SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good afternoon, Bluffs Country. I'm Peggy Sweet and this is Belonging in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation. I'm joined in studio with one of my favorite people here in the county. I've got Jeff Franco. He is the executive director of Pottawatomy Conservation. Welcome, Jeff.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hi, Peggy. That was awfully nice of you. That's fantastic to hear.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Well, you always bring me a great joke or you always laugh at my bad joke, whichever. So you know we have a good time. We do. And I always look forward to you coming because you're telling me what's going on in the county. And like last month we had a baby bison.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

That's right. Where was it again?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

It was a baby bison born at Botna Bend, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:34

That's right. Right. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Yeah, and that was pretty special.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yep, it was.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

So I'm waiting to hear what you have this month. So take it away.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Excellent. Well, so we are into May, and if anybody pays attention to the natural world, even remotely, you'll know that May is a time for when our birds begin to return, some of our songbirds. So we've got some incredible songbirds in our area, but really this week is kind of a peak migration week. Oh so people can be paying attention to those birds out there. And this month is a great month for that as well. And kind of in honor of that, timing-wise, we've got a couple of birding programs that are taking place at Hitchcock Nature Center. I won't go into the details on those because we've got three or four of those, but you can go to potconservation.com, learn all about that we're offering. And if you are interested in what's happening in the natural world when it comes to birds, bird identification, getting to know how they operate, things like that, these programs are going to be perfect for you. They're for beginners, they're for people with advanced skills, all of it. Great instructors, great content.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Awesome. Yeah. And that we find the information on your website.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yep, popconservation.com.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Okay. What else do you have?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

So I love the birds. The other thing that we want to make people aware of as we get into spring, people get outside, and we've had a couple mild winters in a row. And ticks are becoming a thing. And they have been in years past, but this year in particular, even the CDC put out a notice about an increase in Lyme disease. And we don't want people to be afraid to go outside. Right. But we want to educate people. So we've got an excellent blog post out there. You can find it on our social media, uh, Hitchcock Nature Center site, any of our parks, uh Facebook sites, or the blog post. You can go learn about ticks, you can learn about what to do to protect yourself and get out there and still enjoy the outdoors. We don't want people to be afraid of it, but we certainly want people to be educated. If you're educated, you take the proper precautions, you're going to be just fine.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

And so that's what we want people to do. So that's one of the things we've got going on right now. Trying to an awareness campaign a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

It's a good time to do it. I've already seen a couple of them, believe it or not.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Been in the house.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

You're starting to hear people talk about it quite a bit.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Well, all you have to do, even just walking across the parking lot, it doesn't matter. They are relentless, they'll be on the pavement too. So you just need to get educated. Yep, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

We're kind of in an up cycle right now, so there's a lot of them at this point.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

All right. Next on the list, I just want to put out a reminder we talked about this last month, but that a fundraiser for the tow rope at Crescent Hill, the tow rope trot. If anybody's interested in doing that 5K or just the nature walk, there's a walking option as well out there. You can go sign up, go to our website, potconservation.com, and you can sign up for that again. So it's again something to just enhance what's happening at the Ski Hill there. Get that uh get the tow rope for people. Uh, I think it'd be a great addition if we can get that done.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah. Do you think if you raise the funds and get it going that it'd be ready this next season?

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Well, it depends on our funds. I think if we've got all the funds in place, I think we could do that. I think it's a tall order unless we get a fantastic response from people. So please go out there and uh volunteer for that, guys. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

And we don't have to run, we can walk it, can't we?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

You can certainly walk it. Absolutely. I'm not right. All for a good cause, though.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah, we definitely I'll walk it.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

All right. Anything else going on?

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Last thing I will say is that we just finished up the month of April, and April is kind of volunteer appreciation month. Okay, yeah. And we had a fantastic month of volunteer activities. One-off activities, people that are regularly uh volunteering with us. And so just a shout out to all of our volunteers, Potawatomi Conservation's volunteers, everybody who supports us. Uh, it would not be possible. We would not be able to do everything that we're doing without you guys. So thank you very much. And if anybody's interested in volunteering for us, you can go to our website, potconservation.com, or you can call uh Hitchcock Nature Center's Less Hills Lodge, and you can talk to Dana, our volunteer and facilities coordinator. Dana is awesome. He finds something for everybody who's interested, keeps people engaged, keeps people active, uh, and really supporting our mission. So a thank you to everybody and an awareness. If you want to volunteer for Potawatomi Conservation, we'd be happy to have you.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

You know, it's the best of both worlds. You get to be outside and enjoy the sunshine while helping conservation.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Absolutely, absolutely. You get to do do what you love. This is a great way to do what you love out there.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Well, you know, one of the things that I love to do is our uh traditional joke, dad joke.

SPEAKER_01 5:12

It I think we both love the traditional dad joke.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

And I know this time it's mine.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

It is yours. The joke is on you this month.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yes, it is. All right. And in the spirit of Cinco de Mayo.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Ah very good.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Why did the tortilla chip start dancing?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

I'm gonna say it has something to do with salsa, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

You are right because it heard the salsa.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

There you go. All right. Very good. Awesome. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Jeff, thank you so much for stopping by.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Thank you, Peggy.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

I will see you next month.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Sounds like a plan.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

This has been Belongin' in the Bluffs, brought to you by the Iowa West Foundation.