Dear Friends,

In many ways I feel like we are closing the door on winter as we begin to make plans for the warmer months of the year. In reality as I write this, we are only midway through winter and I am always optimistic that we will still get a significant snowfall and additional days of skiing, sledding, and skating. If the groundhog is correct, we still do have 6 weeks of winter left. Time will tell.

I recently came across several articles pertaining to the diminishing amount of people’s involvement in the natural world. According to National Public Radio personality John Nielsen’s article “Americans Spending Less Time in Nature”, the percentage of Americans taking part in nature based activities has declined one percent a year since the late 1980’s. This is an 18 percent to 25 percent reduction from peak levels. A similar article by Scientific America’s David Biello entitled “Are Americans Afraid of the Outdoors”, states that Americans are visiting natural places less and less since 1987. Conservationists believe the increase in video games, movie rentals, and other electronic entertainment is primarily to blame for this decrease. Ecologist Patricia Zaradic of the Environmental Leadership Program at the University of Illinois, fears that children and adults today may be losing the value of nature. She believes that “If we aren’t out in nature, we aren’t aware of our human footprint in nature.” This trend is not limited to Americans; the Japanese are finding similar trends.

This type of information is exactly what Winding Trails is trying to combat. Our mission is to provide outdoor educational and recreational programming for the enjoyment and growth of families and individuals. We are very proud to say that the number of programs we offer annually continues to grow along with the enrollment in these programs. I think it is safe to say that our constituents are not a part of the statistics above.

This year we saw our membership quota reached in record time. Years ago the membership quota had not been met until early spring. In the past few years, that timeframe has moved up to mid January. This year the quota was met on January 1st. Our office has been diligent about notifying members about the importance of the deadline. The deadline for renewal has always been December 31st. Everyone was notified in late October with an invoice and three separate notices were sent reminding people about the deadline. Unfortunately, we had a number of individuals who failed to get their paperwork in on time and are not members this year. Turning away members is not something we enjoy doing, but the membership quotas are established by you the members. They are put in place to avoid overcrowding of the facility, protecting the overall safety of everyone, and ensuring the value of your membership. Keep this in mind when renewals are sent out this year in early November.

This year the Board of Directors and staff have worked hard to compile a budget that allows us to continue offering quality programs and make improvements to the facility. The biggest capital project ever undertaken at Winding Trails has begun with the Save Walton Pond project. This project is vital to the long term health of our environment and the organization. I ask that you take time to read the details of this project in this newsletter and strongly consider a financial contribution to help with this costly endeavor. Other improvements scheduled for this year include a new camp pavilion at Walton Pond to replace the aging Hiawatha unit. We have also installed a new PA system in the camp amphitheater to improve camp opening and special events. The generator at Walton Pond is scheduled to be moved to behind the camp bathhouse and wired to provide emergency back up power for the upper campus. Last fall we did replace the roofs on the maintenance garage and two of the camp pavilions. At Dunning Lake we will be adding 15 additional picnic tables and ten grills. This should help on those extremely busy days. We are also planning to install a retaining wall, stairs, and some landscaping at the southeastern end of the beach near the boathouse. The camp raft at Dunning Lake will also be replaced. We are also in the middle of an entire redesign of our website. Launch date is still unknown, but we do plan to allow online registration for programs, membership renewals, donations, and more. We hope you find the new additions and improvements beneficial.

Please take the time to take full advantage of your membership. Everyone here works very hard to provide you with programs that interest you. Register early, relax, and enjoy the best Winding Trails has to offer. If there are any questions or comments regarding the park, programs or staff, please don’t hesitate to give me a call at 677-8485 or email me at scott@windingtrails.org.

Sincerely,

Scott Brown, CPRP
Executive Director