The first Eagal Lakes Nature Academy kicked off with 96 kids from the Tracy Learning Center.  They started at one of our favorite locations on the property, Papa’s Pleasure and learned about the Native American Miwoks.  Daveen Williams and Mildred Burley, who is one of the last fluent Miwok speakers in California, are from a Federally Recognized Tribe, the California Valley Miwoks.   Mildred, known as Jo, demonstrated her basket weaving and doll making techniques. The students learned to how to make baskets from pine needles and sinu and got to try on the tribal wear that the Native Miwoks wear to ceremonies. The students learned about the indigenous plants and life along the rivers that the Natives used for medicinal purposes, food and shelter.  Jo and Daveen explained to the students how the natives have gathered and used the cotton from theCottonwood trees to line the infant’s diapers.  They played a flute made from Tule and learned about the ceremonial round house.

The students then were given a map with nature trails through the riparian habitat.  They mapped out where certain species lived and plant life along the way.  Trail markers explained the habitat that lived there and the plant life that they fed upon.  The students observed a bee hive high up in a hollowed out tree, frogs and pond turtles in the wetland area and many bird life such as quail, bitterns, egrets, blue heron, hawks and many more.  To top it all off, students saw dragon flies and butterflies galore in the butterfly meadow.   Along the trails, they saw many different tracking’s left from various animal life in the habitat.  They kept a journal of the track marks they found along the way and identified them from their tracking guide. 

Upon completion of the trail walk, the students gathered at the Tuscan Patio along the river’s edge for lunch.  After lunch they gathered up small pebbles, sticks, sand and leaves topped off with water and created sediment sticks to demonstrate the erosion and sediment settling in the rivers bottom.  This project will be returned to school and studied as a follow up to the field trip along with tracking dittos and a quick tracking “quiz”.

Read the article that the Stockton Record wrote about the first Nature Academy field trip here.

Head over to our environment page to view more pictures of the wildlife at Eagal Lakes.