The Chattanooga Audubon Society's Audubon Acres is growing its schedule of activities and community members are invited to join in the fun in the great outdoors.
Lookout Mountain resident Lori Duncan teaches yoga at Audubon Acres.New yoga classes every Monday are joining other activities like an Herbal Series this summer.
"Audubon Acres is very beautiful and I'm glad we'll have an opportunity to utilize it," said Lookout Mountain resident Lori Duncan, who leads the yoga class every Monday at 5:30 p.m.
Participation in the class costs $8 and is held in Audubon Acres' community room. The classes are offered every Monday throughout the summer. In the fall Duncan said she will consider adding another class each week. When the weather cools down, she will teach classes outside, so students can enjoy the natural scenery.
Duncan was introduced to yoga through a community group and was inspired to take classes and then attend teacher training at ClearSpring Yoga. She began teaching last June and was offered the opportunity to host her class at Audubon Acres.
"To me, yoga is not an exercise. I look at it as a personal discipline I practice every day," Duncan said. "It's not just about the poses. You learn balance that comes over into your life. I've become more balanced by being able to handle stress better."
Audubon Acres will also host community events like an Herbal Series led by Rachel Free-Prince. The first program is planned for June 18 from 9 to 11 a.m. and will include a medicinal plant walk and talk, where participants learn to identify, harvest and prepare local plants, native and invasive, for use in the home apothecary.
"The Chattanooga Audubon Society was formed to provide a place for the community to experience and be educated in nature, the environment and the ways that the native cultures respected and worked with Mother Earth," Bill Fisher, president of the Chattanooga Audubon Society Board of Directors, said of the nonprofit organization designated as a nature preserve and a wildlife sanctuary. "The programs that we are offering are a reflection of that mission: to bring people to a better understanding of the responsibilities that we all share to protect this Earth."