsh itself so that you have some idea of what I'm talking about when I say the marsh and when Sarah does her presentation. First of all, the friends, our model and our mission is to promote the increased use and appreciation of the unique beauty of the Sheboygan County-Borten marsh through education and recreation. Now, the marsh itself is made up of over 9,000 acres of public land and over 14,000 acres, including surrounding private land. A 141-mile square-mile drainage system drains down into the 60-foot dam at the marsh. Part of the reason for our cattle problem is that when it rains and the water levels get high, it tears up the width of the cattails and may come on down to the marsh. Now, this watershed is very important. This 141-miles is from Eastern Fond du Lac County, and it also goes into Calumet County, Manitowoc, and Sheboygan. So if you were out at the marsh right now, you would see how high the water is. If you've been on the news, you heard that Fond du Lac is flooded. That water all comes our way. So whatever happens in Fond du Lac County, the water will come down as 131 square miles, and it will affect the Sheboygan marsh. So if you go out there and you see these cattails floating around, especially like towards Fall, part of that is from that. We also have peat out there, peat in the muck. Years ago, they tried to drain the marsh, and they wanted to make that farmland. That did not work. And by that time, it kind of like destroyed some of the marsh. So we kind of like have a two type of a marsh. One that the duck hunters like, and one that the hunters like. And it's hard, and the fishermen, I should say, and it's hard to manage a marsh to encompass all of that. So we do the best we can. And one thing I want to make very, very, very clear, our Fond's group has nothing to do with the marsh, how they manage the water, what they do with the marsh, the cattails, and we have nothing to do with canoes, renting canoes, or renting campsites. That is all county stuff. We are strictly here to promote education. So, as I alluded to with the tower, we finally, finally got it built, and we dedicated it at Christmas time in 2009. So this year, it will officially be open 10 years. Has anybody been out there and climbed that tower? Awesome. Wow, I'm impressed. Okay, my husband knows it quite well, because whenever somebody buys a plaque from the step, he has to put it on. And he keeps saying, I hope we're not going any higher. So, with that being said, and that project being done, we decided we needed to have an educational building out there. There's a semi-trailer that sits out there, and that's been there since, I think, early 90s. 1996. 1996? That's early. Anyway, it's kind of like, you know, it's ran its course. It still serves, but it's kind of, we have grown what it can offer us, and it doesn't provide any bathrooms, it doesn't provide any safety, any shelter in case a storm comes up. So, the friends group decided, you know, we need to do something for education out there. So, I'll put our heads together, and we have come up with a building that we are hoping to build. In fact, we signed a contract in June of 2012 for approximately 3,500 square feet of a new building with legacy architects. In 2013, we made our first announcement to the world that we were doing this through the PUMF Review. We made announcements in January of 2014 and got the approval from the county board to build this multi-purpose educational building. The pictures are on my left, and in November of 2014, we signed a contract with Joe Schmidt and Sons to be our contractors to build this. This is a little more expensive than the tower, and the longer it takes for us to get this built, the more it's going to cost. Right now, we are looking to raise just for the building, 2.1 million. Now, we started, like I said, we signed our contract with the architect in 2012. We are $401,885,000 short of 2.1 million to build the building. Then, we are looking to raise another $200,000 so that we can start an endowment fund and have money there for the programs that the camp is going to run. First of all, we need to get the building built and then the rest will come. They always tell me, you got to have patience. I'm running out of patience. I'm getting older, and my patience are getting shorter. So, in November of 2015, the biggest thing happened to give us a boost. The coal company gave us a pledge of $500,000. They paid it off, and we've had other big companies in the county that have also donated a nice chunk. Right now, this building is looking to be a lead building. A lead building is leadership in energy and environmental design. Like I said, we're about $1.5 million, $1.6 million there, but we do need the help of everybody in this county to make this happen. I will take questions after a while, but right now, I'd like to turn this over to Sarah and she will give us some more education about the rest of the program. Hi, everyone, and thank you for coming. My name is Sarah Diswardy, and I wear a couple of hats when it comes to this project. So, first of all, I'm a board member with Friends of the Marsh. Here is our Friends of the Marsh volunteer board, and I'm also the director of education with Camp Lakota Outdoor Skills and Education. That was our silly