Late Spring traditionally brings nature field trips for elementary schools. North Kitsap fifth grade field trippers visit the Hansville Green Way trails around Buck Lake. They spend the morning walking through Doug fir, cedar and hemlock; looking at pond creatures and experiencing the meadow. This field trip is sponsored by Hansville Greenway collaborator, Ken Shawcroft. Ken is a dedicated community gem of a guy. For the past 12+ years, Ken dedicates time to arrange for teachers to bring students out and arranges for volunteer "experts" to be at stations around the the Greenway. He greets the buses, chats with the kids for a bit giving them insight about the trail and some do's and don'ts for the morning. The larger group separates into smaller groups that he then escorts around to the learning stations.

I get to be one of the "experts" at the pond. The fifth graders walk down an avenue of trees, make a sharp turn though the forest to see a awe inspiring wetland open up before their eyes. They spend the first few minutes at the pond in silence, looking and listening. We play a game where they hold up a finger when they spy another shade of color in the wetland. They point out brown hot-dog shaped cattails poking up through the water. They spy yellow on the floating lily-pads. On islands of moss they see the white blooms of the bog plant, labrador Tea. Then the fun begins. I dip my net into the water and pull out a myriad of small pond creatures and place them in white tubs of pond water. The kids scoop up the "bugs" and look at them through mini microscopes. Most of them have never realized how much life is in a pond. Dragonfly larvae, damselfly larvae, water boatman, even tiny copepods are studied and identified. All too soon Ken comes for the troop and moves them on the next station delivering a new group to experience the pond.
Fifth graders always look forward to late Spring - so do I.