PROVINCIAL PARKS - Educational Programs

The fall and winter seasons are a time when Parks are not overly busy with park visitors but to many of you this may provide an ideal opportunity to explore a quiet marsh, meadow or forest to observe the plants and animals. This may be

of special interest to teachers or childrens group leaders as self-guided trails have been established at Brudenell River and Mill River.

These trails cover areas tied in directly with the science curriculum in grades four and six. Now, you say, how is a class or group going to explore the trails in the snow. Snowshoes are available free of charge to such groups. Appointments to reserve the snowshoes can be made by phoning Mill River Provincial Park at 859—2448 or Brudenell River Provincial Park at 652-2383. If you wish to explore these trails on your own you may pick up a brochure and rent the snowshoes for $2.00 a day at the park. By bringing your own snowshoes you can enjoy the trail at no cost at all.

Some of you may be saying, who would want to go out to a park or anywhere on a bleak windy snowy day. True, such conditions are not ideal, but all winter days are not like that, and on a calmer day there is no nicer place to be than snow- shoeing or skiing along a trail amongst the trees, perhaps with a light snow falling with the friendly chickadees calling to all, asthey search for insects hidden under bark and buds. Take along some hot dogs and buns and you can have a barbeque along the way. Join the growing numbers who feel that the best time

to visit a Provincial Park is during the winter, on snowshoes or skis.

A further note which may be of interest to those in the Charlottetown Area is

the establishment of a nature trail on the property opposite the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This site, which was developed jointly by the Department of Forestry, Transportation and Public Works and Education has posts marking stops on the trail and is accompanied by a brochure which can be obtained from Provincial Parks.

A board walk extends out over a salt marsh and over a pond. It is hoped that schools and private individuals will be able to make intensive use of this property during the fall — the variety, numbers and colors of the leaves were tremendous, and during the winter.