"Sketching Iowa's Heritage: How to draw children back into nature"

Winter Solstice 2011
January 21-23 (Friday-Sunday) - Honey Creek Resort, Moravia


"Sketching Iowa's heritage: How to draw children back into nature" is the theme of the 2011 Winter Solstice annual environmental education workshop, with keynotes by Kris Howes-Vonstein and Jennifer Hancock of the Vinton Shellsburg Schools' Green Team.

Other presentations include the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre of West Liberty and an Iowa Wetlands pre-workshop. The conference is sponsored by the Iowa Conservation Education Coalition and partners, including INHF. Find out more or register.

New Year’s at Honey Creek Resort

NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER AT RATHBUN LAKESHORE GRILLE

from 5pm to 10pm

Enjoy all your favorites or Build Your Own Pasta Station. Select your favorite ingredients and our Chef will create it! Choose from 4 types of pastas, sauces and meats and a wide assortment of vegetables. Pasta dinners are served with choice of house salad, Caesar salad and garlic bread.

Adults $16.99/ with Champagne toast $18.99
Children 5-12 $7.99

NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION
Live music by Small Town Superheroes 9pm to 1am
Doors open at 8:30pm
Tickets at the door are $10. Open to the public.
Party favors and Champagne toast at midnight

NEW YEAR’S DAY BREAKFAST BUFFET
12:00am TO 2:30am

Southern biscuits & gravy, fruit, sausage & bacon, breakfast potatoes, mini muffins and pastries. Includes omelet and waffle station.
Adults $9.95 children 5.95

ALSO ENJOY
•Indoor water park will be open until 12 am on New Year’s Eve
•New Year’s Day Bowl Games
•Beer specials and homemade chips during the game

The Cold Season is Here: Iowa State Parks Open for Winter Recreation

Iowa's state parks are open all winter, providing opportunities for snow shoeing, cross country skiing, wildlife viewing, ice fishing and to witness spectacular winter scenery.

"We don't hibernate completely," said Kevin Szcodronski, chief of state parks for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "We have a lot of unique opportunities during the winter months and our parks are open all winter long."

A solitary camping experience is available in state park cabins at Lake Wapello, Backbone, Pine Lake, Lake of Three Fires, Wilson Island, Black Hawk, Springbrook and Waubonsie. For a more rustic feel, there are camping cabins and the DNR's only heated shower building at Honey Creek State Park. Click this link to see the cabins, their amenities and to make a reservation.

Honey Creek Resort State Park offers cottages with more amenities, a hotel, an indoor water park, a restaurant and organized activities. Information on the resort is available online. 

Many state parks offer fishing, from northeast Iowa's trout streams to lakes across the state. Iowa trout streams hold fish through the winter and since the streams consist of spring fed, 50 degree water, they rarely freeze. Trout streams are in some of the most scenic areas in the state and offer a near solitary experience during the winter.

Ice conditions are favorable over most of the state and many lakes in Iowa state parks will offer excellent fishing this winter. Lake Anita, Viking Lake, Lake Macbride, Green Valley, Lake Rathbun, Clear Lake, Spirit Lake, West Okoboji Lake, Big Creek, Lake Ahquabi, Red Haw and more are already producing excellent fishing for panfish and walleyes.

The trail systems in state parks are popular venues during the winter for hiking, snow shoeing and cross country skiing. Some state parks have trails that accommodate snowmobiling. For a listing of state parks, go to the Iowa DNR's website  then click on the state parks link in the column on the left. Select the park from the interactive map at the bottom of the page to see if snowmobiles are allowed on the trails.

 

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman Event

Honey Creek to Host Spring Becoming an Outdoors-Woman Event

Honey Creek Resort State Park will be the location for the spring Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) workshop, April 23-24.

"It's been a long cold winter and everyone is anxious to get outside and enjoy spring," says Julie Sparks, BOW coordinator for Iowa. "We've been looking forward to holding a spring workshop and thought what better location than Honey Creek Resort. Spring is a perfect time to be anywhere in Iowa, but particularly southern Iowa. Turkeys are gobbling, fish biting, songbirds migrating. It's a great time to be in the woods or on the lake and we have both at the resort."

The Honey Creek BOW workshop will offer classes in basic firearms, shooting, archery, camping, bird watching, kayaking, canoeing, Dutch oven cooking, turkey hunting, basic motor boat, lake fishing, fly fishing and geocaching. Classes run between three and four hours each and are intended to give participants confidence a particular skill. Class size is kept small to allow for plenty of hands-on activity.

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman is an international program offering anyone 18 years or older the opportunity to learn new skills usually associated with hunting and fishing, but useful in many outdoor pursuits. The DNR has been sponsoring BOW workshops in Iowa since 1994.

"We really hope women will grab a friend or relative and come spend the weekend with us and check out the resort," says Sparks. "Our workshops are a very non-intimidating, comfortable way to learn a new skill, not to mention a whole lot of fun."

Honey Creek Resort State Park opened in 2008 and is the first of its kind in Iowa's state parks system. The resort features a 105-room hotel and lodge, 28 cottages, a water park, restaurant and 18-hole championship golf course, all located on the north shore of Rathbun Lake in south-central Iowa. To learn more about the resort and its amenities, visit www.honeycreekresort.com.

To download a Honey Creek BOW registration form go to www.iowadnr.gov and click on "camps and workshops" then "BOW." For more information about the BOW program or workshop, contact Julie Sparks at julie.sparks@dnr.iowa.gov or at (515) 281-6159.

Check out this video from the California BOW Program.