Walking to Work in a National Park

One of the many perks of living and working in a national park is there’s almost always a new surprise waiting around the corner on my walk to work. I don’t think I could ever get tired of the simple pleasure that is the walk to or from work at Dunes Learning Center.

The first couple of weeks I lived in DLC housing, I learned to allow about twice the time I actually needed to walk to work because I stopped so many times to look at the nature around me.  As Environmental Education Fellows, we have the opportunity to learn about wild edible plants, and if we pass a certification test every season, we can feed these wild edibles to participants during our programs. For my first test during summer training, I was nervous about recognizing garlic mustard on trail because it looks so similar to a non-edible plant called ground ivy. Every day leading up to the test, my roommate and I practiced our garlic mustard identification skills (and ended up smelling a lot of leaves in the process). In the end, we passed the test, thanks to Howe Road’s garlic mustard supply!

Just as winter fell on Indiana and many of the migratory animals were already gone for the season, a new curiosity started to appear. On a particularly early November morning, I saw a fresh beaver chew with wood shavings surrounding it. This set me off on a months-long search for the beaver. Each week, new signs of the beaver appeared, but it wasn’t until mid-February that I finally saw our local tree engineer! My coworkers and I have found that right at dusk is the best time to see our friend the beaver, because beavers are crepuscular, meaning that they are most active at dusk and dawn.

As I start to see the first signs of spring these past few weeks, I’m excited to find out what’s coming next. Most recently, the wood ducks returned to one of the wetlands near the Little Calumet River and I heard their characteristic squeaky calls joining the red-winged blackbirds that have already been back from their migration for a while now. Soon there will be many more wildflowers – we’ve already seen some spring ephemerals like snowdrops sprouting up from the (very muddy) ground! Even as I approach a full year spent at DLC, I still consistently find surprises on my daily walk.

It’s always exciting to visit new places too, but living here and taking the same route to and from work every day has taught me the joy of observing even the most familiar of places carefully. Even if all you have time for today is to go hug one tree outside, do it! I can almost guarantee that it will make your day better.

Hope Rogers

Environmental Education Fellow