WEST ALTON - The Audubon Center at Riverlands is sharing how to watch out for wildlife and get involved in conservation efforts this summer.
“Everybody can do something. The Center is a great place to start because we will throw as many resources at you as you want,” Ashley Lockwood, an educator at the Center, said.
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In the Alton area, many people have expressed concerns about turtles on the roadways. Lockwood acknowledges that some destruction is hard to avoid, but she encourages people to be vigilant and, if it’s safe to do so, move the animals off the road.
“It’s just a part of wildlife and humans living together. There’s always going to be some give and take,” Lockwood said. “But luckily, there are a lot of organizations in this area. There’s a lot of citizen groups that are really committed to doing as much as we possibly can to minimize that.”
This includes the Center itself, which specializes in birds but works with all wildlife in the Mississippi River area. The Center partners with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a government organization that completes public engineering projects. The two organizations work together to pinpoint environmental shifts and locate species that need help.
“[The partnership] very unique, but it allows us to do more together than we could apart. We’re able to help a lot more species that are endangered in this area,” Lockwood said. “We have a lot of partners in the area, so we can fill in a lot of gaps that we would normally have.”
For example, Lockwood explained that the Mississippi River has lost much of the sandy soil it used to have on its banks. This makes it difficult for softshell turtles to reproduce, which contributes to the dwindling turtle population. Through the Army Corps of Engineers partnership, the Center has created sand habitats to help these endangered animals.
Other collaborations have helped a wide variety of native species. The Army Corps of Engineers began restoration of 1,200 acres of prairie marsh at the Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary in 1988. While this effort is still ongoing, Lockwood said that the restored prairie grassland and bottomland forests in West Alton resemble how the land would have looked over 200 years ago.
This has had a positive impact on most of the species in the area. The Riverlands Migratory Bird Sanctuary is a stopover site for 326 species of migratory birds alone, but all native species can benefit from this restored land.
“We get over 30 different species of all these butterflies and moths and beetles, and so it’s kind of one of those iconic summer scenes. There’s purple flowers and yellow butterflies, and it just looks beautiful out here because of that,” Lockwood said of the prairie restoration.
Lockwood is currently overseeing ten North County High School interns, who will be trained to become camp counselors. The Center offers regular programs for K-12 students, homeschool groups and senior living communities, among others. You can read about their educational programs here.
To get involved with the Center’s conservation efforts, Lockwood encourages people to attend their events, such as the upcoming Ahh-dubon event where people can watch the Alton fireworks and see the Center in action. You can also visit The Audubon Center at Riverlands website for more information about volunteering.
But mostly, she tells people that educating themselves and voting are the best ways to help the environment.
“Just being part of the conversation, and especially voting, is something we advocate quite a bit because that’s probably going to make the biggest impact. The power really is in the hands of the people at this point in history,” Lockwood said. “The more people know, the more of an impact we can make.”
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