picture from summer camp. So, my main responsibility is to develop and implement environmental education programs with schools. So, a few trips, I visit classrooms, and I also do community outreach. We work with approximately 65 different schools every year, which totals about 12,000 students annually. We run our programs at different sites, which include Maywood Environmental Park, Camp Lakota, of course, and then the Shibuya and Coney Marsh, which I'll be focusing on tonight. So, what I'm really going to be telling you about tonight is the program that will be happening or will be housed in the right side of the new educational facility, which will be called the Environmental Education Wing. So, we've been running a program at the Shibuya and Coney Marsh for a long time now. The program is called the Wetland Ecology Field Trip. It's middle school students from area schools that spend two days at the marsh. One day, they do land-based activities, and we will call the Lab Day today. And the other day, they spend out in the water in a canoe. And here's a couple of pictures. So, as Will kind of talked about the history, the program actually started with the Outdoor Skills Center in 1991. Then, Camp and the Outdoor Skills Center merged in 2000, and Camp became more than just Camp Lakota. It became Camp Lakota Outdoor Skills and Education. So, we have a couple of goals for our program. They're lengthy, so I sum them up in blue for you. Our main goals are that the children may come out there to learn about science. We also want to inspire the children to love the outdoors through our program. And we also hope that they will have a lifelong passion for recreation. All right, so I'm going to tell you about the field trip. So, the first day the kids come out and they spend most of their day canoeing. We call that the Canoe Day. So, they get off the bus in the parking lot right next to the restaurant. They cross the dam, walk through the gravel parking lot, and we charge up to 144 steps to the top of the tower. So, I've climbed the tower many, many, many times. And I don't climb as fast as the kids, so it's pretty hard. I'm pretty much holding them back as I climb. I always tell them, hang on the railing on the right side so that they can't pass me going up, because otherwise the visitors at the top get quite the trade of 30 noisy children. So, we'll need them instantly. So, this is the view that we see from the tower. And when we get up there, the very first thing that we talk about is the history of the Sheboygan Marsh. We talk about the Native Americans that once used the marsh. We know at the top of the tower basically what you're looking at is a really large bowl. It's 14,000 acres. See, the highlands all around the outside and then at the bottom is where the water is. So, the 133 square mile watershed. And we show the kids that all around the top of the bowl there were thousands of Native American villages at one time. And we asked the students, why do you think Native Americans would want to live in a place like the Sheboygan Marsh? Well, it's because it was very, very rich in resources. They had everything they needed. Food, water, and shelter. And plus, they could navigate the water. We also discussed the fur trade. This particular group of students, they were from Kohler Middle School. And they were quite goofy. So, you can see. In the next couple of pictures, they're doing some funny things. So, we talked about the fur trade. And we also dressed up one of the kids to look like a fur trader. This particular outfit is from the Hudson Bay Company, which is located in Canada. So, the fur traders working for this company were Canadian, French Canadian grocers. The outfit was really, really important because it identified the fur trader for which company they worked for. And you also have to remember, the fur traders didn't speak the same language as the Native Americans. So, when they were walking into villages or going to training posts, they needed to be very recognized. I always compare it to UPS and FedEx. When you get a knock at your door, and there's a guy in brown, you don't have to question who he is. You don't even have to talk to him. You just know automatically because of his brand that he works for UPS. So, it's very similar. We also learned a lot about science and ecology. So, after we're done with the history, we do an activity where we hold up the pelts of animals that we live in the wetland. So, for example, we have a muskrat, red fox, and fisher in this picture. So, we hold up one of the pelts, the kid's guess, which animal it is based on what they've already learned at school and which animals inhabit the marsh. And then after that, we talk about some other characteristics and their adaptations to the wetland. Going back to history a little bit, like Will said, the marsh was unfortunately drained. So, the Schwingkone Marsh is a restored wetland. Between 1870 and 1890, a man by the name of John Birchie drained the marsh so that it could be farmland. Unfortunately, by the time he was finished draining it, farmland prices had dropped so low that there really wasn't anyone interested in the farmland that he had drained. So, he went bankrupt. And then between 1912 and 1921, the Schwingen Valley land and lime company