Ohio Lead Program – Class
XI
Study Institute #2
Thursday, November 3, 2005 Day 3
Scribe: Amanda Moore
Day Three started bright and early with everyone leaving the
hotel a little bit after 7 am to travel to the Magee Marsh.
Jan Rybka was chair of the day.
Liz Bostdorff was able to join us at the Magee Marsh. Dave
Harlan, a wildlife specialist from the Ottawa SWCD, greeted
us and turned the program over to Mary Warren, a naturalist
and manager of the bird center at the Magee Marsh. She
talked to us a little bit about the migratory stops, the
history of the marsh, how they are funded (by the sale of
hunting and fishing licenses), and how the marsh is one of
the top 10 bird watching areas. Mid-April to Mid-May is the
peak bird watching time and over 300 species have been
recorded around the marsh. After looking around the Bird
Center, the group walked to a tower to look for some birds.
The group then drove over to the Ottawa Wildlife Refuge.
Doug Brewer with the Division of Fish and Wildlife discussed
the plans for our time. Some members of the Wood County SWCD
and the Ottawa County SWCD were present, these including Jim
Carter, Tracy Hammond, Mike Liddman, and Ryan Bergman (sorry
I cant decipher my own handwriting for those who may have
been there and I didn’t list ). The group went on a hayride
through the refuge, discussing a wide variety of topics
including deer populations, soil types, common terns,
invasive species, Lake Erie, cormorants, Metzger Marsh,
barrier beaches, and bald eagles. When we returned, we were
served a chicken lunch and impromptu speeches were given by
Liz and Amna. Liz spoke about cormorants and their purpose/
problem with the environment and Amna's speech regarded
water level control.
The third stop of the day was Manders’ Dairy in Wd County,
outside of Bowling Green. Han Manders met the group. He and
his brother Walter stared the 600 cow dairy. They milk 3x a
day, with the average herd age being 4 1/2 years. They use a
double 16 herringbone parlor. The milk tank holds 6000
gallons of milk.
The American Municipal Power-Ohio Green Mountain Energy Wind
Farm was our next stop. Jerome Monacco explained the wind
turbines to us. There are 4 units on the farm. Each unit is
1.2 megawatts. This is the largest operation east of the
Mississippi River. The wind was 20-22 mph producing 1200
kilowatts of power. The most important lesson is DON'T PRESS
THE RED BUTTON!!!
Our final stop was the Bowling Green Community Center where
we filled out our personal evaluations. The group then split
into smaller groups of 2 extroverts and 2 introverts to fill
out the group evaluations. The group evaluations were
discussed and everyone was free to drive home. Hope everyone
had lots of fun and I look forward to seeing all of you
soon.
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