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Adventures in Time-Travel at the Dunes Learning Center
by Cassandra A. Cannon*
Calumet Region-090609: You know, "back in the day"--well, not all that far back, and "the day" we'll just leave to speculation--I recall some of my greatest memories originated in the Girl Scouts. Starting out as a Brownie and working through the levels until I reached Cadet was my first real sense of learning collective responsibilities and teamwork, outside my large family.
My community was ethnically diverse, and my girlfriends and I were of African-American, Croatian, Greek, Hispanic, Serbian, and a few other melting pot ethnicities.
Even though we had sort of hung out from time to time as classmates, it wasn't until we all joined Scouts and took our first wilderness journey to the great outdoors that we really got close. A few had camped out before with their families, but for the majority of us, the hills, trees, and animals hiding all around were new and wonderful.
We were all inner city kids, and none of us learned at home about our environment and the role of nature in sustaining our planet, nor the responsibilities we had to sustain it through proper care of its waters, trees, and wildlife.
So what's my point?
This past August, I had the pleasure of bringing a number of our "Vision Committee" members to the Dunes Learning Center, in Chesterton, Indiana, where John Hayes, who I met at the 2009 Dunes BioBlitz, was our host and tour guide. He has such a clean-cut looking appearance--almost (sincere compliment) like a Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard, in "Happy Days"--Ed.), but when he started talking about the Dunes Learning Center, the wildlife, and the various programs available for the communities, I could swear that a coonskin hat and a buckskin outfit seemed to materialize on him instantly. Questions came from everyone. We could see that he loved his JOB.
Before we left, John gave us a mini-tour of the bunk houses. Walking in total darkness from the lodge, you could hear squeals and giggles, laughter, and a high-pitched scream from one of the ladies when a small critter of some sort ran across our path. It was hilarious! Teachers, doctors, medical personnel, historians, moms, and more of those serious adults were instantaneously transformed into a group of giddy child-like campers, just like my old Troop!
Since then, our Male Empowerment Group and church organizations have expressed interest in using the Dunes Learning Center for their activities.
Sometimes, as adults, we can forget how much the simplest pleasures of yesterday can still be found today, and close by.
For great education, fun, and warm hospitality wilderness-style, look no further. The Dunes Learning Center is for everyone
Thanks to Kevin Murphy and Joann Podkul, and Linda and Richard Cook for directing us "back home, again," to Indiana.
*Founder and CEO of the United Urban Network, Inc., Gary, Indiana.
Environmental work group discovers--not a "Who-dunnit," but a "What-wazzit?"-- at Eggers Grove!
(Text and photos by Kevin P. Murphy)
Chicago-March 13, 2009:
It was a wet and foggy day (seriously), when a mixed group of environmental scientists, students, seniors, and a community bank's environmental volunteers, set out to clear away invasive brush from a stretch of the Eggers Grove Forest Preserve, between the Burnham Greenway and the road that serves the forest preserve. This Stewardship Workday, co-sponsored by the Calumet Ecological Park Association (CEPA) and the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, included participation by staff members of the Field Museum's Calumet Environmental Education Program (CEEP), staff members of the East Side Branch of U.S. Bank, members of CEPA and the Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative (AWLI), along with Service Learning students from two Chicago area high schools.
While the group worked to clear away (and burn) invasive brush from the site's savanna and woodland, one of the workers discovered a mystery relic of animal life that no one could positively identify at that moment (see accompanying photos). While we await identification of the remains, it is useful to point out that such finds are not uncommon in the Calumet wilderness areas. After all, Nature rules there, and the life-cycle is Nature's domain. Finds like these often ignite a scientific curiosity in students that sometimes shapes their life pursuits. What better outcome for a foggy, misty day in the wilderness?
If you have an opinion about the type of creature represented by this find, please go to the Calumet Stewardship Facebook Fan Page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Calumet-Stewardship-Initiative/365926695700?ref=mf and leave your comment. Help us to solve the mystery, if you can. --kpm
04/17/10: Mystery solved! According to Field Museum Ornithologist, Doug Stoltz, it was a duck.
Does this perspective help?
How about this exterior view?
The Discovery! Field Museum"s Abigail Derby-Lewis shows animal skeletal find to colleague, Laura Milkert. Both are mystified by the remnant.
