A Dream Come True

Pronunciation Guide:

Muraviovka - moo' ra vee ov' ka
Amur - a' moor
Khinganski - keen gon' skee
Ussuriyski - oo' soor ee' skee

Is there a place far away that you dream of visiting someday? For me, as a child, that place was Russia. I wished I could go there and see for myself what their lives were like. I never let go of that dream, and in 1994 my wish was finally granted.

The International Crane Foundation (ICF) in Wisconsin works to help endangered cranes around the world. ICF decided that teachers and farmers are important in saving cranes and their wetland nesting grounds. Teachers can help children work to preserve animals and their habitats. Farmers can work to find better ways to grow their crops without disturbing wild creatures so much.

I was chosen to go with the first team of teachers to work at Muraviovka Reserve, a beautiful Russian nature park near the Amur River. There, we helped to start a summer environmental camp in a rural area of Far East Russia where red-crowned and white-naped cranes build their nests and raise their chicks each summer.

Every day about fifty kids from nearby villages got off the bus at Muraviovka Park and spent the day with us and some Russian teachers exploring the park and its surroundings. They loved the art projects we did, and they wrote amazing poetry, but like American kids, their favorite activity was seining.

If you have never seined, you should try it. All you do is get a big net with a pole at each end. One person takes each pole and drags it through the water so the net can pick up lots of critters living there. You pull the net up onto the shore, have a great time looking at all of the jumping, swimming, and squirming creatures you have captured in your net, then throw them all back into the water.

As we talked about the creatures we caught in our seine nets, we could see how nature has created a special harmony of all living and non-living things. We could also see how farming and poaching are harming cranes and other wetland animals. We were glad that farmers from the United States and Russia are working together to find better ways to grow crops. They are finding ways to grow more crops on less land without disturbing the wild animals so much.

Besides being at camp with the kids, my favorite part of the trip was actually seeing endangered cranes at Khinganski Nature Reserve. At Khinganski, crane chicks are raised in captivity and later released to live as wild birds. On the day after we arrived there, a young woman in a rowboat pulled up to shore with three crane chicks. These were the biggest "chicks" I had ever seen. They were covered with yellow down like other chicks, but they were about 18 inches tall! We had a great afternoon feeding them seeds from our hands, touching their downy feathers, and watching them imitate adult cranes.

This summer I had the good fortune to return to Muraviovka and start a second camp at Ussuriyski.

The day we got off the bus at Muraviovka was really special. The warm hugs of old friends and the familiar green marshes of the cranes made me feel right at home. On opening day, I realized that the kids I had known as 10-year-old first-time campers were now the camp's teenage leaders. What we had started as a day camp three years ago was now a week-long overnight. The kids and teachers stayed in tents right in the park. Campfires brightened our nightly singing and dancing together.

My NJ fifth-graders made a quilt for me to give to children in Russia. Each square was done by a different child and shows something about Sandy Hook, our nearby wetland. It was so beautiful that we wanted it to go to a very special place in Russia.

At Ussuriyski we started another summer camp. The kids came from the local village of Kaminushka. For three days we explored the park's woods and streams together. They loved learning about the plants and animals in their environment and also about native American lore. We acted out a native American tale for them; then everyone made a "dreamcatcher." It was there that I left the quilt my students had made.

I am thankful to the beautiful crane, bird of peace, for bringing me together with the people of Russia.

Kathy Prout is a member of The Wild Ones Advisory Council and teaches at Frank Antonides School, West Long Branch, NJ

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