Leader: Karen Smith 

Native plant seed saving can be a rewarding, educational, and budget-friendly way to grow resilient landscapes that thrive naturally. Utilizing native plant seeds in home landscapes supports local wildlife, restore ecosystems, conserve genetic diversity, and create gardens perfectly suited to local climates. While seed saving has been a tradition in farming for centuries, saving and spreading native plant seeds to expand pollinator habitat can help promote biodiversity through seed preservation. 

Participants in this session will review the essential elements for seed collection, cleaning, drying, storing, and germination techniques. Participants will also get some hands-on experience with seed processing and receive pollinator plant seeds collected from the Ridges property to start a home pollinator garden. Suitable for ages 12 & up.  

CENTRAL. MEET: Cook-Albert Fuller Nature Center 

Limit: 12 

Leaders: Mike Grimm, Victoria Holderer, TRS, & Ryan Nugent, TNC 

Discover Door County’s very own internationally recognized Door Peninsula Coastal Wetlands Ramsar site. Join TNC’s Conservation Ecologist, Mike Grimm and Door Peninsula Land Steward, Ryan Nugent, and Ridges Sanctuary’s Applied Research Ecologist, Victoria Holderer, to learn more about our very own regionally and globally significant wetland. Meeting at Fern Trail, along the Mink River Estuary State Natural Area, we will explore a small portion of the 11,443-acre Ramsar site, protected by organizations like The Ridges Sanctuary, The Nature Conservancy, The Door County Land Trust, the Wisconsin DNR, and Door County municipalities. Suitable for ages 16 & up.   

NORTH. MEET: Mink River Fern Trail Parking Lot 

Limit: 10 

Leader: Renata Golden & Jerod Santek, Write On, Door County 

Join us for a nature and writing hike through Write On, Door County's campus. On this hike, we will take time to observe the plants, trees, birds, and other living creatures we see, and listen for the sounds they make in the wind or in their calls. We might even stop to smell the roses. With writing prompts, we will draft short poems or flash prose pieces that we can share with the group or keep to build on in our later work. Bring a notebook, pen or pencil, drawing materials if you would like, and your sense of wonder. This field trip is suitable for adults with all levels of writing experience. Suitable for ages 16 & up.  

CENTRAL. MEET: Write On, Door County 

Limit: 12 

Leaders: Dr. Keir Wefferling & Tony Klingert, UWGB 

Whether you're new to the mosses and liverworts or you've been a bryologist for ages, come and see the incredible diversity of mosses and liverworts in the peatlands of The Ridges Sanctuary. These peatlands are home to about 100 known bryophyte species, and survey efforts in recent years have helped illuminate these often-overlooked plants. Get ready to learn field-identifiable mosses (and some tricky ones, too!) with bryologists Keir Wefferling and Tony Klingert. Suitable for all ages.     

CENTRAL. MEET: Cook-Albert Fuller Nature Center  

Limit: 15 

Leader: Deneen Wiske 

In this guided hike, we’ll explore the communication environment of the Lake Michigan ecotone—the transition zone where forest, shoreline, and water meet. We’ll observe how the ecosystem listens and communicates, and what that reveals about life at the edge of change. Together, we’ll practice attentive listening—to nature and to each other—and consider how nature is a model for human skills that are needed in places and times of convergence and transition. *Park vehicle admission stickers or passes are required for this field trip. Suitable for ages 16 & up.  

CENTRAL. MEET: Baileys Harbor Town Hall, carpooling required to Toft Point Trailhead. 

Limit: 12 

Leader: Kathleen Marie Garness 

After a quick introduction to botanical drawing techniques, using simple art supplies, participants will examine and draw some of the many plants known from the Ridges Sanctuary. The workshop will review botanical vocabulary and offer a deeper understanding of plant families and their characteristic traits. Suitable for ages 12 & up.  

CENTRAL. MEET: Cabins at The Ridges Sanctuary  

Limit: 12 

Leader: Mary Moskoff 

Historians have discovered some of the first labyrinths in North America were built by Swedish immigrants that arrived along the shores of Lake Michigan. The paths of stone served as a practice of meditative walking as well as trapping trolls to protect their fishing hauls. The field trip starts with the film: A Legacy of Door County Labyrinths followed by a trip to a local outdoor labyrinth. Dress for weather and bring a journal. Suitable for all ages.   

CENTRAL. MEET: Cabins at The Ridges Sanctuary 

Limit: 10 

Leader: Sam Hoffman, TRS

Owned by The Ridges, the 175 acres at the north end of Clark Lake are comprised of various habitats. Paddle along with Ridges Land Manager Sam Hoffman and enjoy all of it from the water! We will begin at Clark Lake and take a leisurely trip into Logan Creek where we will experience a diverse community f illed with many birds, shorelines full of spring flowers, and numerous aquatic plants. Glide through the pond lilies and part the bulrushes as we talk about the cultural and natural history of this beautiful inland lake fed by Logan Creek. This is an easy paddle. Bring binoculars and your own canoe/kayak, paddles, and PFDs. The length of the trip may vary based on wind conditions. Suitable for ages 16 & up.

SOUTH. Meet: Clark Lake Boat Launch, Jacksonport

Limit: 10 Kayaks