Night Tree

By Coggin Heeringa, Interpretive Naturalist, Crossroads at Big Creek, Inc.

“Night Tree” is a cherished tradition at Crossroads at Big Creek. “Night Tree” also is a children’s book by Eve Bunting that tells the story of a family driving out “to where the quiet begins” to feed the wild creatures by decorating a tree in  the forest.  So our special holiday Science Saturday program on December 21 will share this  story by the fireside and then, families will hike to a secret place “where the quiet begins”in our forest to decorate a tree with bird food.  

We feed birds and wildlife at Crossroads, not so much to help the creatures, but instead, to inspire young people to develop a life-long love of nature and a desire to help the environment.

But when you think about it, the vision of our restoration efforts is “to create a landscape of healthy, diverse, and largely self-sustaining ecological communities,  providing wildlife habitat for a variety of species.” In other words, our goal is feed the wild creatures long into the future.

But inspiring children is and always has been part of the mission of Crossroads, and we just learned that we received a special gift—a Cellcom Green Gift. Earlier this year, we created an activity center to help children gain familiarity for nature through hands-on interactive play and discovery. 

Our young visitors have loved the activities, but the adult-sized tables are just a bit too tall to accommodate small people. Thanks to our Cellcom Green Gift, we will be able to purchase child-sized tables. But don’t wait till the new furniture arrives.  Harried parents and grandparents are encouraged to drop in for a nature play session  the whenever the Learning Center is open.

On Monday, December 23, we’ve scheduled a School’s Out Excursion, meaning that at 2:00 families will  hike through the Big Creek preserve, visiting  several Conifer Forests to learn how evergreens survive winter conditions. And if those winter conditions are really unpleasant, an indoor alternative will be offered. 

The trails will remain open all day, every day of the year, free of charge,  but on December 24 and 25, the Collins Learning Center will be closed.