Detroit Zoo Plans To Open New Great Lakes Nature Center In 2019

The Detroit Zoo announced Tuesday that it will build a new Great Lakes Nature Center on Lake St. Clair in Macomb County. The new center, expected to open by the end of 2019, will concentrate on plants and animals common in the Great Lakes region, the zoo said in its announcement.

The final site has yet to be selected, however, there is a set of waterfront properties in Macomb County under consideration. The zoo says they will announce the official site this spring. The new center will take up over 20,000 square feet and the zoo estimates construction costs at $10 million. The zoo hopes the center will accommodate between 150,000 and 200,000 visitors every year.

“As stewards of the environment, we have a great responsibility to protect the Great Lakes and the wildlife that inhabit them,” Detroit Zoo Executive Director and CEO Ron Kagan said. “Macomb County, with 32 miles of coastline along Lake St. Clair and 31 miles on the Clinton River, is the ideal location for a major waterfront nature center devoted to the natural wonders of the Great Lakes.”

Some of the animals guests can expect to encounter at the new Great Lakes Nature Center include Great Lakes fish like lake sturgeon and paddlefish, animals actually extinct in the Great Lakes. The Great lakes Nature Center hopes to conserve species like these and other endangered wildlife native to the region. Habitats at the center will include areas for for native amphibians, reptiles, turtles, mammals, shorebirds and birds of prey. