During my first week, I had the opportunity to work with Wild Rivers Conservancy and experience the Wild River Journey! This is an educational boat trip that consists of three different stations, the lumberjack play, watershed, and birding. In each of these three stations, students from Osceola Elementary School learn about the importance of the conservation of the St, Croix River, The Wildlife River Journey starts with the lumberjack play, organized and directed by the National Park Service. This is a story of a White Pine Tree (Or W.P. for short) and its journey across the river and the United States. During this play, 7 different students are selected to be part of the play as characters that had an impact on W.P.’s journey and interact with the crowd. Following the play there is the watershed station, in which students learn about the aspects of a river, and the differences between, watershed, tributary, and confluence. During this station, students also learn about the 41 native species of mussels that the river has and their importance to the riverway. Lastly, we have the birding station, in which students learn how to identify the birds that they see in the sky. For this station, students learn how to properly use binoculars, and how to use a birding guide to find a bird based on their physical traits; and once they know how to do both, they have the rest of the time to see all the types of cool birds that there are in the St. Croix River!

I also had the opportunity to be part of the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Day and the Wooden Boat Show at the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum! There was live music and food offered, as well as raffles for fishing gear and boats. This is an event in which not only people sell canoes and boats, but in which different non-profit organizations in Wisconsin have tables for people to get to know more about their mission and what they do for the community. During this event, the National Park Service and their official non-profit partner, Wild Rivers Conservancy, have a joined booth and help people with any type of questions. Wild Rivers Conservancy offers information about what they do and the programs they offer for the public, such as volunteering and day paddles, while the National Park Service offers general information regarding the riverway, such as permits, temperature, water level, fishing spots, etc.

To top off this amazing week, I was able to go on my first kayak paddle ever! This paddle was led and organized by the Wild Rivers Conservancy along with the National Park Service, and they are free to join with equipment provided. Each of the paddles offered throughout the year has different topics, and this week’s paddle was birding, in which ranger Daniel Peterson helped us identify over 41 different species of birds! We started our paddle at 7:30 a.m. at Taylor Falls, Minnesota, it started raining but that did not stop anyone from enjoying the amazing views and wildlife that we encountered during this kayak trip. Our paddle ended at 11:00 a.m. when we got to Osceola, Wisconsin (which is just 11 miles away), and everyone was shuttled back to Taylor Falls.

I am beyond grateful to be part of this amazing experience in which I am learning so many things. I can’t believe I got to do so much in just in one week, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer looks like!