Youth take deeper dive into nature through PPRI program

Youth Nebraska Ecologists venture out to Niobrara Valley

  • Pictured last week on a backpacking hike into camp at Niobrara Valley Preserve are, from left: Sarah Bailey, Zildjian Sandberg, Kim Evans, Alex Briner, Atticus Miller and Jacob Fink.
    Pictured last week on a backpacking hike into camp at Niobrara Valley Preserve are, from left: Sarah Bailey, Zildjian Sandberg, Kim Evans, Alex Briner, Atticus Miller and Jacob Fink.

    A group of area students took their understanding of nature to a higher level last week with a four-day Young Nebraska Ecologist program designed to help youth study and compare how habitat and ecosystems vary by region. Program coordinator Sarah Bailey, greenhouse manager/naturalist educator with the Prairie Plains Resource Institute, was still buzzing with excitement herself a day later while s…