The headwaters' region of North Pikes Creek is an expansive area comprised of marshes, ponds, shrub thickets, and wetland forests teeming with wildlife, including 32 rare, threatened, and endangered species of birds and mammals. The wild and wet nature of…
You've more than likely seen purple loosestrife growing in road ditches, wet meadows, marshes, and along river and stream banks. It may look pretty, but it is invasive everywhere it is found in North America! Purple loosestrife was brought to…
There's no such thing as bad weather - only bad clothing, according to the Norwegian maxim,“Det finnes ikke dårlig vær, bare dårlig klær!” This is oft repeated throughout Scandinavia, where people grow up with a unique relationship with nature. Children are…
In the past fifteen months, Friends of the North Pikes Creek Wetlands’ volunteers have worked diligently to install infrastructure on a one-acre portion of the Friends’ conservation property. This area, aptly named Beaver Hollow, serves the outdoor educational and recreational…
You've likely noticed the jumble of trees lying along the boardwalk and in the marsh at Beaver Hollow. A couple years before the Friends purchased the property where Beaver Hollow is located, beavers dug a canal along the abandoned railroad…
Friends' volunteers installed bat houses at Beaver Hollow recently. Two large bat houses were installed by the pavilion, and two smaller bat houses, the size typically used in residential settings, were mounted by the kiosk. We're ready for bats! North…
Outdoor classrooms are viable alternative to indoor instruction to consider this fall, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to public health experts, the transmission of COVID is comparatively low outside, making outdoor classrooms a practical alternative to indoor study.…
Great Blue Heron Rookery Great Blue Herons and their rookeries are often associated with beaver ponds. In fact, biologists have documented a 100% correlation between Great Blue Heron rookeries and beaver wetlands in Voyageurs National Park. Heron populations have benefited greatly…