By RADFORD BROSIUS – Variety Writer
Sandy Creek Nature Center is undergoing extensive reconstruction to educate community members through new and informative exhibits.
Stars illuminate the room and it looks as if outer space is close enough to reach out and touch. This cutting-edge planetarium is one of many new features at Sandy Creek Nature Center, located on 205 Old Commerce Rd.
With their renovation funds, SCNC has been expanding their facilities during the past few months to add more exhibits and increase community involvement. Smith thinks these additions will generate more interest within the Athens community in both nature and preserving the environment. The other envisioned additions include urban environment, agriculture and woodland exhibits.
“Our purpose is to get folks outdoors, in the environment to be comfortable and enjoying the outdoors and seeing what lives around them in their own natural way,” Smith said. “The building gives us a way to interact with people and teach them more and get them out in those places.” The new urban environment exhibit will teach the community about plants, animals and sustainability and energy in homes.
“There’s a model of a house which shows a lot of green technology,” Smith said. “(There is a game where) you have to try to light a light bulb. It shows you how much work it takes to light an incandescent bulb (compared to a florescent one).”
The agricultural exhibit features the evolution of farming by displaying the transition from work by hand to today’s tractors and technology on a large wall panel.
The Woodlands Exhibit describes sustainability and growth of a forest. There’s a large wall panel, similar to that of the agricultural exhibit, showing how much woodlands can grow in one lifetime. The exhibit also teaches visitors about trees the species of a woodlands habitat, as well as how trees are harvested for lumber and responsible reforestation.
“We had a vision of really having a regional attraction because there is nothing like this in the area,” Boyd said.
Photo by Gabrielle Saupe
SCNC has been involved with the community since their establishment. There are over 400 volunteers who assist with summer camps and other programs and about 50,000 visitors a year.
“We’re an active part of the community,” Smith said. “There are a lot of people in the area who think we’re doing important things.”
CCHS has even been a part of SCNC. At the close of the 2010-2011 school year, SCNC hosted our senior picnic. CCHS students can also become a part of the Naturalist Assistant Program, a volunteer program for teens at the nature center. SCNC Naturalist Kate Mowbray sees a learning potential as the reconstruction takes shape.
“(The new exhibits will) provide an area for people to come and learn,” Mowbray said. “Getting people to come out (to Sandy Creek) is the first step to getting them outside and that’s really what I want people to do because you can’t really understand what you’re learning until you go out there.”