Close-up of skeletal interior. What's your guess? Was it an animal, a bird, a reptile, or . . . ?
Chesterton Middle School Students Experience Winter at the Indiana Dunes State Park
by Erin Crofton
While most students spent February 11, 2010 in the classroom, approximately 160 seventh graders from Chesterton Middle School (CMS) were outside exploring the Indiana Dunes State Park. Save the Dunes hosted the event as part of its Leave No Child Inside Program to promote environmental literacy. This was the 2nd annual winter field trip to the State Park for CMS.
This year’s stations included:
•A hike to the top of Mount Jackson and discussion of dune formation led by Erin Crofton, Save the Dunes.
•Orienteering activities that trained the students how to read a topographic map and use a compass led by Thomas Anderson, Save the Dunes.
• A survival course that taught the students how to survive in the woods in winter. The students worked together to make a shelter out of branches and other found materials. This activity was led by Dustin Kirby.
•The Incredible Journey game, where students were transformed into drops of water and took a ride through the water cycle. This fun adventure was led by Jennifer Nebe and Anita Seidelman, Save the Dunes.
•A walk to the Great Marsh where students took a moment to listen to the sounds of nature and observe it’s beauty led by Cheryl Chapman, Save the Dunes.
It was a perfect sunny day to spend at the Indiana Dunes State Park and the students enjoyed spending time outside in the snow.
Save the Dunes would like to give a special thank you to Brandt Baughman, Property Manager of the Indiana Dunes State Park. Mr. Baughman provided much needed support for organizing the field trip and provided help with preparing the shelters and providing use of the facilities for the activities.
We would also like to recognize Samantha Hayes, Chesterton Middle School Science Teacher, for her commitment to include outdoor education experiences into her curriculum. Mrs. Hayes has done an outstanding job of engaging her students in the local environment by giving them hands-on activities using Chesterton’s great natural resources.
All 3 photos by Save the Dunes volunteer, Carl Swisher.
Calumet Summit 2010--Observations and Impressions
The Calumet region is a kidney-shaped area at the southern end of Lake Michigan that includes a slice of southeast Chicago, three counties in northwest Indiana, and a tiny sliver of southwest Michigan. It was once a prosperous center of heavy industry centered on steelmaking. The steelmaking is still there, although the industry has imploded into two, instead of five, separate companies and, with advanced technologies, also requires far fewer people to manage its massive machinery and still-impressive production. The region, paradoxically, also includes breathtaking natural areas, encompassing some 42,000 acres of dune, wetland, prairie and woodland habitats. A big portion of that is included within the various patchwork boundaries of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the State Park, but many more are separate parcels managed variously by local land trusts, city and county park systems and even private industries.
For two days at the end of April, more than 250 people representing environmental, business, government, academic and philanthropic communities gathered on the Calumet campus of Purdue University for a Summit. The third such event in a decade, this one was billed as a "Call to Connect." The topics were wide ranging, but together they took an ambitious stab at analyzing the successes and challenges of the region´s past and present, and at connecting the work of disparate participants to forge new directions for the future—or old directions, with creative and more environmentally sustainable new spins to them.
One striking aspect of the region and its people that the Summit called to mind, and that few outsiders are aware of, is the fierce loyalty and emotional commitment so many people feel for the Calumet. There is still parochialism and isolation, and traditional rivalries remain between different counties, towns, and even neighborhoods. Many of these were forged during the heyday of the prosperous industrial economy and are expressed most conventionally through competition among local sports teams. But there is also a shared identity for the region as a whole and a shared pride for the traditional grittiness and muscular industrial character of the Calumet, but also for its spectacular nature.
Then, too, there is shared determination; some would call it stubbornness. An impressive number of people never seem to give up on solving the most recalcitrant problems. Many have continued to work on environmental, economic development, or social justice issues throughout their working lives and well into retirement. Over the years, people have also come to know each other personally through shared involvement on these issues. Kay Nelson of the Northwest Indiana Forum, a business group, said: “I think we've 'grown up' as a region since the old adversarial days. We've learned that different paths don't have to mean opposition and that we need to have respect for everyone´s point of view. The important thing is to keep focused on common goals.” A strong sentiment expressed throughout the Summit was that people need to forget territoriality—except for those all-important ball teams—and build a regional vision.
