Based on a lot of the survey data we've gotten over the years where people are very interested in enhanced experiences in the city's natural areas, we decided to take advantage of all the natural areas that Bloomington has to offer...

We have the Minnesota River, Minnesota River Valley, Nine Mile Creek, and we have a ton of other large and small natural areas that have lent themselves really well to doing programs.

Today we were doing faux sun prints. So instead of using the sun to make prints on special paper, we were using watercolor paper with acrylic paints to a dark background and then to paint white designs on top of it.

So the naturalist programs came about also as a result of us wanting to utilize the city as a classroom itself. All the many natural areas in the city essentially are a classroom.

The naturalist programs are designed to be year round because all seasons are important when you're looking at the natural environment and various ecosystems.