by Barbara Dixson
Wander onto the Trail of Reflections, starting perhaps from the Visitor Center, perhaps from the Menzel Pavilion, and you’ll find that something rather wonderful has happened! A dozen signs on the theme of Birds of Schmeeckle Reserve now draw walkers along the trail. My friend Jean Watkins and I visited on a warm June day, stopping to enjoy each sign: one on hawks in the Reserve, one on forest birds, one to get a beginner started off birding, all twelve of them bright and engaging. Jean appreciated the clear depictions of the birds, with the pleasing, natural backgrounds, and the graphic design of each sign. I found the writing inviting and perfectly clear. Both of us smiled over the bird poop on several signs—“the birds’ endorsement,” Jean laughed.
Whether you are an experienced birder, someone new to birds, or a family with children, you’ll find something of interest here. And a bonus: the signs will change twice a year, with a new theme and new approaches each time.
That’s because these signs are the brainchild of Professor Chris McCart, and they were created by Chris’s environmental education and interpretation students in their final practicum. In a prior semester, this group of students studied interpretative media with Jim Buchholz and Melissa Ruether. In this final semester with Chris, they’ve applied their media skills to an interpretative project in Schmeeckle Reserve that provides a genuine service to the community. To arrive at these elegantly simple signs, this group brainstormed together, chose Maddie Jenks as project leader, decided which student would do which sign, went through four drafts of workshopping and revising, and used the media lab in the basement of the Visitor Center to print the final products.
It’s a multidimensional partnership. Funding and support for materials and work have been provided not only by Chris and the students, but also by the College of Natural Resources, the Friends of Schmeeckle Reserve, and most of all, for an extremely positive educational experience for the students, Schmeeckle Reserve itself.
As for me, I’m already looking forward to next semester’s intriguing signs.
