Based on community-centric wildlife conservation, this Partnership works to create a network of wildlife-friendly habitat oases and habitat improvements in municipal parks, schoolyards, vacant lots, front yards, and units of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.
Fishing day at Beaver Pond Park
Stewart B. McKinney NWR staff Rick Potvin and Shakira Jinez joined the community of New Haven, Connecticut for a children’s "Let’s Go Fishing!” event hosted at the newly installed fishing dock in Beaver Pond Park and coordinated by Doreen Abubakar, founder of Community Placemaking Engagement Network (CPEN). The dock was kindly provided by the New Haven Urban Refuge Partnership. Rods at hand, they took part in educating participants of the various species of fish found in Connecticut waters and some of their special adaptations. Children learned how to prepare, bait, and cast their rods before trekking out to the dock to test their luck. Thanks to the event’s various sponsors including "Fixing Fathers", kids and parents went home with their own fishing rods so they may continue to enjoy the dock all summer long!
Return to New Haven Eco-Camps: Let’s Go Herping!
Hispanic Access Foundation (HAF) intern Shakira Jinez returned as Stewart B. McKinney’s environmental interpreter this summer and brought a refreshing new outlook to the New Haven Parks & Recreation (NHPR) Eco-Camps. The previous year’s programs were transformed into a more interactive experience that took the campers of Camp Eco-Extreme (with campers from the ages of 12-15) out into the nearby hiking trails of the West Rock Nature Center. Last year, “A Day in the Life of a Herpetologist” was one of the most popular programs across camps. This year, campers returned to the nearby stream in search of reptiles and amphibians. While the initial hope was to find some toads, campers were extremely excited to come across a pool of red-backed salamanders and the occasional two-lined salamander!
The opportunity to learn about the hidden world of these species opens a new realm of curiosity within a younger audience and inspires a drive to protect local wildlife. We’ve come to find that many campers have never seen a salamander before, let alone hold one! And what a day to end the adventure than coming across a common snapping turtle skeleton, leaving campers truly feeling like they were junior herpetologists in the making!