came in and they attempted to drain it even further. So, the big machine that you see in the picture, that is a dredging machine. It was coal powered. It dug over 20 channels surrounding the outside of the marsh, attempting to again take the water out of the main wetland into the channels, emptying it. That company actually also blew out the limestone lodge, which is now located near the, what we call the Crassius Quarry, the old limestone. And that was the natural dam. So, when they blew that out, all of the water was no longer being held as a reservoir or as a marsh. So, it was empty. And they actually ended up going bankrupt, too. So, in 1921, the marsh kind of just sat empty. So, between 1921 and 1927, the marsh started on fire. And that was because it's solid machinese that compacts. It becomes flammable. And because it's so large, there's no way of putting those fires out. The marsh during that time actually got deeper because the soil was exposed and there was wind erosion. It was compacting and then it was burning. So, then they restored the marsh. And that happened when Charles Broughton bought the park land and put in a marsh, or put in a dam. And I found this in the Sheboygan Press archives. The top picture is a picture of the marsh burning and the bottom picture is when they put the dam in and refold it with water. And it shows all the wildlife. So, that happened in 1938. So, after they learned about the history and a little bit about the animals that live there, it's time to canoe. This is actually a picture from Canoe Day in 1993. And I thought it was interesting because do you see what's at the top of the picture? Yeah, the Goodyear Blunt. So, I came across that when I was preparing for this presentation. So, the very first thing we do is we get the carriage equipment. We fit them with PFDs that fit. We check them and make sure they're on appropriately. And we get them paddles that fit so they can paddle. Then we talk about technique. Same goofy color codes in that picture. Here's a picture from 1991 that are on the pier waiting for another restaurant. And they're dipping their paddles in and learning how to stroke. So, first we teach them how to hold the paddle. When you switch sides, you actually have to switch hands. That's something they struggle with. But they get their paddle in, they reach pole, feather, and reach pole and feather. So, we do that before we get into the canoes. We also talk a lot about safety. So, before, after we go through our techniques we talk about how to load the canoe. There aren't expectations like no standing up in the canoe, no switching spots, no splashing water, and all those things. We also talk about emergency procedures, just in case kids tip, which occasionally happens. I think I've been working for camp since 2004 and I've only had three or four canoes tip. So, it doesn't happen too often, but it does happen. And then we go out, we paddle out into the wetland. And so, I think the important thing about this is it's recreation. And hopefully the kids are enjoying it and this is something that they want to do lifelong. And they're not learning with paper, they're not learning with textbooks on this day, they're learning hands-on. So, while we're out in the water, we're trying to see as many different things as we can. Of course, that's hard when you have a group of 35 kids and they're fighting over how to paddle their canoe. So, it's not always quiet, but we still do get to see quite a few things. So, while we're out there, we're talking about wetland food webs and the interactions that are occurring. And then sometimes we do silence it and we use our senses to listen as well as see what's happening out there. Other things we might talk about depending on the day is the habitat, succession, because succession is always occurring in our wetland. The types of wetlands, we have three main types in Wisconsin, glided swamps, bogs and marshes. And then we also talk a little bit about the management practices of the marsh as well. We even eat our lunches out in the water. And that's so that we can rest our arms because once lunch is over, it's time to paddle all the way back. And since it's a marsh, a lot of times it's easy to paddle out, but then you hit the wind on the way back. So, it can be a bit of a challenge. Once back on land, we do a few more activities. Before the kids get on the bus, one of the activities is called the states game. The states game is a game about wetlands disappearing over time. So, we use the states Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana. And each state has a set that looks like this. So, this would be Wisconsin in the year 1700 to 1850, 1900, 1950 and today. And those represent the amount of wetlands that we still have in Wisconsin. So, in the game, we have the kids line up in a straight line and a starting line. And we tell them that they're going to be Canadian geese or Canada geese, I should say. And they have to flap their wings. And if they're a girl, they have to say honk and if they're a boy, they have to say hank. And then, when the instructor says go, they have to keep flapping their wings and saying honk or hank and they have to get to the state. So, the very first round, we use all the big states. So, 1700 to 1850. And