Earth Day Weekend Day three: 2022

Today marks the third day of observing Earth Day in Fort Wayne Indiana. I knew the day was different from the very start. As I drove to Eagle Marsh to volunteer, I noticed that Engle Road had blockades and the sheriff department was stopping and directing cars. I was guided through the blockades and then parked in the middle of Engle Road, clearly this was going to be a big event.

I walked to the barn and met the other volunteers. We spent the next three hours setting up tables, moving chairs, putting up six canopies and then taking them down because of the wind. We brought the educational materials to the stations. Vendors arrived and set up their tables and food trucks arrived and started up their kitchens.

For the next two shifts I was part of the education stations. My table and the table next to me educated children on bird beak adaptions. Children could use tweezers to pull rice out of bark as if they were woodpeckers. They could spear jelly fish candies as if they were heron. Basters taking water out of flower vase illustrated hummingbirds. Fish tank strainers gathering floating tea from water helped children understand how ducks gathered food through filtration. Finally there was a carnivore display. The children were able to use scissors to cut playdough off sticks as if they were hawks, eagles or owls pulling meat off a bone. Other tables introduced children to bats, soil, and dirt seed bombs. All together there were over ten stations.

A large tent hosted the Soarin’Hawk Raptor Rehabilitation Center show. Inside the barn was a timeline of the history of Eagle Mash and the Little River Wetlands Project. There was also a showing of a new documentary on LRWP.

Many visitors had never been to Eagle Marsh. Until today they did not know the largest inland wetland restoration in the nation was home to over 250 different species of bird. They did not know it was the home to deer, otter, mink, muskrat, and beaver. They were offered guided hikes by Indiana Master Naturalists and they walked the continental divide. This was a special day and that included a ribbon-cutting and dedication of a new floating trail.

Many other agencies, preserves, and missions had booths. These included Save the Maumee, Science Central, ACRES Land Trust,   and L.V. Nature Park.  Assistant professor Joel Portius of Goshen College presented on Sustainability and Environmental Education. There were 25 vendors present. They sold upcycled clothes, eco-friendly cleaning detergents, environmentally themed clothes and art, and soy candles. There was a life size eagle nest and a nature mural that participants could help paint.

All day visitors hiked the woods, the wetlands, and visited the stations. As if to highlight a perfect day the rain poured down and the wind howled, shortly after the event ended. This was an incredible Earth Day Weekend. It highlighted what we need to treasure and it reminded us to care for our planet.