Need for a regional vision
Connections described or explored at the Summit reinforced the idea of that regional vision, and even suggested the need for a concerted effort to “brand” the Calumet in order to take advantage of its unique character. Dr. Mark Bouman, a geographer from Chicago State University, provided the critical symbol—a map of the tri-state region on which all speakers were asked to superimpose the geographical references of their own topics. Bouman also used a whimsical quote from comedian Stephen Wright. “I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it.” He followed with an array of scenes and people from the region, past and present. “You are here... and here... and here... when you are here (in the Calumet):” a steel mill and settling pond, the endangered Karner blue butterfly, multiple lines of train tracks, a historic photo of Chicago´s Pullman neighborhood, a labor union campaign rally, the National Lakeshore´s dramatic Mount Baldy dune.
Presentations and hallway conversations provided signs and portents that the Calumet may yet rise above the polluted land and balkanized politics of the past to come into its own in a new and different way in the new century. Sir Peter Crane, former Chicagoan and now dean of the Yale School of Forestry, suggested in closing remarks on the first day that the current slow economy, while painful, may offer an opportunity for productive long-range planning. “When money was flowing freely—and in many cases unwisely—land development was moving at a breathtaking pace and often in uncoordinated directions. That has ground almost to a halt, giving those who are working to improve places like the Calumet with some brief, and no doubt transitory, breathing space--a time to get important work done.”
Planning for a new green economy
One sign that this is starting to happen is that two important agencies, the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) and the Northwest Indiana Forum appear to be breaking out of former boxes and showing an increased willingness to work together. New development approaches are focusing on transportation distribution and logistics, “fiber-optic dependent information technologies,” as one speaker put it, and innovative industrial technology.
Meanwhile, on the Illinois side of the Calumet, the Exelon Corporation is developing a new solar plant at 119th and Halsted that is projected to power 1,200 to 1,500 homes and to displace 31.2 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, according to Dave Graham of the Chicago Department of Environment. The design and construction of “green” buildings with LEED certification was also offered by Chicago officials as a niche in new construction that could become a hallmark for the region. One such development underway, an affordable apartment complex on former U. S. Steel land in South Chicago, was offered as an example.
Charlotte Read of the Save the Dunes Council, whose organization was founded to protect the unique shoreline sand dunes in the face of early opposition, marveled that cultural and ecological tourism are also now taken quite seriously as legitimate economic development.
There appears to be more evidence than ever of bi-state cooperation on projects such as water and land trail networks and the broader “Green Infrastructure Vision” of Chicago Wilderness. Dr. Mark Reshkin, retired geology professor from Indiana University Northwest, said he was even heartened by “so many people getting up early and driving down the Bishop Ford (Expressway) from Chicago to discuss the future of the Calumet.” John Swanson, executive director of NIRPC, noted that more Chicagoans than ever are buying homes and commuting daily to work from the Indiana side rather than just keeping summer cottages in the dunes. Apparently, residents of southeast Michigan are starting another trend, commuting to northwest Indiana for jobs while continuing to live in New Buffalo or Union Pier.
A new generation of leaders has clearly taken up the challenge of the Calumet, leading academic research on local subjects, volunteering in the restoration of natural areas, and offering the new tools of social media to help the branding effort and increase visibility for the region´s assets.
Pollution legacy, parochial attitudes still hinder
The success stories accumulated through the two-day gathering, but the participants were also uniquely positioned to understand the massive challenges that still remain. These include the legacy of heavy metal and petroleum-based contaminants in the soil and water, still significant air pollution, the ever-present danger of flooding and a general lack of coordinated watershed management. Aging infrastructure includes everything from roads and bridges to broken sewer tiles, while new threats such as invasive aquatic species affect much more than the Calumet.
Racial and ethnic differences still breed suspicion and sometimes conflict, and minorities are still not well represented among decision makers. It may have been significant, too, that northwest Indiana municipal officials and agencies were not well represented at the Summit. A lack of adequate funding, of course, makes it difficult to tackle more than a few of even the most specific targets.