for that round, everyone can get a foot on the state. So, it's kind of like they migrated. We ended in the wetland. And there's food, water and shelter for each of them. So, they survive. But then we get to the next round and the state gets a little bit smaller. So, again, we start on the starting line. I will go. They have to run. They have to find their state and get a foot on it. But the kid that doesn't get a foot on it doesn't have enough food, water or shelter. So, there's not enough carrying capacity. So, they actually have to go to Goose Heaven at that point. And then we have another round. And we get to 1950. And finally, we get to the fourth round. But what that represents, and he asked the kids actually what it represents. And they're able to tell us. Wetlands are getting smaller and they can't support as many animals. And if you take a look at this map, Wisconsin has lost between 40 and 60 percent of their wetlands since the 1780s, which is the green. The ones that have lost the most are the dark blue. Or the least is the dark blue and the most is red. So, at the end of the day, we sit down and we kind of digest everything that we've talked about. And the kids talk about how they feel about wetlands decreasing and what they might be able to do to reverse the trend. Then we get them on the bus. And the teachers tell us that this is what happens. So, they go home, they get a good night's rest and then they come back the next day for the lab day. Alright, so for the canoe part of the program we met all of those goals. They learned about science. We hopefully inspired them to want to canoe and we'll be outside again. And hopefully we've installed a lifelong lab for recreation. Okay, so the lab day. The lab day, we get off the bus and the very first thing we do is take off our shoes and we put on boots. So, our program is experiential. So, again, they're not using worksheets or a textbook. They are actually going to be getting their feet wet and their hands dirty. And my hands always get dirty too, which is very never ever get me into cures because they only last about a day. So, one of the things we do is we take a look at wetland soil. Wetland soil is very, very unique. So, we head out into the marsh. We give each kid a piece of soil and we have them look through it, smell it, and squeeze it. And what they find is that wetland soil has a very strong odor. And if you go to the marsh in summer, you can smell it. It's a very, very strong smell. They find that it's very dark in color. It's definitely different than the soil that they have at home or they have at school. It's almost black in color. The particle size is very, very fine. So, if you rub it in your fingers like this, you don't feel anything grainy. It's actually very silky. And that's because it's silt. It's rich with vitamins and minerals which support lots and lots of vegetation, which is why when you go to a marsh, it's so densely vegetated. And then the really cool thing about wetland soil is it acts like a sponge. It absorbs water. And that's why we have the kids squeeze the wetland soil because water should come out. And they're always very amazed at how much water is coming out. Even years when we're in a drought, you squeeze the wetland soil and there's still some water that will come out. One acre of wetland soil can hold up to 1.5 million gallons of water. And we have 14,000 acres at the Schroding-Coney Marsh. So, I can't do the math, but if you take 14,000 times 1.5 million gallons, that's a lot of water. So, when we're still in the soil study area, we actually do the whole. We let the kids do it so they can see how much water is in that soil. And like I said, even if it's a drought year, we can find water. That's the amazing thing about wetland soil is maybe it's not full in a drought year, but it still has water in it and it's slowly releasing water to maintain at least some kind of water level in the marsh and the Schwoigen River. When it's a group, we jump up and down as hard as we can. And you can actually see the vegetation moving in waves because there's so much water in that. So, it feels like a trampoline. Then we take the kids and we take them into the littered swamp and we give them all their very own spot to just take a little bit of time to do some nature journaling. This has been very challenging for some of the schools that we work with because they're very urban and they haven't been in nature before. So, being alone in the woods is actually very scary to them. So, as instructors, we keep walking up and down the trail just making sure that they're okay. They have a hard time sitting because they're not okay with sitting on the grass or a log or a rock, but they get to it. But at the time they come out 20 minutes later, they have seen so many cool things that they're very, very excited. We hear all kinds of stories like, I saw this and I saw that and I saw this plant and what's this? And it's very, very, very cool to watch. We give them the choice. They can draw what they're seeing. They can make a diagram of what they're seeing. They can just write down words, descriptions. I've even had kids write songs about what they were seeing and poems. And at the end, they're able to share their observations. And when we stand in a circle