Butler County Conservation will hold a grand reopening event for the Allan and Fayette Meyer Nature Center on Saturday, June 20.
As aired on the “Outdoors in North Iowa” podcast on KLMJ, Naturalist Annette Wittrock says two new prairie displays are expected to be installed by the end of the month at the nature center.
“The first part of the prairie display is going to represent the prairie past, which includes some native prairie plant replicas as well as taxidermied quail, pheasants, and prairie chickens,” Wittrock says. “The company already put up the mural in the background of this display, and that includes a picture of a bison’s body. The bison will have a head, which is a taxidermy mount that we have, so it’s going to be kind of popping out of the wall of that prairie scene over the prairie.”
The second prairie display will focus on information on prescribed burns, settlement, plowing, plant diversity and Iowa’s productive agricultural soil. It also will include a historic plow.
Wittrock says the project was made possible through the generous support of the community.
“And we at the conservation board, maybe I’m just speaking for myself, but I think everybody, know that this project would not have been possible without the support of our community,” Wittrock says. “Because first you funded a nature center expansion that cost nearly $500,000. And then you continued to support us as we raised another $500,000 to get good, quality and fun interactive exhibits for the newly expanded nature center. So this was all done with private donations and grants. No general fund money from the county was used to bring this to reality. So that’s a million dollars that our community’s funded.”
The grand reopening will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will include a ribbon cutting, food, cake and a chance to view current and future display plans.
More information is available through Butler County Conservation on MyCountyParks.com.
