Upcoming nature center expected to improve trails
Those using the Butler-Freeport Community Trail in Buffalo Township will soon have a place to stop to enjoy refreshments, participate in nature programming or use the bathroom.
The $1.5 million Babcock Nature Center is under construction on six acres at the Monroe Road trail head, which is off Kepple Road in Buffalo Township.
The project is the result of a collaboration between the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania and Buffalo Township.
Jim Bonner, executive director of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, said the nature center will be built in the footprint of an old building that crews demolished at the Buffalo Creek Nature Park.
Bonner said Buffalo Township acquired the property, and the Audubon Society is developing the nature center.
The 1,200-square-foot nature center will have classrooms, a meeting space, retail store, restrooms and visitor amenities, concessions and an outdoor nature play area for children, Bonner said.A path for those with disabilities will allow for easy access from the parking lot or nature center to the trail as well.Bonner is excited about the nature center's location between the trail and Little Buffalo Creek, which he noted is an excellent birding area.“It's an idyllic setting,” he said. “There is a high-quality stream on one side and a very popular rails-to-trails on the other.”Bonner plans to conduct nature-themed educational programs there for the community in collaboration with nearby school districts.He said the Freeport Area School District property abuts the creek, so he hopes to hold in-school and remote educational programs at the nature center for those students.In a normal school year, 14,000 to 15,000 students are educated through Audubon programs in Western Pennsylvania in areas such as water quality and stream ecology, Bonner said.
The new nature center will also serve as a hub for conservation work in the 170 square-mile Buffalo Creek Watershed, which comprises 22 communities.Stabilizing the creek, assessing water quality and helping to develop conservation plans for the creek are goals of the local Audubon Society, Bonner said.“We do a lot to really kind of steward the watershed,” he said.The Babcock Nature Center is so named because the Babcock Charitable Trust donated $500,000 toward the project, Bonner said.He said the center could open as soon as late May or early June, as long as weather until then permits construction.Chris Ziegler, president of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail Association, said there is nothing else on the 21-mile trail like the nature center.More room for parking for those who use the Monroe Road trail head, the availability of restrooms and refreshments for trail users and nature programming will be a huge enhancement to the trail, she said.“This is an opportunity for Audubon to have programming for nature walks, mushroom identification, tree and plant identification: a little bit of everything,” Ziegler said.
Audubon officials called her for input on offerings at the center and what trail users need.“People want to get together, but outdoors, and learn about their own back yard,” Ziegler said.Ziegler said there has been talk of including a summer bike rental at the nature center, which she hopes will include electric bikes for the retired community, many of whom are frequent trail users.“This will be a really important place where we can gather and learn about the trail and make new friends,” Ziegler said.She said the trail association will provide sign-age to guide people from the nature center to the trail, historical information on the trail and trail brochures at the nature center.The presence of the nature center at the playground in the nature park will allow parents to do more than push their tots on the swings.
“I think we'll get more people (using the trail) because they are going to the park, but want to bird,” Ziegler said.She looks forward to the completion of the nature center.“I am so excited,” she said. “It's going to be great.”Bonner said the Babcock Nature Center is part of a $7.5 million capital campaign at the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania, known as the Centennial Campaign.The campaign included additions and improvements at three other Audubon facilities, including the Succop Nature Park in Penn Township, where a barn was renovated to offer nature classes.
