Conservation News
Children learn outdoor skills at conservation camp
By Beth Hlavek
Young campers from across Indiana are staying this week in Tent City -- a temporary home pitched at Ross Camp -- while conservation officers teach boating, hunting and other skills.
The Karl E. Kelley Memorial Conservation Officers' Youth Camp is in its sixth year, offering 128 fifth- and sixth-graders a chance to enjoy outdoor recreation, from nightly fishing tournaments to jet skiing on Raccoon Lake.
The club moved to Tippecanoe County's Ross Camp last year after members of the Indiana Conservation Officers Organization and Hunter Education Association began renovation of the facilities in return for credit on the lease, said camp director Bill Beville, an Indiana conservation officer.
The campers, dressed in uniform T-shirts, marched in formation and sang in cadence on Wednesday as they moved among workshops on falconry, fishing and boating safety, and a hunter education written exam.
"The whole idea is we're giving them an experience they probably won't have anywhere else," Beville said. "We give them a foundation where they start on a lifelong enjoyment of the outdoors."
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