• • Lakefield Standard

On Wednesday, June 10, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., the Heron Lake Watershed District and the Prairie Ecology Bus will be searching for scientists.

Future scientists, anyway.

That’s when the HLWD and the Prairie Ecology Bus are teaming up to give individuals, families and any youth in grades three or over a tour of one of the bodies of water included in the HLWD, Boot Lake.

This year’s tour, titled “Who wants to be a Scientist,” will start at the Prairie Ecology Bus Center in Lakefield at Sparks Park.

Chrystal Dunker, who will be leading this year’s tour, said there is seating for up to 32 on the bus.

“Anyone taking part in the tour will need rubber boots,” she said. “They will be fitted for boots or they can bring their own from home.”

Every year this tour highlights one part of the HLWD, Dunker said. This year it is Boot Lake.

“Boot Lake is under the jurisdiction of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service,” Dunker said. “The ecology bus center adopted that area for cleanup. But the purpose of this tour is to take a fun look at the Boot Lake area as scientists actually look at it. We will be doing different tests there, real tests like testing the color of the water and its clarity. We will be performing pH tests of the water for both acids and bases and will be measuring the oxygen level in the water. Then we will be looking at critters that live in the water, the micro-invertebrates.”

Last year the HLWD tour was a history tour and the year before that it was a tour of the natural wetlands of the district.

The approximately two-and-a-half-hour tour will require participants to not only don rubber boots, but dress for the outdoors as well, as they will be doing what aquatic scientists do while exploring the Boot Lake wetlands from the inside out.

“We are encouraging people to sign up soon,” Dunker said. “This type of a program is not only a fun family activity to do together because it is fun to explore the outdoors, but it also gives kids a chance to utilize grownup tools and tests — do some of the same important things adults do for professions. They get a chance to sample it and say — hey, I might want to do this someday when I grow up. And learn why it is important that we watch water and make sure it is safe. If there is any kid out there that has an interest in science of any kind, this is right up their alley.”

To register, all one has to do is call the PEBC at 662-5064 or e-mail ecologybus@ecologybus.org.

The Jackson County Water Plan grant funded the tour.