Sand and Steel: My Summer Educating Urban Youth
The opinions and commentary expressed in this blog post are my own, and therefore they do not necessarily represent the views and policies of the National Park Service, the Dunes Learning Center, or any affiliated organizations. This past summer I worked as a naturalist with the Dunes Learning Center , a non-for-profit residential environmental education center and camp located within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore . The camp and park are located in close proximity to the urban sprawl of Chicago and surrounding suburbs, where rapid development, high-impact industry, and economic decay have ravaged the region. In between these blighted areas, however, are small pockets of gems. Adjacent to rusty steel mills and putrid landfills are white sandy beaches, tall and wavy sand dunes, and a diverse array of colorful wildflowers (see Photos A and B and C) Photo A: Butterfly weed and black-eyed susans in bloom in an oak-savanna woodland along the Inland Marsh Trail in the Indi