The 34th Conservation Fifth Grade Field Days
Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District hosted the 34th Annual Conservation Field Days for the Fifth Grade students from Mary Raber, Little Turtle, Northern Heights and Coesse schools at the Whitley County 4-H Fairgrounds on September 14 and 15, 2016.
This year seven different topics were featured to give the fifth grade students a better understanding of soil conservation, wildlife, water safety, water quality, forestry, the various types of things that could be a 4-H projects and a visit to the Ag Learning Museum.
The event takes two days to get all two hundred and fifty nine fifth grade students through the program and this is done with the assistance of the Columbia City FFA Chapter members. The FFA members serve as guides for the teachers to help with getting the fifth grade classes from stop to stop and then assist with serving the hot dog and chips lunch to everyone. The second day of the field days, after all the presentations are done and lunch is over, the FFA members also put all the tables and chairs away and sweep the 4-H building clean.
Joe Huntsman demonstrated to the students on the importance of having ground cover such as grass to keep your soil from eroding away. He discussed the different soil layers with the students. He explained how powerful water can be if it is not controlled by filter strips and waterways. He also explained how some erosion problems can be corrected and why it is so important our top soil in place and not in our streams and rivers. We only have some much top soil and it is important to keep it in place.
Clay Geiger brought with him a collection of animals’ skins, bones, and stuffed animals some native to Indiana and some not. He explained to the students what a number of animals need to survive, such as types of food and habitat. He explained why some wildlife animals are beneficial and why some are not. He talked about how in the past how fellows would have coon dogs and would go coon hunting as a sport. He also talked about how minks had been raised to make coats for women. Now the animals are protected and their skins aren’t used for coats any longer.
Darren Reed and Levi Knach, who are Conservation Officers for Whitley County, brought one of the boats and different types of life vests. They explained how the importance of having a properly fitting vest would save someone life rather than one that was too large for a person, who might slip out of it once they were in the water. And they also brought the chocolate lab with them. He has been trained to search for people, drugs, any number of things. Such as if you have shot more geese than your legal limit and have some hid in the back of your truck or boat, the dog can locate them for the Conservation Officers in the matter of a few minutes.
Todd Geiger, who is with the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service, had a collection of 4-H projects and posters that the students could see to spark ideas for them if they would like to join 4-H and have a project at fair time. There are projects such as cooking, photography, gardening, sewing and more that do not involve livestock. Not everyone has a place for sheep, pigs, or cattle to use as a fair project as many people think of as 4-H projects.
Jon Gotz, who is with the Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District explained to the students the importance of keeping the water we have clean. One of Jon’s examples he had at the field day was 24 gallons jugs that represented how much precipitation that falls on one square of ground in a years’ time. He also with the help of a globe showed how much water is out there on planet earth, but much of it is salt water or locked up in the frozen polar caps in ice that we can’t use. Then he continued to explain how little is really useable water that we need to survive.
Fay Earnhart handled the forestry stop. He brought with him examples of the different types of leaves from the different trees. He explained that some people raise trees much like some farmers raise corn and soybeans as a crop. If a woods is properly handled it can be a cash crop but it will take years before the lumber can be sold. He show examples of wood that had been damaged by someone pounding nails into a tree to hang something and how the lumber had discolored causing the lumber to have no value. Plus, the nail would also be a danger to someone harvesting the lumber because of the damage to a saw blade. He has examples of tree rings that you can could to see how many years old a tree could be. The rings also showed if the tree has had to suffer through a dry year or if the tree got to grow through a good year because of the width of the ring.
The Fifth Graders also got to visit the Learning Museum and this year’s topic was tractors from the past and their uses. Francis Bundy walked the students by a number of antique tractors and explained their differences. One of the IH tractors had tracks in place of its wheels. The farmer had ordered is special because of the muck soils in Etna-Troy Township so he wouldn’t be stuck all the time as he had been with his regular tractor. He also show the Fifth Graders one of the tractors that had to be started with a crank unlike the tractors of today with their electric starts. And Ron Myers showed a short video supplied by John Deere that also showed the old tractors in action.
After the students had visited all the stops, they were served a lunch of hot dogs, chips, and cookies provided by the Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District and served with the help of the Columbia City Chapter of FFA members.
The teachers left with booklets that covered the topics of Forestry, Soils, and Healthy Habitats to share with the students once they were back at school which were provided by the Whitley Soil and Water Conservation District.
First photo – Clay Geiger is exampling some of the different examples of mounted heads and skins he had brought with him to share with the Fifth Graders at the Fifth Grade Field Days that were held this week.
Second photo – Darren Reed talked about how it only takes a couple of inches of water for a person to drown and how important it is to have the right life vest and that the vest fits the person correctly to save a life.
Third photo - Todd Geiger with the Purdue Cooperative Extension Service played a computer game with the students on their knowledge of such things as what bees do to help with the production of the food that ends up on our tables.
Fourth photo – Jon Gotz with the Whitley County Soil and Water Conservation District demonstrated how much useable water there is in the whole world for everyone on earth to use in our daily lives.
Fifth Photo – Faye Earnhart brought with him numerous branches from various trees to show the different leaves. He showed the students how to use a Biltmore Stick to estimate the total board feet of a tree.
Sixth Photo - Francis Bundy took the Fifth Graders through the Ag Museum and talked about the different antique tractors that are on display at the Museum this year. The tractor he is standing in front of was used on muck fields in Etna-Troy township.
Seventh Photo – Joe Huntsman had shown the students the benefits of having a cover such as grass on soil rather than leaving it bare. The students are hold the results of the demonstration. Which glass of water would you rather drink? The water that ran off from a grass cover spot or the one from bare soil??