Image credit: Belle Isle Conservancy
Beginning this week, the Belle Isle Nature Center will offer outdoor preregistered programming for people of all ages.
The new offerings at the Belle Isle’s Nature Center include a variety of options like the Nature Tots program, guided mindfulness, full moon hikes and an outdoor macrophotography exhibition featuring local pollinators.
Amy Greene is the Director of the Nature Center. She says while the Nature Center building will remain off-limits, new outdoor preregistered programming marks an important return to engaging with park visitors after more than a year of pandemic closures.
Amy Greene
Amy Greene of the Belle Isle Nature Center
Posted: Apr 29, 2021 6:13 AM CT | Last Updated: April 29
Married couple Lawrence and Shirley Fay, aged 99 and 94, respectively, live at an assisted living facility in Saskatoon where visitors are restricted and residents have not yet received their second doses of COVID-19 vaccine. (Debi Walper)
Amanda Murray is an Aquarist at the
Belle Isle Conservancy who knows a thing or two about some of the most prolific invasive species swimming around Metro Detroit waterways.
Robert Hall
Amanda Murray
Murray says one of the most well known invasive species is the round goby. She says this small fish is about 3-6 inches in length and is native to Eurasia, where you’ll find them in the Black Sea. “They have little fins… you’ll see them along the bottom kind of jumping along… they look kind of similar to sculpin, which are native fish,” explains Murray. She notes that what makes gobies able to out-compete Michigan’s native fish is their “really good sensory system… that allows them to see in complete darkness,” says Murray, noting that ”this gives them a huge advantage to other fish” in similar habitats.