Construction on Nature Center’s entrance to start next month
Published 10:24 am Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Land has been cleared of trees and shrubs near the entrance to the Jay C. Hormel Nature Center. In the coming weeks, the nature center will transition it’s new entrance to the north. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Building a new doorway to nature
The Jay C. Hormel Nature Center is going to be even busier next month.
The nature center will start construction on its new entrance after Aug. 15, part of the upcoming interpretive center project set to start next year.
Nature center staff hope to spread the word before work on the entrance starts, since construction will likely make it difficult to enter the nature preserve.
“We’re going to have some growing pains,” Julie Champlin, nature center assistant, said.
The nature center’s new entrance will replace the site’s maintenance building, and workers will also resurface the parking lot.
The new interpretive center will be placed north of the current maintenance building, which will move fall to where the current entrance is. Officials say the process will take more than two years to complete, but the goal this year is to move the maintenance shop to its new location.
Champlin said the maintenance shop will also act as a storage shed for kayaks, canoes and other rental equipment, aside from the tractors already housed inside.
The new entrance is the first part of a comprehensive project to replace the nature center’s visitor center.
“We’ve got big changes, great changes coming,” she said.
The interpretive center will be 15,000 square feet — three times the size of the current building — and it will be built northeast of the maintenance building. A big part of the design will feature renewable energy sources for the building, including 50 or 100 kilowatts of solar-power, water collection to use for flushing toilets and such, and possibly electric car chargers.
The Jay C. Hormel Nature Center’s educational owl Guka perches in his new enclosure on the balcony of the visitor’s center Monday. He also has a new roost below.
Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The project was announced in 2013 in part to add more room to the facility and in part because the current interpretive center is in the flight path for the Austin Municipal Airport. Staff found electrical issues in the visitor center and decided to look into a new center.
Although the nature center received a $5 million grant from the Hormel Foundation for the $7 million project, Nature Center officials are still trying to raise $1 million for educational exhibits and displays. They have raised about $350,000 for the displays.
The plan calls for 15 exhibits, which could include displays on birds of prey, creatures of the night, prairie/soil and plants, endangered species, and an early childhood room with several hands-on activities.
Nature center staff have already adjusted the outdoor cage for Guka, the center’s barned owl. Guka will stay outside the current visitor center in his mews, or habitat, until the interpretive center is built.
For now, the nature center will remain open during construction, though residents may have to park further away to get inside. Champlin said it’s unclear how long the project will last.
