This story is sponsored by Destination Mansfield.
For 22 years, Mohican Wildlife Weekend has been helping the community celebrate, embrace and care for the nature and wildlife that surrounds them everyday. Through numerous activities and educational opportunities, citizens can learn more about the world around them.
Louis Andres, Program Specialist and Naturalist at Pleasant Hill Lake Park, is one of the founders of the event since its fruition 22 years ago. Together with Gail Laux, Founder and Executive Director of the Ohio Bird Sanctuary, they have worked to ensure that the project explores various themes and activities throughout the years, pushing themselves to think outside the box and continue to learn themselves, as well.
Trout fishing, gold panning, guided bird tours, night sky viewing and more will all take place from Friday, April 28 – Sunday, April 30. See the full schedule of events here.
“We like to have themes that drive all of our sites to come up with new programming. So for the individuals who do come back year after year, we want to have something different on the schedule for them,” Laux said.
“It’s really great, it gets us all to think about how to offer something a little different each year,” Laux said.
This year, the theme of the weekend is “Know Your H2O.” Activities like trout fishing, stream exploration, and the Ohio Bird Sanctuary’s signature Birding Boat Tours will all be available through the weekend, along with an abundance of other things to do like archery and Osprey guided bird tours. Gorman Nature Center, also a driving force, holds their “hands on animals” event, a staple, inviting attendees to interact with some of their display animals.
Living in a part of the country near the Great Lakes, we are fortunate to have lots of fresh water and wells. Without water, there’s no life on Earth; that goes for every living creature…plants, animals, humans.
“I think sometimes people take for granted the water that we get out of our spigot that is clean and that we have an abundance of,” Andres said.
“When I was growing up in the 60s and 70s, the theme was ‘dilution is the solution to pollution,’ which means if you throw it in the water it would dilute it,” Andres said. “We know that’s not the case, especially with heavy metals and other chemicals that tend to accumulate in the food chain thus impacting the animals that feed on them causing serious health problems or death in many cases. They build up in the water, and those animals eat and those animals eat those animals and so on which builds up heavy metals and toxins.”
“That’s the reason we’re losing a lot of our wildlife, water plants and fish, so it’s important to connect back to the importance of water.”
The team is already preparing for next year, before this year’s event has even begun. Next year’s theme is “Wild Nights,” and the Ohio Bird Sanctuary will be the keynote, featuring owls and night hunters, with much of the programming happening later in the evening.
Gather your family and friends to enjoy a great weekend outdoors to explore and learn about the outdoor environment around you. To see a full list of programming, click here.
“This is a great way to educate people but it’s also a really wonderful way to promote these organizations. We couldn’t do this by ourselves,” Laux said.
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