By Nancy Griffin
The Junior Naturalist Program run by Saugeen Nature volunteers is off to another great start with
18 participants registered for the 2025/26 season.
Youth aged 7 to 12 years participate in activities designed to enhance their knowledge of our local
natural world while having fun with other kids investigating, hiking, snowshoeing, birding, playing
games and making crafts.
This group meets one Saturday morning a month (September to November and January to May)from 9:30 am to 12 noon. Locations vary from Sulphur Spring Conservation Area to Kinghurst Na-
ture Reserve to Elephant Thoughts at Riverstone Retreat.
Themes this year include forest habitat, orienteering, invasive species, snowshoeing/tracking,
winter birding, maple syrup/art of nature (depending on weather) and wetlands. We plan to finish
up the season in May with a game day featuring Frank Glew’s popular “Instincts for Survival”game, played around the world highlighting the interactions of herbivores, omnivores and carni-
vores in an ecosystem) along with a few other favourite games played throughout the year.
This year we are fortunate to have two older Junior Naturalists who expressed an interest in continuing with the group as they have entered secondary school. Their volunteer help earns them valuable volunteer hours for their secondary school requirement. Of course, we include them in on the fun and learning with the group as well. Several parents stay for the morning with the group to help and have fun too.
There is still some space available to participate in the program, if you know of anyone who might
be interested, please have them visit the Club’s website for information on how to register. We
can accommodate up to twenty-five youth in the program.