Next steps
So the problems, too, came in for intense scrutiny and some ideas for next steps. Renewed interest by the federal government in restoring the Great Lakes was seen as an important asset and one that will require significant cooperation across jurisdictions if benefits for the Calumet region are to be fully realized. It is encouraging, too, that President Obama has called for bringing nature back into the cities “where 80 per cent of the population resides and where our children are growing up in a world without nature, without connection to the land and each other.”
One priority with broad support is finally to clean up the Grand Calumet River and Indiana Harbor Ship Canal, about to mark the 25th anniversary of its designation as an international “Area of Concern,” or AOC, for its multiple contributions to Great Lakes toxic contamination. A 31.1 million dollar project has already been approved, with funding from multiple federal, state and local agencies, to remove and cap contaminated sediment from a one-mile stretch of the river in Hammond. John Fekete, retired environmental manager at ArcelorMittal and formerly with Inland Steel, explained that the local stakeholder committee of government, business and environmental interests has determined to divide the AOC into segments. Different solutions will be proposed for each based on the particular impaired uses in those sections. “We´re not doing it now for the International Joint Commission; we´re doing it for ourselves,” he said. “Ultimately for any initiative to succeed, it has to be driven locally.” It was significant, he said, that Indiana was the only state with a joint resolution from government and private industry to support the recently approved Great Lakes Compact.
Another essential priority is to develop a regional water management plan across the Calumet´s three watersheds. Flooding and the waterborne spread of contaminants is a constant threat. Few can forget the big flood of September, 2008, when parts of two counties were declared a national disaster area after a Little Calumet River levee broke and inundated vast sections of Munster, Highland and Dyer.
Joe Exl, senior water resource planner for the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission, hammered home the essential elements: the need to work across and outside municipal boundaries to develop a regional watershed alliance; the need to get municipalities to cooperate in developing best management practices to reduce the impact of the region´s seriously impaired water bodies; a commitment to develop a system and public education campaign for keeping storm water on site rather than letting it into sewage treatment plants, or running off into surface water; the need to find ways to minimize the way that constantly changing land uses affect water management. A long but still incomplete list includes new developments that increase impermeable surfaces, failing sewage treatment plants, roads, agriculture, confined animals and channelized streams.
Local matches are always needed to attract federal grants, and private funds may be needed to contribute to that match.
Veteran Calumet activist Lee Botts directed an inventory in 2006 that found an astounding 166 sites in the three-county Indiana portion of the Calumet where habitat restoration was underway. Some of the sites are part of public properties, but many more are owned and managed by private non-profit groups or companies. A key recommendation emerging from that inventory was that a way be found to fund and staff monitoring at all of the natural area sites to measure the results of the restoration. That has still not happened and should be another priority to protect the region´s investment in its irreplaceable natural resources.
The bi-state region´s land and water trail network needs to be completed posthaste. So many attractive fragments are already in place. To name just a few, there are the Cal-Sag Trail, the Burnham and Major Taylor Trails, the Marquette Trail, the Inland Marsh Trail, many short loop trails within the National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes State Park, the Lake Michigan Water Trail and the Little Calumet Canoe Trail. What´s missing are the connectors that would make such an alternative transportation web more broadly useful and add immeasurably to the region´s tourism potential.
Sir Peter Crane noted the region´s potential for expanding the production, sale and distribution of local food. Commercial food farms and orchards are already a thriving concern in the eastern third of the Calumet—in LaPorte County, in particular, but also in parts of Porter. This could be expanded, he suggested, while the national momentum is still growing.
Make it happen
Leigh Morris, chair of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, offered some guiding principles for managing Lake Michigan shorelands as part of an updated vision for completing Congressman Pete Visclosky´s long-desired Marquette Plan. The principles could work as easily for the whole Calumet region.
❖Make it attractive
❖Make it fundable
❖Make it accessible
❖Make it environmentally sustainable
❖Make it popular (across all jurisdictions and with the public)
❖Make it an amenity or development that can attract both new business and visitors.
We have to remember that all of us have that existential map before us with “You are here” written all over it. Now that we are here, we just have to figure out what to do to make us all want to stay here and to invite others to come and visit or stay in the remarkable Calumet.
Glenda Daniel
Openlands
May 2010
