August 2024 E-Newsletter

Join us for our Connecting with Nature series, where we’ll showcase various activities enjoyed by supporters of our Ottawa County Parks. From popular activities like mountain biking, hiking, skiing, swimming, and fishing to less traditional ones like forest bathing, artistic endeavors, and volunteering, there’s something for everyone. Regardless of the activity, the common thread is the opportunity to immerse oneself in nature, which has been scientifically linked to numerous benefits such as improved attention and reduced stress and anxiety levels.

During this series, we will be highlighting nature-based activities and encouraging you to explore new recreational opportunities. It is a great way to spend more time in nature and reap its rewards.

This month, we’ll explore Ottawa County Parks and Recreation volunteer program and how it connects people with nature.

Volunteers provide a critical role in our county parks, but it also helps volunteers form a deeper connection with nature. According to Carly Garvelink, the Volunteer Program Supervisor, “When I think about volunteerism, I also think about outreach and awareness. Creating awareness is often just as important as accomplishing the task at hand. After a volunteer event, I hope that people take home a better understanding of the problems our ecosystems face, a sense of fulfillment in the work they accomplished, and a deeper understanding of the power we have to impact our environment, both negatively and positively.”

Click here for more information on Ottawa County Parks and Recreations volunteer opportunities.

Dean and Liz Hanson

When Liz Hanson was about to retire, she wanted to find something to do to keep active. A good friend and parks volunteer, suggested volunteering with Ottawa County Parks and Recreation. Dean began volunteering about 5 years after Liz. The two of them have volunteered with Ottawa County Parks for a combined 15 years.

Both Liz and Dean are park monitors. Dean monitors Grand Ravines and Liz monitors Grand River Park. Park monitors function as an extra pair of eyes and ears in the parks they monitor and help to keep the parks safe and clean. In addition to being a park monitor, Liz has volunteered with Step It Up the last 3-years and the Grand Explorers’ Trail race the last 2 years. They both also attend parks programs.

Prior to becoming volunteers Dean and Liz spent a good deal of time exploring Grand River Park. The first year they volunteered they visited every park in system, except Ripps Bayou which is only accessible by water. Something they learned while visiting all the parks was “how unique each park is and that they all have different ecosystems”.

They have found both physical and mental health benefits from being volunteers, as well as opening their eyes to what is in nature. Liz uses a couple different apps to learn more about what she is seeing in nature. Dean mentioned that some of his most memorable experiences as a volunteer is when he comes across wildlife while walking at Grand Ravines.

There are three reason they would encourage others to consider volunteering with Ottawa County Parks and Recreation, “you get exercise, scheduling flexibility, and being in beautiful parks”.

Mark Southwell

After retiring Mark began volunteering with Ottawa County Parks and Recreation in early-2023. He was looking for a flexible volunteer activity that would put him outdoors. Over the years his family has been Park users in the southwest part of the county, so it was a natural fit.

Mark is a park monitor at Van Buren Dunes, which is a 120-acre property. He volunteers at the Nature Center front desk weekly, puts out Storywalks for Herrick District Library, and removes invasive plants from Paw Paw West in the fall and spring months.

One of the things Mark enjoys most about being a volunteer is the opportunity to be outside, learn, and learn through listening to nature educators. Mark also uses apps to learn more. He enjoys feeling like he is being a “contributor and part of a team”. Spending more time in the parks has helped Mark to “pay better attention to all that nature has to offer”.

Since becoming more active in parks he has found how clean and well cared for the parks are, which he attributes to not only park’s staff setting high standards, but also park users having an ownership mentality that has led them to be more conscious of their impact while in the parks.

by Bobbi Jones Sabine

Truly blue flowers are pretty unusual, but the fringed gentian (Gentianopsis crinita) definitely fits the bill. One of nine gentian species in Michigan, it is not common, but with a little searching can be found throughout the lower peninsula and on the Garden Peninsula in the U.P. Its range includes the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canada.

A native forb and member of the Gentian family, it likes meadows, moist prairies, moist shoreline areas, wet slopes and banks, ditches, moist old-field meadows, and sometimes calcareous sands and gravels. The flowers open fully on sunny days and generally remain mostly closed if it’s cloudy.

Each plant has multiple branched flowering stems from August through early October, and can get to be about a foot tall. It prefers moist soil and full sun. It doesn’t transplant well but can be grown from seed. Plants will live up to two years and reseed readily in good conditions.

Ants are highly attracted to fringed gentian for the taste and nutrition of its sweet nectar. It’s theorized that the fringe developed as protection against such hungry little predators.

Gentians are still used medicinally in folk and commercial remedies to treat urinary infections and stimulate digestion. Native Americans also utilized certain species to treat headaches and as an antidote for witchcraft.

Photo Credit: D. Peirce, U. of M. Herbarium