PORT McNEILL—Members of the North Island’s Young Naturalists Club kicked off their February meeting by welcoming Will Soltau of Living Oceans Society.
They ended it by bidding farewell to longtime leader Jackie Hildering.
Hildering formed the club nearly a decade ago, to encourage awareness and education of the natural environment and sciences in local youth.
She will remain involved with the group, she said, particularly in organizing special activities like kayaking and whale-watching. But her schedule no longer permits her time to head the regular meetings, and she hopes to find a replacement for that duty in the coming months.
Soltau demonstrated how club members can help beach cleanup efforts, with a focus on debris arriving from the March, 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan.