LINO LAKES, Minn. – (April 30, 2015) – For the past 20 years, Wargo Nature Center has always tried to do something special in honor of Earth day. This year they celebrated in a big way with fun activities for the family, and a service component for volunteers to help out. Program supervisor, Krista Harrington explained it’s a good mix a fun and education.
“It’s a free family event, we have groups that are coming in that have an environmentally friendly focus, information they can hand out to families, that they can then take home, do some of those activities at home, use those businesses, use those organizations to help be environmentally friendly in their everyday lives,” said Harrington.
The event had two components to it. The first one being service.
“This year we have part of the CCM crew, its part of the conservation crew of MN is here to help teach our volunteers about that whole invasive species, why we want theme to be controlled and eradicated and then how to identify that species and then successfully remove it and take it out of the park. It grows here within Anoka County but it also grows in people’s yards. It’s a fairly common plant.” Harrington said.
The invasive species the volunteers helped clear out is a shrub called buckthorn. Harrington explained why it’s important to make sure these types of species are contained.
“So invasive species are generally species that were not generally native, they weren’t normally found here, they got here some other way and they generally don’t have any good way of being controlled naturally so they take some sort of work from people to help control those,” she said.
Buckthorn was originally used as a fence or some type of barrier. But the shrub has served its purpose.
“It’s buck thorn, it has thorns, it’s pokey, so it worked pretty well, it grows really dense, it grows really very quickly but it also out competes the native things so it grows faster than a lot of the plants that you would prefer to have there so it takes a little bit of work to get it out of the ground and to kind of suppress it and kill it so that it doesn’t continue to take over other places,” Harrington said.
After the hard work was done was when the party begun. Families came out to enjoy music, rock climbing, a bouncy house and other fun activities scattered through out the nature center. For Harrington, it’s the best part.
“I love having that many families come. It’s a really really fun event, it’s really exciting to have lots of people who may not have been here before, they’ve heard about the event, they come here they want to know about all the other things that we offer and it’s just a great way to interact with lots of people, teach them lots of things about nature, different things they can do in their regular lives, its just a really fun way to interact with a lot of people,” she said.
Although Harrington knows most people come for the fun, she hopes they leave with a little bit more.
“It’s a really great way to promote stewardship to help take care of the planet, help take care of your neighborhoods, help take care of your own back yard, so really teach people that they can do really easy things that really make a really big difference, so it’s really all about stewardship.”
