Students immersed in conservation education at Lake Ludwig

CLARKSVILLE — More than 150 seventh-grade students at Clarksville Middle School got their feet wet in the wonders of the outdoors last week, thanks to some resourceful planning and a fun-filled day soaking up the sun and conservation knowledge at Lake Ludwig in Johnson County.

Misty Hardgrave teaches music for fourth through seventh grade at Clarksville Intermediate and Middle schools. She’s worked with students for 27 years and is a member of this year’s Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Teacher Leader Council. She explained that she signed up for the AGFC’s education programs to learn new ways to incorporate time outside for her students and bring those ideas back to other teachers at her school.

“Once kids leave elementary school, most of the field trips and outside time stop,” Hardgrave said. “They have so much pressure placed on them at the same time; it can create so much anxiety. Getting outside and away from a formal classroom helps take that anxiety away.”

When Hardgrave heard about the opportunity to flood her students’ day with healthy outdoor education, she couldn’t pass it up.

“Kendra Ingle at the nature center called me about the idea to bring the kids out to the lake for a field experience,” Hardgrave said. “It didn’t take a lot of selling before I was all in.”

That “nature center” is the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center at Fort Smith, where Ingle has worked as an education specialist for 17 years. The idea for the Lake Ludwig field day had actually been on Ingle’s mind for a while. She had previously pitched the idea to administrators at a few schools, but was never able to bring it to fruition. She needed someone to lead the charge at the school level, and Hardgrave was the right woman for the job.

“I’m from Ozark, and I’ve enjoyed going to Lake Ludwig just about all my life,” Ingle said. “Over the last few summers, I’ve been able to do a few kids’ kayak classes there, but last year I showed the lake to Kiley Greenwood, another education program specialist at the center, and with all the recent enhancements the city of Clarksville has added to the lake, we both decided to push the idea one more time. There aren’t too many lakes in our area that have facilities for fishing, hiking and swimming all within close proximity to each other. When I saw Misty’s name on the list of teachers to work with in my area, everything just clicked.”

Each group of students spent time fishing, participated in archery, collected and studied aquatic invertebrates to learn about Lake Ludwig’s water quality, and enjoyed a nature hike with a discussion on how prescribed fire works to remove invasive species and keep wildlife populations healthy.

“All of the activities were picked from a handful of programs that are always hits at the nature center,” Ingle said. “And we had a lot of help from AGFC staff who work in north Arkansas, as well as other AGFC education staff who drove up from central Arkansas to help. It was a team effort, and we had just about every division of the AGFC represented. A lot of them brought the equipment they use every day in their jobs, so the students got a real chance to see what conservation looks like on the ground at a local level.”

Ingle and Hardgrave said the day was full of surprises, including how eager some of the students were to dive into the programs.

“Macroinvertebrates are always fun because students get to scoop up all the bugs that live in the rocks underwater, but these students didn’t even worry about putting on waders, some just waded right into the water in their shorts to get in on the fun,” Ingle said. “Then they all came back and learned how the different species of insects give biologists an idea of how clean the water is. We’re happy to say Lake Ludwig is a healthy lake with good water quality.”

Ingle said many of the girls at the lake also were surprised to see how the AGFC’s Prescribed Fire Program coordinator was a woman.

“Emily Roberts led them on a hike and explained how fire is used on the landscape and how she and other land managers use it to remove invasive species and pave the way for native grasses and plants,” Ingle said. “Seeing a woman leading a program like that really inspired some of the girls to think about their future careers and how the world is opening up for them. Destin Smith, nature center educator with a background in prescribed fire, led some of the other students in a similar program.”

After the education sessions, the students enjoyed a lunch by the lake and loaded up on the buses to get back to school.

Hardgrave said the experience did much more than relieve anxiety; it showed some of the students things they’d never had the opportunity to try.

“Being in rural Arkansas, you sort of take for granted that just about every child has fished or at least knows about it,” Hardgrave said. “But I was pretty surprised at the number of kids we had who had never really held a fishing rod. It was also great to see some of the more experienced students work with others to help them learn, too.”

As the kids loaded back onto the buses and headed back to school, many took the time to thank their teachers for a day of stress-free learning.

“Some of the students were even asking for the photos of them with their fish to show their parents when they got home,” Hardgrave said. “Now all the sixth-graders are asking when they get their trip.”

Ingle and Lake Ludwig will be ready and waiting.

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CUTLINES:

WADING
Clarksville Middle School students jumped right into their conservation education day at Lake Ludwig last week. AGFC photo. 

LITTLE WOMEN IN WADERS
Students collected aquatic invertebrates from the lake bottom to learn about Lake Ludwig’s water quality. AGFC photo. 

WHAT’S THAT BUG?
AGFC Educator Bradley Savage helped students identify the insects and other invertebrates collected and classify them according to their water quality tolerance. AGFC photo. 

FIRE TALK
AGFC Prescribed Fire Program Coordinator Emily Roberts led students on a nature hike and taught them how fire is used to manage forests and grasslands to benefit wildlife. AGFC photo. 

FIRST FISH
Many students learned to fish for the first time during their day at the lake, and a few even caught their first fish. AGFC photo.