News - Mission Earth
Field days at Earth Heart Farm in Fall 2023
The Earth Heart Farm fall field days this year were just finished. Ninety-five students from Margaretta Middle School, 162 students from Toledo Early College, 11 students from Ottawa Hills High School, and 10 students from Perkins High School, participated on Oct. 3 and Oct. 5. Around 20 Volunteers from US wildlife and fish service and other organizations joined with GME team.
The guided tours are two-fold, wildlife search and scientific experiment. We guided small groups of students through the landscape of the recovered wetland and discovered special wildlife. We also introduced the importance of wetland recovery and did water tests, soil tests, and cloud observations.
The students were excited about the wildlife they saw and wrote poems and drew pictures about what they experienced on that day, the blue sky, the beautiful plants, the clay they played with, the caterpillar they discovered, and so on.
During the fall field days, multiple news crews showed up to interview the farm owner, Vicki Rae Harder-Throne, and the kids.
Earth Heart Farms (EHF) comprises 80 acres in Ottawa County Ohio on the Little Portage River in the Lake Erie Basin. The land was taken out of production 30 years ago and restored to a native grassland through the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The next phase of restoration utilizes the Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and H2Ohio to protect environmentally sensitive lands.
Our current focus involves inviting teachers and their students to experience the natural environment at the farm and getting them involved in multiple learning stations housed in tents spaced throughout the habitat.
