CORRECTION
This story originally said that nature centre tour details would be posted on the BLESS Facebook page. Details are in fact being posted to the BLESS Nature Centre Facebook page. The Gazette apologizes for the confusion.
Break out your binoculars and bug nets, St. Albert – the BLESS Summer Nature Centre is going on a Big Lake safari, and you’re invited to tag along.
The Big Lake Environment Support Society’s 2020 summer nature centre program is set to kick off July 6.
As previously reported, this year’s program emphasizes nature tours of the Big Lake region instead of stationary activities at the nature centre cabin in downtown St. Albert due to the pandemic.
Leading the tours is University of Alberta environmental conservation student Olivia deBourcier.
“I grew up spending a lot of time by Big Lake and along Red Willow Trail biking, walking, looking at birds and bugs, whatever I could find,” she said, so she jumped at the chance to become this year’s nature centre lead.
“My hope is to inspire kids to learn about science and their backyards and learn how to do science themselves even as young people.”
deBourcier said she planned to lead two hour-long tours a day weekdays from July 6 to Aug. 28. Tours would start at the BLESS viewing platform and stick to the area around the boardwalk and the Red Willow Trail west of Ray Gibbon Drive.
“Every week, there’s going to be a new theme,” deBourcier said, with an overall theme of how scientists study wetland ecosystems.
Guests might go dipping for water bugs one week and searching for muskrats the next, she said as an example. If a really cool bird or a moose shows up, she’d probably talk about that instead.
“That’s kind of the exciting thing about being out there in nature: it’s all happening right in front of you.”
deBourcier said guests should register for a tour on the BLESS Nature Centre Facebook page. Guests would be capped at 15 per tour and required to wear masks.
deBourcier said this summer is a great way for families to reconnect with nature by coming out on this tour.
“I’m always really astonished by how much biodiversity is in this urban ecosystem,” she said.
Watch facebook.com/BLESSnaturecentre for details on the tours.
