News & Updates

Both Mira and Ruby worked with Merry Lea staff and volunteers to band songbirds and near passerines (a group of birds that includes woodpeckers) to contribute to the continent-wide project, Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS). This project collects and analyzes data from bird banding stations across North America to understand how habitat, weather, and climate change impact bird populations and to assess patterns in birds’ ranges and survivorship.

In 1964, the same year the Beatles played at the Indiana State Fair on their first America tour, Lee and Mary Jane Rieth acquired the first piece of land that would become the pioneering plot of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College.

Learn more about the bird banding research conducted at Merry Lea: we will introduce you to two young birds banded at Merry Lea in past years in July.

When Andy Rieth was a young boy growing up, he would often spend a week at his aunt’s and uncle’s house on the lake with his close cousins. They would wake when the sun came up, swim and fish all day long, and run through acres and acres of the wooded land.

Bird banding research has been a highlight during the summers at Merry Lea since 2001. Staff and volunteers wake up very early in the morning to learn more about the flying inhabitants of Merry Lea. However, due to safety restrictions related to COVID-19, we are not banding this summer in order to protect both the human team and the birds.

You don’t need to travel for this year’s New York Fashion Week in the middle of a winter storm – not to mention during a global pandemic – to catch the latest fashion. See what styles and trends our Nature Preschoolers have to offer for winter 2021.

When Emma Zuercher, Apple Creek, Ohio, visited Merry Lea during freshman orientation fall 2019, she heard about cheesemaking, soapmaking and other hands-on opportunities through Merry Lea’s programs.