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Crestwood Student of the Month chosen

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Shane Fausey: Correctional officers deserving of further protection from job-related dangers

<p>An &#8220;ancient&#8221; saying:</p><p><em>The great blue heron may hide, but the nest still brings wonder to a young heart.</em></p><p>Another:</p><p><em>With both newt and salamander, the difference to innocent eyes is the size of the animal, not the size of the awe.</em></p><p>And one more:</p><p><em>When a millipede walks into a child&#8217;s life, it leaves 1,000 footprints.</em></p><p>OK, as that last pretend proverb might suggest, these statements are no more &#8220;ancient&#8221; than this newly written editorial. But they still are true, which is evident to anyone who spends time at the <a href="http://www.lehmansanctuary.com/" target="_blank">Lehman Sanctuary</a>, in Lehman Township, watching school students pick up rocks, poke into mud and scoop water from a seep, eyes wide and mouths oohing discovery.</p><p>The most recent excursion by Wyoming Valley Montessori School students into the land off Jackson Road, as <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/536085/montessori-students-in-the-marshes-lichen-the-woods" target="_blank">reported by the Times Leader</a>, exemplified why conservation efforts such as this and others have value, both in preservation and education.</p><p>The sanctuary lacks the eye-opening impact of a Grand Canyon, or even a Lehigh Gorge. It is a scant 18 acres, approached through a grassy field before sloping swiftly into a forest edged by marsh.</p><p>Yet in this little lot of land, students watch the world of books morph into, well, the world. &#8220;Amphibian&#8221; crawls from page to palm; &#8220;the&#8221; dusky salamander hops &#8211; literally &#8211; into &#8220;this&#8221; dusky salamander. Bird songs proffer a game of &#8220;name that avian,&#8221; skunk weed crinkles disapproving noses, and trees get to show what they can accomplish when allowed to grow for centuries, getting too wide for some young arms to hug.</p><p>This particular sanctuary owes its existence to the Miller family, embodied at each visit by Chris Miller, who has spent the past decade trying to convert the space behind the homestead into a nonprofit entity &#8211; a goal finally accomplished earlier this year, allowing for tax-deductible contributions.</p><p>Miller credits friends and neighbors, many of whom are like-minded conservationists who don&#8217;t mind a little boundary-crossing by the students. There are no &#8220;no trespassing&#8221; signs at the sanctuary&#8217;s edges.</p><p>Miller even has worked to add a little nature value, converting a strip of contemporary lawn grass into tall, &#8220;warm-season grass&#8221; he uses to trick visiting students into learning at the start of any tour. He asks them to pick a blade of grass, and they immediately pluck the short green stuff under their feet, rarely thinking to pull at the tough, tall stuff &#8211; it can grow 7 feet and higher &#8211; between them and the forest.</p><p>They learn the warm-season grass turns brown in winter, has roots up to 6 feet deep, purifies water on its way down to the marsh, and can be harvested and compressed into efficient fuel pellets for wood-burning stoves.</p><p>Seeing youngsters light up the shaded forest demonstrates a genuinely ancient truth: Efforts of Miller and others who persevere in preservation not only offer our children a better future, they offer a better here and now.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Valley Montessori School students recently plunged into nature lessons at the Lehman Sanctuary, an 18-acre, privately owned site in Lehman Township. Earlier this year, the conservation-focused entity received a nonprofit designation so that contributions to its mission are tax-deductible. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_Sanctuary-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wyoming Valley Montessori School students recently plunged into nature lessons at the Lehman Sanctuary, an 18-acre, privately owned site in Lehman Township. Earlier this year, the conservation-focused entity received a nonprofit designation so that contributions to its mission are tax-deductible. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>

Our Opinion: Lehman Sanctuary provides area residents with needed connection to natural world