Adventure Naturalists
Ages 9–12
For older children ready for deeper exploration, Adventure Naturalists offers hands-on, inquiry-based experiences that encourage real scientific thinking and a stronger connection to the land. These two-hour sessions challenge participants to ask big questions, collect data, and understand how northern Michigan’s ecosystems work.
Sessions run on Mondays in the Petoskey/Harbor Springs area.
- Time: 10 am – 12 pm
- Participant number is limited to 15 people
Tree Week at Goodhart Farms — June 29
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Location: Goodhart Farms Nature Preserve
7251 Robinson Road, Harbor Springs, MI 49740
What does a healthy forest actually look like, and how do you know? This week, Adventure Naturalists head into the field to take a close look at the trees around us, from the shape of the canopy to what’s happening at the forest floor. We’ll wrestle with real questions about how forests change over time and what that means for the land we’re working to protect.
Wear sturdy shoes and come ready to get your hands dirty.
Water Week at Susan Creek — July 6
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Location: Susan Creek Nature Preserve
10570 US-31 North, Charlevoix, MI 49720
Water connects everything in Northern Michigan, from the hilltops to the bay. This week, Adventure Naturalists use real scientific tools to investigate water quality and begin to understand how decisions made on land show up downstream. It’s detective work with real stakes, and the questions don’t have easy answers.
Wear shoes you’re comfortable getting wet and dress for working at the water’s edge.
Bird Week at Thorne Swift — July 13
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Location: Thorne Swift Nature Preserve
6696 Lower Shore Drive, Harbor Springs, MI 49740
Birds are one of the best windows we have into the health of an ecosystem, and their populations have been telling us something important. This week, Adventure Naturalists learn and practice the same survey methods used by professional ornithologists, then use their own data to ask bigger questions about habitat and what it means to really pay attention to the natural world.
Dress for moving through varied terrain and be ready to stand very still when it counts.
Bug Week at Susan Creek — July 20
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Location: Susan Creek Nature Preserve
10570 US-31 North, Charlevoix, MI 49720
Bugs are often overlooked, but they hold ecosystems together and their numbers are changing in ways that matter. This week, Adventure Naturalists conduct a real invertebrate survey and learn to measure biodiversity across different habitats. The data you collect this week is exactly the kind that tells a real conservation story.
Wear long pants for working in tall grass and dress for a morning in the field.
Berry + Seed Week at Waldron Fen — July 27
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Location: Waldron Fen Nature Preserve
9417 Banwell Road, Alanson, MI 49706
Midsummer is when the landscape is quietly planning ahead, setting seed, ripening fruit, and preparing for what comes next. This week, Adventure Naturalists explore how plant reproduction and dispersal shape forest succession and what happens when invasive plants hijack those same systems. We’ll connect seed biology to real restoration questions facing Northern Michigan.
Wear clothes you don’t mind getting snagged by a few hitchhiker seeds.
Soil + Fungi Week at McCune — August 4
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Location: Allan and Virginia McCune Nature Preserve
1790 Maxwell Road, Petoskey, MI 49770
Most of what makes a forest work happens out of sight. This week, Adventure Naturalists dig into the question of where things go when they die, running a real decomposition investigation across different forest sites and building a picture of the soil food web from the ground up. The organisms doing this work are stranger and more consequential than anything living in the canopy above them.
Come dressed for digging and ready to spend two hours getting your hands in the soil.