Summer, 2001

Woodland Dunes is growing vigorously. Sales in the Nature Shoppe are up more than 300%, attendance at our Bird Breakfast was up more than 30%, our membership continues to grow and our monthly activities have greatly increased.

To keep this exciting growth going, we must continue to work toward our identified goals. New educational programs are already planned, but we have no place to hold them. We need new classrooms. We also need to better house other important services Woodland Dunes provides. For example we need more space for the Nature Shoppe and a larger, more convenient space for the library.

To continue to serve our community and to grow, we need to begin an annual funding campaign. This will be another "first" for us, something that has never been done in our 17 year history.

The activities of the past year certainly indicate that we are ready for this next step. Our financial consultant has indicated that this is a suitable time to launch an annual funding campaign. Our staff is eager to start. We expect that at our next board meeting we'll be hearing a board member say, "How soon can we start?" and "What can we do to help?"

I just said good bye to a bus-full of out of town birders. The excitement of their visit to Woodland Dunes reminds me of past years when we launched into fund raising campaigns to purchase land. We invited many people, not just birders, but anyone who was interested in Woodland Dunes, our ideas and dreams or just preserving land.

It's that time again!

Dorothy R. Star Bee and Butterfly Memorial Garden
Generous donation spurs growth of Garden at WDNC

Visitors to Woodland Dunes Nature Center are enjoying the activity in the area east of the Nature Center headquarters. What was once tall grasses is gradually being transformed into a bee and butterfly garden. Using native plant species, volunteers are working to establish the garden as a tool for formal and informal education.

Funding for this project has graciously been provided by the family and friends of Dorothy R. Star. Dorothy's daughter, Merrie Star, and her husband Greg Scheuer, members of Woodland Dunes Nature Center, met with staff members last fall in hopes of providing a lasting tribute to Dorothy's memory.

Work completed to date includes the creation of a berm with underground tunnels to attract bees, establishment of the perimeter of the garden, removal of sod, installation of native flowers, grasses and trees and the addition of wood chips to delineate the garden path. More plant species are being added this year and donations of native plants will be gratefully accepted.

In addition to the garden itself, the donation has provided funding for a bench and educational signage for the garden.

Much of the work on the garden has been done by Dale Reimer, with assistance form Barry Pankratz. Thank you to Dale and Barry for their hard work.

The Dorothy R. Star Bee and Butterfly Memorial Garden will be a beautiful addition to Woodland Dunes Nature Center. The garden will be used for the educational and enjoyment of our members and visitors for years to come.

Woodland Dunes extends its deepest gratitude to Merrie, Greg, the Star family and Dorothy's friends, who have turned this particular dream into a reality. The garden will be formally dedicated later this summer.

Wetland Clean-up

A very special thank you to Waste Management for donating 5 dumpsters for our Earth Day Wetland Clean-up and for donating the removal of the waste. Woodland Dunes contacted Waste Management last fall to discuss the possibility of partnering with them on this project. Earlier this year we met with Marie Jaszewski, customer service representative and Steven Meyer, district manager, to assess the clean-up site.

Steve and Marie graciously offered to help, and on a cold, overcast morning in April we set out to clean up our precious wetlands. Twenty-some volunteers worked all morning to clean out the ponds along the Horsetail Trail. It was cold, dirty, and wet, but when the fifth dumpster was overflowing, all the volunteers left with smiles on their faces.

Our work is not finished. There are still more ponds to clean up. We plan to schedule another clean-up day this fall. Look for information about the Fall 2001 Great Wetland Clean-up in the autumn Dunesletter.

thanks again to Waste Management for donating the dumpsters and waste removal, and hats off to Marie Jaszewski who spent her Saturday morning cleaning garbage out of ponds!

Planning for the new Nature Center continues. Another idea has been presented that would put the new center at our present site, on state highway 310. There are several advantages to this site: high visibility, marsh overlook, the ability to build in "stages", not disturbing a natural area and the close proximity to our existing administrative structures.

While we still have many issues to settle, what is clear is that we need more room for our ever-increasing programs. Our planning for the new nature center is an ongoing process---please send us your ideas.

In addition, we continue to work on our new mission statement. Questions such as to what extent should we be involved with land acquisition (beyond our original goal area) are being discussed. Having been asked to consider this question, we wonder if we are at a "crossroads" or if we should develop a "crossroads." One suggestion was to set up a land trust, managed by an outside agency, to encourage the preservation of unique natural areas outside of the Woodland Dunes property. if you have any ideas along this line let us know. We value your input.

Winter-Eyes Begins
February 20 marks the start of this year's Winter-Eyes program for 4th grade students from area schools. About 400 children participated in last years program, which involved them in learning about:

	Weather: Students learn about the Beaufort scale, clouds, wind, temperature, and snow both indoors and out.
	Birds: Students learn to use a key for bird identification, learn about feather structure, and function, and learn to identify feeder birds.
	Tracking: Tracks can tell us so much. Students learn the meaning of gait (how an animal moves) as well as how to identify common mammal tracks. They also practice walking like different types of mammals.
	Plants: Out on the Cattail Trail, students learn about plant structure and winter identification of some common shrubs.
	Bingo: On Goldenrod Trail, we have fun playing a game of Bingo. which includes finding a variety of plant and animal winter signs!

The outdoor activities are done weather permitting---there are alternate indoor activities if needed. This is an enjoyable way to teach young people to appreciate nature. If you would like to volunteer to help with this program, call us at 793-4007.

Great Backyard Bird Count
On the weekend of February 16-19, 2001 the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society are sponsoring the 4th Great Backyard Bird Count. This is a family-friendly activity designed to help "keep common birds common" by recording and understanding their distribution in midwinter.

Counters may spend as much time as they wish---just a few minutes counting the feeders in their yards, for example. More intrepid counters can venture afield to report their observations. The birds seen are reported on the internet at Cornell's excellent website: www.birdsource.org. The report form there is easily completed, and results from all over the continent can be viewed as they come in, as results are updated hourly.

If you do not have access to the internet but wish to join in the fun of the Great Backyard Bird Count we can help! Woodland Dunes Nature Center will collect reports and submit the data to the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

This bird count is a great activity for families, community groups, and students wishing to learn about and contribute to understanding about birdlike. There is no fee to participate.

Summer Count Update
The water level in the West Twin River is very low this year. We could not even get our slough with a canoe! this is where we always see about a dozen black-crowned night herons. There are also bittern species present in the area where we couldn't count this summer.

There were also several species that are not present on a regular basis. They were short-eared owl and the magnolia warbler.

The prairie warbler was a first for the summer season. We've seen and heard this species in late spring but never in summer.

The summer surprises here are always interesting!

The mourning warbler numbers were "very down". Usually we count between 38 and 42 singing males but this year only 22. We feel that the high deer population might have some bearing on the low numbers of this ground-nesting species.