Waterloo's Hartman Reserve

[Abby Brown] I'm at Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Waterloo, Iowa. It's right along the Cedar River and within a big city. Thousands and thousands of people live nearby. I wonder if they know that three of Iowa's biggest plant and animal habitats are right here.

[Katy Cantin] So Hartman is an area that's been preserved.

[Abby] So preserved means protected by people?

[Katy] Yes. So we are here to kind of keep this area alive because even though we're in the middle of town, we want people to come out and enjoy it.

[Abby] Why is that so important?

[Katy] So Iowa has lost almost all of its historical natural landscape so there's only 0.1 percent left. So if we don't have it it's going to go away forever.

[Abby] And how would Waterloo be a different place if Hartman wasn't here protecting these ecosystems?

[Katy] So a lot of the animals that live here wouldn't have a place to go. So they don't like to live in the city all the time so places like Hartman, that are in the middle of town, are kind of like a sanctuary for these animals.

[Abby] Like frogs. What else?

[Katy] Reptiles. So like turtles, all sorts of birds, we have tons of birds here,

[Abby] Okay.

[Katy] snakes, I love snakes, they're awesome! And even like little ones like snails and slugs too.

[Katie Klus] We have all these different ecosystems that are next to each other and working together they're not separated, like it's all one piece.

[Katie] Wetland is an area that includes standing water almost all year long or mostly all year long and they host lots of variety of  species, of especially insects, because that's where they're babies in those little pools. And then they grow up and fly away or, for example amphibians--so frogs, and toads, and salamanders and newts. So all kinds of things, not to mention all the cool plants that are surrounded in those areas. The forest hosts not only, kind of, some more obvious things like our squirrels, right, because we've got nice big trees, but we also have a lot of woodland creatures so we think of like raccoons, and skunks, and possums, and bobcats, and fox; all those really nice mammals kind of that we really enjoy.

[Abby] And turkeys that we saw on someone's lawn on our way in.

[Katie] Great, lots! And all the way from big turkeys to tiny little song birds. Prairie is a really great ecosystem because it hosts a lot of insects, specifically  your butterflies, your moths, your bees, your fuzzies basically. And then it hosts a lot of  birds, both ground birds like pheasant all the way through like your songbirds like your sparrows, and your gold finches, and your bluebirds, and things like that.

[Abby] Okay and you plant the seeds to grow the prairies here, correct?

[Katie] Yes, we don't have any what's called virgin prairie, so none of these are historical; they've all been restored. So we've planted them.

[Abby] How can we use science to protect these ecosystems?

[Katie] So the first step to any of this, whether you're a scientist or if you're a five-year-old child, the first step is experiencing it. So getting to walk into it, getting to step off the concrete into these ecosystems and these habitats. And what's great is here at Hartman and urban conservation gives you that opportunity that maybe normally you wouldn't otherwise have.

[Abby] Your neighbors here are homes, people living their everyday lives and sometimes those creatures wander into the neighborhoods. What should kids do when they see wildlife?

[Katie] Sure so wildlife doesn't stay in wild areas, they can't read maps. So they will, especially, they will stray into these neighborhood areas. So one thing is you never want to pick up or touch wildlife. You know, they even though they look you know nice and cuddly, they're still a wild animal. And imagine if somebody that didn't speak your language and you didn't know came up and tried to pick you up how nervous would you feel?

[Abby] Oh yeah.

[Katie] So we try to maintain that balance of you can definitely experience and have this experience with them but we do it from a distance.

[Abby] And we can still learn a lot from looking at them?

[Katie] Oh completely! Animal behavior is a huge thing, I mean a great example is bird feeders, right? So it's not like if you put up a bird feeder, it's not like you go out and try to catch them. But by watching them you can see all these different interactions they have with their family members, raising young, we can see all that just from viewing them.

[Abby] It's been a great adventure exploring Hartman Reserve Nature Center, right here in the heart of Waterloo. What reasons can you think of that we should all protect this reserve so that people in the future can continue to visit and learn from it?

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