Wildllife Expo 2011 Underway

Karla Beatty, OCC education coordinator (right), explains about the living things needed to make healthy soil.

Rogers County Conservation District and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission’s Conservation Education Program are hosting the Wildlife Beneath Your Feet exhibit area at the Wildlife Expo, Sept. 23-25. More than 40 volunteers representing local conservation districts, the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, the Oklahoma Environmental Education Coordinating Committee, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Oklahoma Project WET and OSU Department of Education are staffing the exhibits.

With the help of these volunteers, one corner of the Lazy-E Arena is transformed into an underground classroom where visitors discover critters that help make healthy soil. Visitors enter the exhibit area through an earthworm burrow filled with plant roots, explore a soil profile display describing lots of critters that live in the soil and unearth some of the soil critters at work in compost containers. Visitors to the exhibit area also get the chance to create artwork with paint made from Oklahoma soils, colored pictures of soil critters and investigate skins, skulls and tracks of animals living in and on the soil.

The Oklahoma Wildlife Expo is the state’s largest indoor and outdoor recreation event. Presented by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and a coalition of conservation organizations, agencies and sponsors, the Expo celebrates our great state’s natural diversity and opportunities for the sporting enthusiast. From camping and outdoor skills to shooting sports and fishing, from bird watching to kayaking, Expo visitors have an opportunity to try their hands at three days of fun in the outdoors. The exhibit area sponsored by the Rogers County Conservation District and the Commission’s Conservation Education Program is designed with children and families in mind and provides activities that introduce visitors to wildlife, nature and the outdoors.