A new exhibit at one of the newest parks in Helena, Montana, is teaching kids about wildlife habitat, one track at a time.

The Tracks Trail at Prickly Pear Park in East Helena features seven sets of tracks in concrete slabs, with hints about which animal left the tracks. Kids flip the sign to get the answer and learn about the animal and its environment.

Konner Goetsch, a Big Sky Watershed Corps member and education program assistant for the Prickly Pear Land Trust, developed the trail and wants it to help kids think more scientifically.

"This is a way to get kids to understand why having open spaces is very important. It's not just a place for people to recreate or hike, it's also a place where animals find food, shelter, water, and just a place for them to move throughout the landscape," Goetsch outlined.

Image

The signage debuted in late August in the newly created park, which opened in May. It is a remediation project on the former site of a smelting company, which operated there for more than 100 years and closed in 2001.

Prickly Pear Land Trust helped establish two parks on the land — Prickly Pear Park and The Grove — and uses them in its education program for hands-on learning. In 2025, the education team spent nearly 4,500 hours in the field, reaching nearly 4,000 students.

Christa Schoenfeld, a science teacher at East Helena High School, said for the past five years or so, her students have visited both parks for five-week units on wildlife habitat and biology. They study stream health and water quality, check out beaver habitats and identify insects and fish in the creek. They have also seen wildlife corridors and nesting migratory birds. She stressed the experiences let students see firsthand the difference environmental preservation can make.

"What could have been a really terrible thing with environmental impacts in the area and what was here before has turned into something really positive. And I see not just our students using the trails, but the general public in the area as well," Schoenfeld pointed out.

Goetsch joined Prickly Pear Land Trust through the Montana Conservation Corps, a nonprofit offering young people jobs in environmental education and conservation. He likes how the trust’s interactive lessons get kids outdoors, teaching them much more than they could learn in the classroom, and helping them become good stewards of the land.

"It's not them just learning about these environmental philosophies in class. They're actually coming out to our parks and getting to learn firsthand what goes into environmental conservation and protecting our landscapes," Goetsch added.

Prickly Pear Land Trust was founded in 1995 to protect forests and trails in Helena. It created its education program in 2020 and launched it in 2021.