Welcome to Conservation Biology at Heronwood Field Station!

KNC’s Conservation Biology class, offered in partnership with the Kalamazoo Regional Education Service Agency’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, introduces students to the exciting careers in Natural Resource Conservation and Wildlife Biology. This is a laboratory/field-based course which involves hands-on learning of ecological science, animal and plant studies (i.e. behavior, identification), job shadowing, and field trips.

Heronwood Forest Carbon Project

Conservation Biology Photo Highlights

Bird Banding

Heronwood students visit the bird banding barn in the fall to learn how the KNC tracks migrating bird populations, and they get to see bird banding in action. 

Nature’s Way Preschool

Conservation Biology students visit Nature’s Way preschool to teach the littles about stream macroinvertebrates. 

Forest Carbon Project Presentation

Students presenting their forest carbon project findings at an Earth Day event. During this project, students learn how forests can be used to mitigate climate change.  

Field Trip to Sarett Nature Center

Taking a field trip to Sarett Nature Center where we learn about endangered butterflies and wetland habitats. 

Sweep Netting

Students conducted sweep netting to collect insects, then identified the insects to calculate the biodiversity at Heronwood. 

Climate Activists

Local climate activists were visiting class to share what climate projects are currently underway.

Heronwood Envirothon Team

The Heronwood Envirothon team placed first place at the regional competition! They competed against other high school teams in a scholastic environmental studies quiz.

Removing Invasive Plants

Students remove large invasive plants from our property to make our forest healthier.

Student Work Highlights

 

tree plantingRestoring the Sugarbush

Heronwood students joined the Conservation Stewardship crew in planting trees for the restored Sugarbush at KNC.

Bee House Project

For her independent project, this student built bee hotels to help support local pollinator populations. These bee houses were built from recycled materials and donated to DeLano farms.

Glass Art Presentation

Glass art Presentation

For her independent project, Maia created glass art depictions of various types of endangered species native to Michigan, which were displayed at Glass Arts Kalamazoo.

FoodVsPlanet

This student created a website called FoodVsPlanet.com for her Independent Project. The website describes the ways that traditional agriculture is harming the planet and provides useful ways that each person can contribute to improving our agricultural impact on the planet.

Herbarium

Herbarium

Students assembled an herbarium of native Michigan flora collected from the Kalamazoo Nature Center.