By Taylor Buley Working at a Nature Center and for a Conservation District allows for myriad opportunities. There are many conferences and summits out there for staff to explore and to help expand their professional network. One organization that we connect with here at Macon County Conservation District is the Association of Nature Center Administrators, or ANCA. ANCA is a non-profit professional organization that is dedicated to leaders in the nature and environmental learning profession. Their mission is to promote and support the best leadership and management practices, and ANCA serves more than 700 members across North America. They are ...

For the past several months, there has been a project that we have kept quiet about while our staff worked hard to complete it. We sat down with Friends Creek Site Superintendent, Andy Murphy, to learn all the details about this newest structure at the Friends Creek Conservation Area group camp site. What is this structure we are standing by called? This is a King Post Pavilion. The top of the main bents are shaped to look like the king chess piece. You mentioned the term “bents”, care to talk a little bit more about those? Yeah, those are ...

By Hope Moore The kingdom Fungi have been very misunderstood for many years, only being classified as a kingdom since 1969. They had been considered plants prior to this year, meaning scientists have only had a small portion of time to truly study and understand them as their own kingdom. Not all fungi are created equal considering the many different ways they can appear. Some can be microscopic, others can form visible fruiting bodies (e.g. a mushroom), and they can come in many colors and sizes. With this, it can be really difficult to classify what each fungus is ...

By Ashton Dukeman Since its launch in 1976, the Prairie Islander has been a valuable source of District information and updates, documenting the evolution of the District with each printed edition. As we embark on a new chapter, transitioning from ink and paper to a digital platform, we reflect on the history that has shaped this long - running newsletter. Join us as we explore its journey through the decades, celebrating its legacy while embracing the future of sustainable communication. When the newsletter began, it didn’t go by the familiar name of Prairie Islander that we now know. It ...

By DCLI Intern, Sam R. Being an intern with the MCCD (Macon County Conservation District) this summer has been absolutely amazing, to say the least. All sorts of different opportunities and tasks came my way that exposed me to things I hadn’t necessarily done before, let alone in a work environment! These new experiences not only allowed me to improve my photography skills but also have fun and meet new people while doing it! This article provides an in-depth look into my experience as an intern with the MCCD and also explores how it influenced my personal and professional ...

By Ashton Dukeman We understand more than most that baby animals are downright adorable, but is it ever a good idea to take an animal from the wild to keep as a pet? The answer to that would be, no. No matter how cute a wild animal is, removing them from their home in the wild to bring in and attempt to keep them as a domestic animal is never advisable for many reasons. Wild animals can be dangerous. Wild animals are just that: wild. They have natural instincts that they have developed to protect themselves, and it is not ...

By Ashton Dukeman We here at the Macon County Conservation District wouldn’t be able to do what we do without several vital things that all play major roles in our daily operations, including our amazing volunteer base, our stellar and knowledgeable staff, and of course, the public that we serve. One other major piece of the puzzle that makes up the Macon County Conservation District is the Macon County Conservation Foundation. As the fundraising arm of the District, the Macon County Conservation Foundation actively works to restore and preserve local natural areas, and to ensure a good quality of ...

by Beth Lane April is Citizen Science Month, and is celebrated by renewing the effort to involve the public in scientific research projects. But why should we care? Citizen Science is a collaboration between public and scientific professionals to collect and analyze data for research projects. It has pseudonyms such as: community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring. Citizen scientists are not always professional scientists! In fact they can be any age, from any walk of life, with any amount of experience. All that is really needed to be a citizen scientist is curiosity ...

By Ethan Snively For over a decade, Dr. David Horn’s biology classes at Millikin University have assisted the Macon County Conservation District with various natural resources projects, totaling well over 1,000 volunteer hours. This partnership with Millikin has been important for both the students and MCCD. While the Conservation District gets hands-on help for projects that would otherwise not get completed, the students get realworld experience, which Horn says better prepares them for their professional careers. “At Millikin University, we emphasize both theory and practice,” Horn said. “Ecological principles can be taught in the classroom and those concepts can ...