SIU’s Touch of Nature offering Leave No Trace Master Educator Course in January
Tactical Navigation
by Christi Mathis
CARBONDALE, Ill. Learn how to experience the great outdoors while having a minimal impact upon it and how to teach what you learn during the Leave No Trace Master Educator course at Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Touch of Nature Environmental Center Jan. 12-16.
Comprehensive course
The immersive experience takes place at Touch of Nature, a 3,100-acre site about eight miles south of Carbondale off Giant City Road. Located along Little Grassy Lake, the experiential learning and nature facility is bordered by Giant City State Park and Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.
LES WINKELER
For The Southern
MARIONÂ â Phase one of Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refugeâs face-lift is nearing completion while the second phase is on the drawing board.
The refuge staff hopes to move into its soon-to-be completed headquarters building early in 2020. The new building was constructed on the site of the old administration building on the shores of Crab Orchard Lake, just west of the current Visitor Center, located on Route 148 south of Route 13.
Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refugeâs administrative staff has been housed in temporary quarters since 2011.
âWe hope to accept the building by the end of the calendar year and hope to move in in January,â said Justin Sexton, refuge manager. âCOVID restrictions will slow us down, but early in 2021.â