and we share, every kid has a different observation. So, we're able to say at the end of that time that the marsh is very diverse with vegetation and wildlife. And this is a ground hog that's stuck around for a couple of years. In this area, and if the kids were quiet enough, they would actually come out and kind of walk around by them. So, I put the kids that had a really hard time listening and sitting still, where I knew the ground hog would be because I knew that they would be as quiet as they could so they get the chance to see it. And they usually did. All right, so, the next thing that we do is we play a game called Fish and Critter. Now, this game is very, very simple. There's no equipment required, it's kind of like the combination of Heading Go Seek and Red Light Green Light. It's a game about predator and prey. One person is the fish and all the rest of the kids are the critters. When I say critters, what I mean is macroinvertebrates. So, the little, tiny critters that are living in the wetlands. So, this is basically a game where they're pretending that they're in a wetland. So, down here we have the fish, who is the predator. We have all of the critters standing on the starting line and the instructor standing in the middle. The fish has their back to the critters and then when I yell go, all the critters run towards the fish and then we all freeze. So, the kids slam on the brakes and then their job is to figure out a strategy to survive because the fish is going to turn around and if they can recognize that child they'll say their name and their shirt color. If they say their name and shirt color, they'll have to go back to the beginning. The very first round the kids are really bad at it. But by the time they get to the third or fourth round they're very good at it. And that's important because the next thing that we're going to do is go and try to catch these macroinvertebrates in the water. And one of the misconceptions that the kids always have is that these little critters are just floating around in clear water. But they're not. They're hiding. So, at the end of the game the kids get, if they're low on the ground, they're likely to survive and if they're just standing up facing the fish. They also never look at the plants because they know that they're going to blend in with the plants. So, next we put on what we already have our boots on but we grab our nets and we grab our buckets and we head to the shallow edge of the marsh where they try to catch these macroinvertebrates. And here's what they look like. Most of these macroinvertebrates are in sex starting their life in a wetland. So, we have dragonfly larva, soldier fly, catas fly, scud, all kinds of things. So, they're doing exactly that. They're looking through plants, they're looking on the bottom of the wetland, they're turning over rocks, and they're trying to catch these critters. So, then we take a quick break for lunch and after that we head to our lab and inside the lab we take our bucket of critters, we pour them into dish pans and we catch them with pipettes and spoons and sort them into ice cube trays. We take a look at their characteristics under the microscope. So, we want to know do they have six bags, eight legs, red eyes, a white back, wings, tails, because then we go to a dichotomous key. So, here's the dichotomous key and it's separated by characteristics. So, up here we have no legs. So, your muscles, your snails and then you get down to your things with lots of legs, wings, tails, etc. The kids write down what they found and that's really important because these macron vertebrates are assigned a value. If they can only live in pristine conditions they are assigned a number four. If they can live in conditions with just a little bit of pollution they're assigned a number three and then it goes down to two and a one. So, you want to see critters that have the four value because then that tells the kids that we have good water quality at the marsh. So, that's called your biotic index score and it's either going to be excellent, good, fair or poor. We typically see fair at the marsh. And we have a 133 square mile watershed so there's a lot of things happening on the land in that watershed and so we see that in our macron vertebrates. We tend not to find those number four valued critters. Then we dress the kid up to look like a beaver. So, we're talking about adaptations for this part. How beaver and other animals are very adapted to wetland environments. So, this kid right here, he's got a fur coat on to represent the fur. Slippers for web feet. Goggles for the clear eyelids that they have. Ear muffs for their ear flaps. A hatchet for their teeth. No trespassing is the scent that they spray their territorial so they spray scent. And these are all the things that we hope they take away with them to the field trip altogether. I'm not going to read all of them for you because it's a lot. The teachers do assess the kids when they get back to the classroom with either a test or a project so that they can ensure that this is the knowledge the students are gaining as a result and again, after the lab day we've still met all of our goals. They've learned science. We've hopefully inspired them to love the outdoors and hopefully they'll love