District Outreach

Indianapolis Students Participate in Conservation Field Day!

More than 90 students from Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS): Cold Springs Middle School, McFarland Middle School, New Horizons Jr. High School, and Star Academy participated in the Youth Conservation Field Day held at the Indianapolis Airport’s Conservation Management Area on May 10, 2007. 

The Annual Youth Conservation Field Day for IPS students was hosted by the Indianapolis Airport Authority, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS); the Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD); and the Hoosier Heartland Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) Council which works with SWCD’s, local & state government agencies, other conservation entities in central Indiana. 

Left: Marvin Brethauer (on right), Manager of the Indy Airport’s Conservation Management Area explains environmental programs in place at the Indianapolis International Airport.

The students who normally learn about conservation and natural resource issues in textbooks got a firsthand view of conservation practices on the land and the types of careers it takes to get such work applied on the land.  They participated in a variety of science-related natural resource activities during the field day.  Several learning stations were located at various spots at the field day to demonstrate the assistance that USDA NRCS, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS), and local Soil & Water Conservation Districts (SWCD’s) provide to landowners and operators.  Marvin Brethauer and Samantha McGuire, with the Airport’s Conservation Management Team; Bennie Clark, Black Emphasis Program Manager with NRCS Indianapolis State Office, Rebecca Fletcher, Project Coordinator for the Hoosier Heartland RC&D, and Ron Lauster, Director, Marion County SWCD, helped set up and coordinate the event.

Paula Baldwin, Chair of the Hoosier Heartland RC&D and local Board Member of the Marion Co. SWCD welcomed students to the event.  Students were taught about agriculture & energy issues by Barry Fisher, NRCS Conservation Agronomist and horticulture by Kathryn Mascaro, Master Gardener.  Soils were discussed by Gary Struben, and Mike Wigginton, NRCS Soil Scientist and forestry issues were explained by NRCS Forester and Botanist, Ken Collins.   

Right: Struben ( standing in center) and Mike Wigginton (on right), NRCS soil scientists, discuss soils with IPS students who got down in a soil pit to get a better “hands on” experience to learn about soil.

NRCS Geographic Information System (GIS) Specialist Bruce Nielson discussed global positioning systems (GPS) and NRCS Civil Engineer Chris Ritz led a session on engineering and hydrology.  Lauri Pruitt with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service discussed the bat habitat programs the airport was implementing to assist the Indiana bat and other endangered species in the area. 

After lunch, Marvin Brethauer discussed how he and his colleagues ensure that the airport’s impacts on environmentally sensitive areas are minimal and that potentially endangered animal and plant species are being protected.  He provided a brief overview about programs to preserve the animal and plant habitat in and around airport properties.  The airports programs are administered from a Camby Road field office located on 2,200 acres spanning western Marion and Hendricks counties

Bennie Clark, Black Emphasis Program Manager, NRCS, Indianapolis State Office, said, “While the field day was primarily organized to provide education to the students on natural resource principles, it also showed students the variety of natural resource skills needed to assist land users with their natural resources and land use issues.” Bennie continued “I hope students came away from the day with realization of the variety of career opportunities available in agriculture and conservation agencies like NRCS, and when they start thinking about college course of study, they remember this event and make agriculture and natural resource conservation their career choice.” 

For more information about the conservation field day sponsoring organizations: the Indianapolis Airport Authority, the Marion Co SWCD (317-.786.1776), the Hoosier Heartland RC&D, and USDA NRCS. 

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