Summer Camp Visit

Staff at the St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve had the opportunity to welcome a summer camp this past Wednesday! The art camp, hosted by the nonprofit Joe Center for the Arts, visited the Buffer Preserve to work on creating masterpieces that combined nature with printmaking and sketching. Students arrived early in the morning and began a drawing assignment to get them thinking about what they might discover at the Buffer Preserve. Artistic interpretations and expectations ranged from trees to bears to buried treasure!

We took the students on a tram tour and put our theories to the test to see what we could find. Starting out on Treasure Road, we unfortunately didn’t find any gold coins, but did see a variety of birds and a 170-year-old longleaf pine! We continued on our journey and saw an eagle nest, a recently burned area, and even our resident alligator, Surly! Then, we took a break from the heat and ate lunch. 

After a nice meal and a little time to cool off, we set back out on a nature hike to explore a bit more. We collected all sorts of specimens to practice sketching and making prints. Then, we went back to the visitor center and the students set out on making their beautiful artist creations. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and our students left for the day, bringing with them all of their newfound knowledge and appreciation of our preserve’s natural resources!