recreation for life. So the program today for this school year 2019-2020 we will have approximately 1600 kids 5th through 8th grade from area schools that will be attending the field trip from 21 different schools in three different counties. And of course, with each passing year we hope to continue to increase that number. Here's a graph that I put together from 1991 when the program started with the Outdoor Skills Center to 2025 where our goal would be there. So in 1991, the pilot year with Plymouth it was a real middle school that was the first school out there. They had around 60 kids. By 2000, we were over 1,000. In 2019, we'll have about 1,600 and then in 2025, we hope to have around 2,000. So the evolution of the lab. In 1991, when the Outdoor Skills Center started this program, this was their lab. A tent that looked just like this. So that was easy for 60 kids. But then as the numbers grew it evolved to this. The trailer that Will told you about earlier this trailer was donated by So Geno and then other individuals and companies gave funds to make the inside look like a lab. And here's the bathrooms. And we don't have enough storage so we use the canoe trailer for storage. This is what it looks like on the inside so it's really neat. But as we've increased our numbers and class sizes have gotten bigger we don't exactly fit in the trailer all that well. So the top picture, that's kind of what it looks like when everybody's sitting down but it's still a tight squeeze. And when there's movement, it's a very tight squeeze. And a lot of times I will go up the front steps and go into the lab and if a kid in the back has a question they go down the steps around the outside and up the back steps to address that question. So why do we need a new facility? More room to be able to accommodate increasing student numbers. Class sizes are getting bigger so in 1991 the class sizes were maybe around 20. Today they're up above 30. Plus we need an ADA facility for all students. There's steps that go into the trailer so when we have special needs students that come out, if they're in a wheelchair it is very difficult to accommodate that student. And we need better bathroom facilities for all students as well. So the other way of the building will be shower and bathroom facilities. No more portable toilets. And just a general need in society today we need to get children into nature. Again, we need to help them reconnect. We have a lot of this going on and not very much of this. So our hope is that by having kids come out to this program we've maybe inspired them to go outside a little bit more, visit the marsh again and so on. For my master's I did a little bit of research on children and the time that they spend outside daily and the average in Wisconsin is seven minutes per child. So for me as a kid I was outside all the time and that's very foreign. How many have rolled their child in the woods? So the author, Richard Louve, great book to read if you're interested in this topic. But he says reconnection to the natural world is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit and survival. And he's right. So we believe that with this facility that we can accomplish, we can meet all of those needs and get kids into the outdoors. So good quote by George Elliott I would never have loved the earth so well if we had no childhood in it. Children that visit nature will forever enjoy value and advocate for nature as adults. And I am a good example of that. So here I am, when I was 18 months old, 1979 visiting three lakes. And here I am in 2017 driving a densel then. I didn't do a good job though. I went that way, and then that way, the guy in the black, he was laughing pretty hard. I just could not figure it out. Here I am again, fishing in 1978. My dad took a stick and put fishing line on the end. That was the year, well actually that was the weekend that I didn't use my nook anymore. So instead, I was addicted to my fishing pole which hasn't changed because here I am in 2016 hook and line sturgeon fishing. So if you do it as a child, you'll do it as an adult. And that's it, the mock stops here. I have a question for Sarah. When you were at one of the schools in Sheboygan, did you ask any of them to like Michigan? Oh yes. In 2012, I believe, we were at Grant Elementary School. Grant Elementary School is maybe two or three blocks. How many? Five. Okay, from Lake Michigan, Kendra and I actually had asked the students in the classroom how many had been to Lake Michigan? How many do you think? Their percentage? 