NATURE CENTER IDEAS OUTLINED

The planning committee for a proposed nature center in Cape Girardeau County North Park will go to the state with their recommendations in September.

Officials from the Missouri Department of Conservation met with community leaders Tuesday night to get input on what types of facilities, activities and exhibits the center should offer.

Among the top suggestions garnered in brainstorming sessions were interactive exhibits; research; outdoor classroom and habitat areas; hiking trails; environmental exhibits; adult and children's educational programs; an auditorium and, or outdoor amphitheater; living history exhibits; an earthquake simulator; displays on waterways in the region; and indoor multimedia classroom.

All of those ideas will be presented to the Missouri Conservation Commission this fall, said Kathy Love, who chairs the planning committee for the local project.

After the committee makes its recommendation, the state commission will decide whether to go forward with the center, Love said.

If everything goes according to plan, she said, ground could be broken on the center sometime in 2000.

The state, Cape Girardeau County Commission and Southeast Missouri State University are working in partnership to build the nature center. The proposal calls for building a nature center on 50 acres of county owned land adjacent to the county park in Cape Girardeau.

The conservation department wants Cape Girardeau County's nature center to be a "next generation" facility, said Jerry Conley, director of the Missouri Department of Conservation.

"We want it to be more than just people coming into the nature center," Conley said. "We want it to reach out to pull in the whole southeast part of the state and the Ozarks and over into Illinois. We've got to reach out and grab people."

He estimated construction costs at $3 million to $7 million, based on costs of developing other centers around the state.

Conley, a native of Cape Girardeau who graduated from Central High School in 1959, remembers when walking to Washington Elementary School meant walking through wooded areas. Development in Cape Girardeau and Jackson has cut down on that green space, he said.

"A person growing up here or living here now has to get their appreciation of nature in a different way," Conley said. "You have to drive a little farther out."

The state operates five nature centers around the state, and Conley said the idea of opening a new one is "exciting" to conservation department officials.

"This is our opportunity to lead the pack in nature centers compared to anything else in the nation," he said.

County Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones said the idea of opening a nature center locally is nothing new, but the opportunity has only recently become available.

"Sometimes it's not the right time, and different things happen. Now is the time that this can happen, and it can benefit all of us," Jones said.

The county has already made a "significant commitment" to the project, including purchasing the necessary land and agreeing to act as the financial agent in a lease-purchase agreement with the Missouri Department of Conservation for the facility. The university will provide staff and resources toward the operation of the center.

The commission's primary interest in the facility is in its educational aspect, Jones said, but it will also serve as a tourism attraction, drawing in visitors from throughout the region.