We here at the St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve had the opportunity to host a summer camp this past Wednesday! This art camp for students in elementary school visited the Buffer to work on creating masterpieces that combined nature with printmaking and sketching.  Students first arrived early in the morning and began a drawing assignment that was meant to get them thinking about all the things they might see at the Buffer Preserve. Artistic interpretations and expectations ranged from trees to bears to buried treasure!

We then went on a tram tour just for this group of students and decided that we would put our theories to the test and see what we could find. We started out on Treasure Road but unfortunately didn’t find any gold coins, but we 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! We then got out of the heat for a little bit and took a break for lunch.

After a nice meal and a little time to cool off, we set back out on a nature hike to see what else we could find. We collected all sorts of specimens to practice sketching and making prints. We then 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!