01/16/2007

MSHP Naturalist to Bring 'Water, Woods & Wildlife' Program to Petoskey

Mackinaw City, Mich. — When he visits Petoskey classrooms this winter, Jeff Dykehouse will ask several students to stand up and hang pictures of an apple tree, a deer, a coyote, or a sun around their necks.

“I’ll explain how some of these things are ‘producers,’ like the apple tree drawing water and nutrients from the soil and energy from the sun to produce apples for the deer—a ‘consumer’—to eat,” says Dykehouse. “Then I’ll talk about how another consumer, the coyote, might eat the deer, and I ask kids what this is starting to look like. Somebody will shout out ‘a food chain,’ and that gets us started on a discussion about how we all—humans included—play a part in the cycles of life.”

Dykehouse, a naturalist with Mackinac State Historic Parks (MSHP), will visit St. Francis Xavier Catholic School on February 6 and Ottawa Elementary School on March 7 to present an interactive educational program called ‘Water, Woods and Wildlife.’ “I get the kids to think about how we all share this wonderful habitat in the Great Lakes region,” Dykehouse explained. “It makes an impression when students can actually hold something real like an otter skull in their hands.”

Dykehouse has an impressive array of maps, posters, taxidermy mounts, furs, bird call recordings, and animal skulls that he brings to classrooms. As he explains the Great Lakes watershed and talks about the plants and animals that make up the students’ habitat, he passes several items around the room. Students get to hear the difference between a goose feather’s swoosh and an owl feather’s silence, and feel and smell the pelts of otters, beavers, and skunks.

‘Water, Woods and Wildlife’ is one of two education outreach programs offered by Mackinac State Historic Parks this year. The other program, ‘Historic Mackinac on Tour,’ focuses on early Michigan fur trading history in the Straits of Mackinac and features presenters dressed as French voyageurs and British redcoats. MSHP offers the only museum-based education program in Michigan that travels the entire state to present history and nature to students in the classroom. Nearly 150,000 Michigan students have benefited from MSHP education outreach programs since 1988. The programs are partially funded by Mackinac Associates, a nonprofit friends group that supports MSHP’s programs.

Mackinac State Historic Parks is a family of living history museums and parks in northern Michigan ’s Straits of Mackinac and is an agency within the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries. Its sites include Fort Mackinac, Mackinac Island State Park, and Historic Downtown on Mackinac Island, and Colonial Michilimackinac, Historic Mill Creek, and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City. MSHP sites are accredited by the American Association of Museums. Visitor information may be obtained by phone at 231-436-4100 or on the web at www.MackinacParks.com.