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Time travel
 By Daryl Starr
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Elderhostel participants join Thomas Gehring, Forestry and Natural Resources, to look for wildlife in Purdue's Martel Forest. (photo by Tom Campbell) |
Like stepping through a portal to the past, participants in Elderhostel's "Where the Prairie Begins" program were swept back in time to when Indiana was part of the frontier. The educational adventure, held in June, paired adults age 55 and older with scientists-turned-storytellers from Purdue Agriculture. Participants traveled back to an age of the horse and wagon to learn about pioneer life, then returned to discuss current environmental conditions.
"We took field trips in the morning," says urban forester Rita McKenzie, who coordinated the program. "Then, we returned to Purdue for a lecture." Among the sites they visited were prairie cemeteries to view remnant prairie habitats, Prophetstown State Park to study soils, Purdue's Martel Forest to look for wildlife and the Purdue Wildlife Area for bird-watching.
"Tippecanoe County was once the edge of the Eastern Woodlands," says McKenzie. "Moving westward across the country, the forest would have dwindled as the prairie wildlife flourished."
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