Nature and Industry

On the first day of our Frog in the Bog program, we take our trail groups on our “Walk Through Time” hike around the Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm where we learn how the area was used throughout time. In one station stop, we learn that some parts of the beach near the National Park are used for the steel industry. 

The different colors on the abstract rug/map represent different ecosystems and the grey spheres represent the steel and glass mills along the beach.

On the second day of the program, we take our trail groups on the Cowles Bog Hike at the Indiana Dunes National Park. When starting on the Green Belt side of the hike (as pictured below) we see some of the steel industry firsthand. I’ll get comments from kids such as “That’s ugly!”- which is valid. Seeing big factories and smokestacks is a bit unexpected when embarking on a hike in a National Park!

Instead, I try to reframe their thinking. 

I’ll suggest to the kids that it’s pretty neat there’s a steel mill right next to our National Park and that the Park is able to thrive beside it; the industry surrounding the trail is simply part of the ecosystem. Despite the industry nearby, we still see amazing plants and animals! Instead of trying to create a perfect protected area completely absent of human impact, we can embrace and care for the land the best we can. 

This concept can be taken outside of our National Park as well- right to our own backyard! We can appreciate nature blossoming despite apparent human influences. For example, we can admire strips of prairie along busy roads, squirrels running between city street trees, or bees visiting a community garden. I hope that through the Cowles Bog Hike, even with the mills in the background, our students can broaden their views on what nature can be!

Genevieve Zilmer

Interpretive Naturalist