There’s a lot going on with county’s Conservation Board

On a daily basis, Chickasaw County Conservation Board Naturalist Matt Crayne may be rescuing an animal, educating students in the classroom or working on the upkeep and improvements of the 37 areas managed by the county. 

But helping families search for a pot of gold ... well, that only happens on St. Patrick’s Day.
The treasure mentioned in the event promotion has quote marks — ‘“Pot O’Gold” — so no, it’s not really gold the conservationist will be hiding at the “end of the rainbow.”
Crayne doesn’t take credit for coming up with the unique event, which is scheduled for this Wednesday [March 17] at 4:30 p.m. at the Twin Ponds Nature Center.
“To be honest I may have borrowed that from another county — naturalists tend to share ideas, no need to invent the wheel twice.”
But he’s not sure, because, the event was one he’d initially planned for a year ago on St. Patrick’s Day. Right before….. well, you know that tune by now. The event was canceled.
“I’m not worried about that this year,” he said. “By now we all have adapted better hygiene and grown accustomed to distancing.”
AFTER HIGH NUMBERS of campers at the Airport Lake in 2019 and record numbers in 2020, 11 new campsites will be added to the park northwest of New Hampton.
“We saw the need, and the supervisors agreed,” said Crayne. “There’s also an Eagle Scout project that will bring water to the rest of the campsites and we have our ‘loop’ which is the only area that can be reserved, that can hold up to six RVs or campers.”
     — For more on this story, see the March 16 Tribune