World Cleanup Day
Save the Date and stay tuned for volunteer opportunities on World Cleanup Day!
nature
Birding the Shirley Heinze Nature Preserves in Lake County
Learn about the best times and places to birdwatch in Lake County!
Climate Watch: Monitoring Changes in Bird Populations
National Audubon’s Climate Watch Surveys allows birders to contribute their sightings to studies of how birds are responding to climate change.
Amphibians and Reptiles of Northwest Indiana
Join us for a discussion of the various habitats of Northwest Indiana and the reptiles and amphibians that live there.
Bringing Nature Home: an Introduction to Native Gardening
Learn about how Bringing Nature Home and incorporating native plants in your landscaping can make a difference in supporting our local ecosystem.
Adopt-A-Trail Volunteer & Preserve Steward Training
Join us to learn about our Adopt-A-Trail (AAT) and Preserve Steward (PS) volunteering opportunities and how you can help Shirley Heinze Land Trust by walking our trails, filling out a log of your visits, and letting us know of any issues at the preserve. Read more…
Monitoring the American Mink: Part 2
By: Jim Haniford As I mentioned in my first blog entry, we are in search of the American Mink (Neovison vison). In case you missed it, I wrote about a few random encounters that led to the initiation of a creekside monitoring project, enlisting the use of a trail cam in order to capture this …
Monitoring the American Mink: Part 1
By: Jim Haniford A few scattered reports have come in from around the preserve about a small, furry creature, glimpsed for just a matter of seconds in each instance. One staff member saw it run out from the tall grass as she approached on a riding mower. Another encountered it running up a trail in …
Winter Hiking? Sure!
Winter Hiking? Sure! By Evie Kirkwood Many avid warm weather hikers shun the chill of winter, but it’s a great time to be on the trails. If you’ve stayed away from winter hiking, wary of slippery or cold conditions, the right gear can improve the experience.
Home Sweet Forest Home
By Glenn N. Major You can call them snags, nurse logs, stumps… Forestry folks call them “coarse woody debris”. Much of the life in our forests call them home. Some of us this think they are natural modern art. They are so important to forest ecology. That is why we let them lay where they …