The historic Nippersink Creek in McHenry County is a little bit cleaner this summer, thanks to the efforts of teenagers who paddled canoes along it for six hours through fields and forest, picking up debris.
These young people are charter members of the McHenry County Conservation Club for Teens. Founded in February, its members have already taken a night hike, explored a marsh, camped overnight and cleaned up the creek.
The club is the brainchild of Kim Caldwell, education outreach coordinator for the 27-year-old McHenry County Conservation District. She noticed that although there were plenty of activities, such as field trips, garden clubs and scouting activities for children and adults, teenagers had been overlooked.
“When we tried to start programs for teenagers, they didn’t seem interested,” Caldwell says. “Now we’re trying a club approach with ongoing activities for the same group of kids. They’re developing great friendships.”
The program, which is free, is designed for young adults who like the outdoors, care about the environment and want to make a difference, and it seems to be catching on. There were seven kids at the first meeting, and the club now boasts 17 members.
“We’re pleased with the response to the club,” says Rich Adams, education services manager with the McHenry County Conservation District. “It’s encouraging to see teenagers interested in the natural world, particularly since to some it’s an unknown entity.”
Fourteen-year-old Shelly Ruzicka of Wonder Lake was already familiar with the district programs because her family has been involved through the years. Shelly had outgrown the programs designed for young children but still wanted to participate and do things such as camp with kids her age rather than with her family.
“Kim called my mom to tell her about the new club, and after I went to the first meeting, I thought it would be fun,” Shelly says. “But I was the only girl, so I got my friend Stephanie Friendlund (14, of Wonder Lake) to come with me. We have a lot of fun, and we do some good without really realizing it.”
The young people couldn’t be more enthusiastic, judging by their experience on the June canoe trip. At least they were at the beginning; by trip’s end, even these overenergized teenagers were pooped.
The purpose of the canoe outing was to pick up trash in the creek. But the group of nine did much more. They even renamed the creek the “Neversink” — though their canoes got pretty close to reaching the bottom.
The kids did fulfill their goals, says Caldwell, because they did some good, learned one or two things and had a great time doing so.
“When we create a fun atmosphere, the kids are more willing to learn, and even in the case of the canoe trip, to pick up some trash along the way,” she says.
With some basic instruction from Kim and another staffer, Jen Punzel, the Nippersink Nine put off from Pioneer Landing near Harts Road on a dazzling morning. They looked like experts, paddling along in their life vests in shiny new canoes just purchased by the district.
They canoed to their halfway point, the Lyle C. Thomas Memorial Park under the bridge at Bliven Street near Spring Grove, where they stopped for lunch. There, they unloaded their booty of trash: several tires, fencing, cans and bottles.
They’d brought sandwiches to eat at creekside, and they settled down to decide on the next activity for their monthly meetings.
Caldwell asked for suggestions, reminding the kids that their mission, as volunteers for the district, was “preservation, conservation and recreation.” Focusing on the latter, Lucas Sawisch, 14, of Johnsburg suggested they go biking on a trail that leads to a McDonald’s restaurant; the girls thought a bike trip to the mall would be an even better idea.
Caldwell suggested some other ideas, such as planting prairie plants, visiting a working farm, touring a Lake in the Hills fen, and collecting seeds. Meanwhile, Ryan Becker, 14, of Crystal Lake was obsessing about turtles–he wanted to do anything that involved turtles, fish or snakes. Caldwell thought she might be able to accommodate his wishes with a trip to the State Hatchery in Spring Grove. There was some vague interest in astronomy, and just about everyone wanted to go camping again.
On their first overnight on the Hickory Grove River in May, Caldwell taught them how to camp responsibly, gave them safety instruction, had a fire-building contest and taught map and compass reading. There were some humorous moments: During a compass scavenger hunt, the reflective discs they were looking for got stolen, they think, by raccoons.
The night hike in Glacial Park was “pretty fun” too, according to Lucas. “We tried calling owls, and we heard coyotes–they sound like wolves.”
The group finally decided that they would go for a bicycle ride on the Conservation District’s Prairie Trail in September.
After their luncheon meeting, the group set off for more trash collecting on the way to the Nippersink Canoe Base on the north side of U.S. Highway 12.
As the creek became faster, it became obvious that not all of them had listened or comprehended the basics of steering a canoe. It was Ryan and Caleb Brown, 14, of McHenry who overcame the greatest obstacles. They were headed for a big tree in the creek, but when they leaned to the side to protect their heads, the canoe swamped. So they did the logical thing: Both grabbed branches and hung on above the water while their canoe and paddles drifted away.
Responding to their SOS were 16-year-olds Mary Sullivan of Crystal Lake and Rachel Sierminski of McHenry. They waded in the murky, shallow water to catch the drifting canoe.
At the next turn, Lucas got his most important lesson of the day: “I learned that cows cross water,” which a herd did as the group followed the creek through a sunny pasture.
Lucas says he thought “it was pretty cool picking things out of the Nippersink–it looks better. It’s important to do conservation stuff. You can keep things for future generations.”
One of the goals of the McHenry Conservation District is to preserve lands that might otherwise be bought for residential and commercial development. Shelly Ruzicka is happy about that. “While there’s so much building around here, we know that this will be safe,” she says.
It seemed, from talking to the teens, that one of the best things about the program is Kim Caldwell. “Kim’s awesome,” Lucas says. “She set up this whole conservation thing. She does a lot of cool things. We can do things that aren’t open to the public, like we’re special.”
Adams says: “Kim brings enthusiasm to helping people solve the mysteries of the natural world. She acts as an interpreter, introducing the kids to something foreign.”
Upcoming events for the club include trail work and brush cutting, wildlife and adventure movies, building a bat house and cross-country skiing.
“The club fits perfectly into the mission of the district,” Adams says. “It’s one more piece to complete our puzzle.”
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Meetings of the teen club are held at Wiedrich Education Center in Glacial Park, 6512 Harts Rd., Ringwood. For more information, call Caldwell at 815-678-2219.
