My adventures at Severson are coming to a close, and I will only have fond memories looking back at this place and all the great people I was able to spend my days with. Through the Americorps program I was able to educate the community on all things natural and having the opportunity to teach kids directly about all kinds of wonders the world has to offer. I cannot tell you the happiness I feel when I tell a kid a fun fact about the world and seeing their face light up with joy. The whole world is new to them and I was given the opportunity to teach about everything and anything I can. I plan to take all of what I learned from this job and apply it to everything I do in the future no matter what my future has in store for me.
FIELD NOTES BLOG
Alex's Farewell
Alex Lunde
September 18, 2024
.Teaching other people wasn’t the only opportunity I got to do at Severson. Some of the best things about working at Severson Dells Nature Center is the opportunity to experience and learn new things for myself. Our little community fosters the ability to continue to learn and grow from each other. I learned about so many specific fields and expanded my knowledge because of it. Even though everyone at Severson knew the Americorps positions are a temporary internship they still put so much effort into improving what I know and introducing things I don’t know. All because of the compassion they hold for me and the scientific world at large. They showed me not just through their words but through their actions, the importance of teaching anyone who wants to learn.
Closing this out I just want to say thank you to all my wonderful friends at Severson Dells. Every single one of them put so much effort into making the best environment for learning (for guests and Americorps like me). No matter where I go in the future I will remember them all fondly.
Thank you Andrea, Liz, Ann, Laura, Becca, Bryce, Emma, Elly, Jillian, Asia, Connie, Mary, Alex, Holly and Mason. Each and everyone of you made Severson the wonderful place that it is. Keep being amazing!
I want to close out this final blog with a quote from Thomas Fuller “If thou hast knowledge, let others light their candle at thine.”
Knowledge is like a candle, lighting another candle doesn’t diminish the first one but spreads the heat and light to reach farther. Everyone at Severson had their own candles of knowledge that they happily shared with me out of kindness and I appreciate them all greatly for it. Thank you to everyone at Severson for sharing your knowledge with me. I hope to light up every future place I go to with my own candle.
Thanks you all truly from the bottom of my heart, I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful group of people to spend my time with!
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If you haven’t yet seen the news, there are some very significant pending policy shifts regarding the protection of wetlands in Illinois and across the United States. These are changes we must understand together, because they affect the limited fragile wetlands that remain in Illinois. The Federal Shift: Narrowing the Scope of the Clean Water Act At the federal level, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a new rule that would dramatically restrict what counts as a federally-protected “wetland” under the Clean Water Act. Here are some of the key elements: The new definition of “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) would confine protections to relatively permanent bodies of water (rivers, lakes, oceans) and those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to such waters. ( Federal Register ) Seasonal, intermittent, or groundwater-flow-connected wetlands would be excluded from federal oversight. ( Restore America's Estuaries ) The change builds on a 2023 Sackett v. EPA Supreme Court decision, which held that only wetlands with a continuous surface connection to navigable waters are covered. ( Natural Resources Defense Council ) Environmental groups warn that the change could strip federal protections from tens of millions of acres of wetlands nationwide , including many in the Midwest and Great Lakes region. ( WWNO ) 