25%. As part of my master's research, who I kind of discovered that kids in urban areas don't really venture outside of their block. It's just very common to stay inside and if they do go outside, they don't go far. So that just kind of demonstrates really the dire need to get kids onto nature. Also, we build this new building. They will be able to offer more classes than what they do now. They'll have the capability to offer some evening classes and even classes for adults. So this building says it's multi-purpose. That's exactly what we're planning it to be. As you'll see on this poster, there are four layouts of different ways that they can do their classroom or they can set it up if we're going to have a meeting. If you want to have a small party out there, a small wedding or whatever, this stuff can be arranged for the occasion. It's going to have a small kitchenette so that if you want to cater, have food catered in, there'll be a refrigerator and a microwave. You'll have that capability. Also, the atrium, in the middle of the two sides, the atrium will be having a live tree from the marsh in the center. Also, the beans will be logs that have been harvested from the marsh for the building. Education, so we're trying to make it as educational as possible with items from the marsh. We're going to be looking at a nature garden once we get everything set up. In case you're wondering, roughly where this is going to be built, God willing nothing else happens. We are hoping to build it south of where the playground area is right now, up more to the east. On high ground, not a lot of high ground, but we're hoping we found the right spot. So if all goes well, we are hoping to break ground, maybe in April or May. The longer we put it off, the more expensive it's going to be and like I said, we started this in 2012. I have some brochures up here if anybody would like to take one. If anybody is interested in donating, there's information in the brochures as to what you can do or wherever or what and if you donate $1,000, whatever, your name will be recognized in the building. So again, you know, we're here to take your dollars. Sarah had on one of her videos pictures about children handicapped. This goes back to the Shmoyne County Conservation Association. They have a track chair and this chair can be used by anybody. You do not have to be a member of a club or the association. You can be a youth or you have a handicapped person and you just want to get them out for the day. There's information on here where to call. It's housed in Shmoyne Falls and right now it is not getting enough use. So anybody interested, come up and see the poster and take down the necessary information. You can use it for hunting if you just want to go out to the beach or something. You can use it. It's on a trailer. All you're going to do is call, sign up for when you want it and if it's not spoken for already on that day, it's yours. Come hook it up on your vehicle, take it for the day or whatever and then bring it back. So it's there for your use. What is that pushed or is it motorized? It's motorized. It's on like what do you call it? Back. It is motorized. Nobody's going to push it. Yeah. If anybody's interested, come up and look at it and right now, does anybody have any questions for us? Yes? What months do they take place? So the classes take place in September, October, the beginning of November and then that end of April, all of May and the beginning of June. Yes? Within the marsh there was a lake called Lake Sheboygan. Larger than Elkhart Lake. These 300 acres. Does that still exist? Well, the main wetland they still refer to it as the Sheboygan Lake. But yet, thousands of years ago Elkhart Lake and the marsh were all one big giant lake as a result of the glacier that went through from the meltwater. But does Lake Sheboygan still exist within the marsh? Mm-hmm. It does. Is that the channel that runs from the dam? Right straight up? Yup, yup. So the first picture that I showed you in my slide presentation was from the tower looking out. That zig-zaggy channel that went out that's the Sheboygan River and then it goes out to the bigger body of water. Which would be Sheboygan Lake. And the other channel on the north side goes all the way to Sandy Cloud. It does. Yes, that's called the North Ditch. This watershed also is very important. It drains into Lake Michigan. This is one of the only watersheds that do drain to Lake Michigan where some of the other watersheds drain to the Mississippi River. So the Sheboygan River water basin is a very crucial part of our watershed that provides water for all of us. And even with the video it was very impressed to see just how much water like you said you can squeeze out of the muck. And I remember canoeing out there years ago and the first thing I said is if you drop something don't reach over to get it. You aren't going to get it. Those were two words. Anybody else? Yes. I am married. My husband is here. Let's all have a question. I will come and talk to you. The building will be turned over to the county just like the tower was. This is county property which is yours, mine and therefore when the building is built it's not being built with county dollars it's being built with donation dollars then it will be turned over to the county for everybody's use. Yes. Is it up on top of the hill there where the camping takes just a couple of the campsite? Yes. Where that house is. That's where the permanent camp is. That's where. I can pitch with them. I can too if it gets built. I was worried that it would be camped or that's a wetland. That's the one thing that we ran into. You're all familiar with the marsh the way it sounds. It's wetland and flood plain and we're limited to where we can build due to that. So. When they drenched it the first time that channel along the road there they put it all on the other side of that channel. They should have put it on this side or they think they they're the PCD's and maybe afraid of that. I think as