Capstone Project

Two wolves in front of the propane tank.

Another wolf against the building. The Jack-in-the Pulpits are thriving here.C

Two wolves to the right of the path.

The entry from a distance.

How the director of the WSC hooked us into wanting to come again.

I have been working with three other master naturalists on our capstone project for over a year now.  We've been improving the entry garden at the Wildlife Science Center near Forest Lake.  We pulled the weeds out of the garden and replanted the area with native species (dogwood, jack-in-the pulpit, columbine, wild sunflowers, wild ginger, solomon seal, lady ferns, maiden hair ferns, Pennsylvania sedge, etc).  We labeled the species on flat rocks and set the rocks by each species.  We straightened the wooden border, trimmed the trees and added mulch.  For a final touch, we added plywood wolf silhouettes.  Just last week we got everything together.  We plan to go back once a year or so to week and to make sure the rocks are by the correct species.  I have really enjoyed working on this project.  The three other master naturalists were a pleasure to work with.  We seemed to really click.  As we finished up, the director of the center stopped by to chat.  And oh, she is a smart one.  Look what she did to hook us into wanting to volunteer some more-she showed us some wolf pups that the general public doesn't get to see.  Two were 7 weeks old and this one was 9 weeks old.