With the holiday season winding down, the Butler County Conservation Board is reminding the public of upcoming events this winter.
Butler County Naturalist Annette Wittrock says with winter now here, the board is working to get cross country skis moved to the Heery Woods Nature Center in Clarksville in preparation for skiable snow.
“That means it’s time for us to remind you that we do rent out our cross-country skis all winter long. You can rent them for a day, a weekend, or even an entire week if you need to. We will need them all back for our cross-country ski event in February, but otherwise we have plenty of skis to go around. You can rent them for yourself, group of friends or maybe your entire family. It’s a good way to try out the sport before diving into actually purchasing all the equipment and once it snows enough our crew will be out grooming some of the trails including portions of the rolling prairie bike trail for people to ski.”
Featured on the Outdoors in North Iowa program on 104.9 KLMJ this past Friday, Wittrock added that the conservation board will be hosting a public hunter education class at the nature center in January.
“It’s a three-day series for anyone ages 12 and up that would like to get their hunter education certificate. You’ll need to register on the Iowa DNR website hunter education page before it fills up. Registered participants will need to attend all three days. And of course we want to give everyone a heads up that we’re coming closer to having our online reservations available for some of our campsites and shelters. So keep your eyes on our social media and my county parks pages to learn when that is going to be available. We’re actually looking forward to giving everyone the opportunity to book our shelters, campsites, reserved spots and programs.”
The free hunter education class will be held Tuesday, January 14th from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m., Thursday, January 16th from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. and Saturday, January 18th from 8:00 a.m. to noon. Participants must be registered to attend the hunter education class. You can register online at iowadnr.gov/hunting/hunter-education.