we've gotten older we've learned a lot more about the marsh of what could have been done, should have been done or will be done. Our forefathers I think did the best that they thought they knew at that time just like with anything else. They were doing what they thought was the best. As years go along we see that maybe it wasn't or some parts of it wasn't but we don't always do the best job either so. Anybody? The health of the marsh. I can tell you that after a drought the wildlife is very abundant. When you expose all of the soil there's seeds in the seed bank and so new species can come up and the more plant variety you have if it can support. So typically after a draw down the year after we'll see the macro and vertebrate population explored and we'll see some of those category 4 macro and vertebrates and the rest of the food chain kind of blooms from there. And then the further away we get from a draw down the less diversity we see. So we're very far away from a draw down at this point. So really if you go and explore the marsh right now you see 90% of the soil and that's not diverse so you don't have diverse wildlife. If you just look at the waterfall populations you do not see the diversity that you would see after a draw down. So I think overall it's healthy but it can be better. And it's kind of hard to manage both for both because when we did surveys a few years ago some people wanted it to be for fishing duck hunting and we wanted it to be for hunting and it's a diversified area and it's hard to manage for just one particular thing. So we just it's a marsh and we're trying to leave it be a marsh and we're talking about the draw down Sheboyden County has tried now this is our second year to do a draw down but nature has not helped us any and also right now out at the marsh the gate at the bypass broke last year and it took a while before they could get it out it's not just something you go down and pluck out it took a while and then they had to find a company that could make the part to replace it and then it has to be approved and now from what I was told by the county planning department later this year it will be installed so yeah all I can say about that a draw down that's when we try to drain as much water out of the marsh as we possibly can so that the cactiels take wood because the more water, like I said it comes from final lack down and with all this flooding that we've had it just upsets the cactiels and they come down to the dam and then the county comes along with their trucks and they haul them away and it's costing us tax dollars like $70,000, $80,000 a year to do that people aren't always aware but that's what happens lots of times when I went out there it seemed like the cactiels grew on the moss and they flowed yeah they do so because it's a 133 square mile water side when it fills with water it goes really up really fast so if you think of the cactiels having their roots when you add a lot of water it pulls them up and they up right and that's where you see them floating floating down the water channel it's hard to manage the water level out there even when everything is working because we don't have control of what happens upstream so they always say crap goes downhill we get the cactiels so are there any problems with invasives there are and actually the cactiels is invasive so there's a native cactiels in Wisconsin I can't remember which one it is but there's another one that came into Wisconsin they have produced a hybrid which is what we have at the marsh and it outcompetes the rest of the native vegetation so we have that problem we also see frag mites garlic mustard zebra mosses carp buckthorn so yeah there's a lot of invasives anybody else yes just like our state park used to be Terry Andrews State Park you referred to friends of Sheboygan coning marsh but it's also called broken marsh we're technically friends of the Sheboygan marsh incorporated that's what our tax papers say so oh and by the way I give you a history about the tower we've had a proposal on the top of the tower and then they emailed me and asked if they could get married on the tower and they did beautiful day in September I think it's like three years ago already or something like that we probably had a few other things on the top of the tower we've had we've had funeral services out there I can give you an example one day usually when somebody orders something like a brick or a plaque from the steps it comes to the post office and I get the mail at the post office and I got this letter like on a Monday I think it was and it said I need this step plaque and I need it by Friday and I'm like what do you think this is I got a terminal on time so I contacted the person he just said they were going to be their sister out there having her service out there that Friday and we made it happen and we've had anniversary parties out there we've had all kinds of things out there so and we've had people from all over the world actually come and tour out there Jim Bunkin had friends from I don't know it was and they came and he took them out to the tower and we've had people from all over anybody else well I thank everybody for coming and I hope you learned something about the marsh and about camp and about the program out at the marsh