Seventh Annual Wildlife Expo 2011 Held Sept. 23-25, 2011

September 28, 2011

image of volunteers — **Lea Ann Knowlin, Kingfisher County Conservation District, and Jeff Kuhn, Payne County Conservation District, were among the volunteers who helped guide visitors at the exhibit.**

Rogers County Conservation District and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission’s Conservation Education Program hosted the Wildlife Beneath Your Feet exhibit area at the Wildlife Expo, Sept. 23-25. More than 60 volunteers representing local conservation districts, the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, Oklahoma Project WET, OSU Department of Education, NSU Department of Education, OSU Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation joined together to staff the exhibits.

image of Karla Beatty — **Karla Beatty, OCC education coordinator (right), explains about the living things needed to make healthy soil.**

With the help of these volunteers, one corner of the Lazy E Arena was transformed into an underground classroom where visitors discovered critters that help make healthy soil. Visitors entered the exhibit area through an underground ant colony complete with tunnels and chambers or through an earthworm burrow filled with plant roots and a giant earthworm. Volunteers helped visitors find earthworms and other critters at work in a compost container, answer quiz questions and riddles about the critters, identify live animals and learn the roles they play in different soil communities and investigate skins, skulls and tracks of wildlife that live beneath our feet.

**A woman with a child in a stroller exiting the earthworm burrow display.**

The Oklahoma Wildlife Expo is the state’s largest indoor and outdoor recreation event. Presented by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and a coalition of conservation organizations, agencies and sponsors, the Expo celebrates our great state’s natural diversity and opportunities for the sporting enthusiast. From camping and outdoor skills to shooting sports and fishing, from bird watching to kayaking, Expo visitors have an opportunity to try their hands at three days of fun in the outdoors. The exhibit area sponsored by the Rogers County Conservation District and the Commission’s Conservation Education Program is designed with children and families in mind and provides activities that introduce visitors to wildlife, nature and the outdoors.