Photo credit: Dennis Switzer

Tricia Hurley of Lone Mountain Natives knows a great deal about plants, and she is also adept at sharing that knowledge with children. That is why the Gila Native Plant Society sponsored her in giving a series of 10 presentations over the course of 2016 to school classes, girl scout troops and children enrolled in the Silver City Recreation Center summer program.

Since the plan is to get children out of doors and looking closely at their natural surroundings, Tricia has taken her groups to the Gila Native Plant Society's Silva Creek Garden on North Virginia Street or to the nature trails at the Silver City Recreation Center. In her presentations she teaches children the difference between native and non-native plants. They discuss the importance of plants, how plants make their own food and how all animals - including people - depend on them. In the summer sessions, the children were able to observe and learn about pollinators.

But flowers, of course, were no longer in evidence on December 12, when Tricia took Ms. Love's fifth grade class at Jos+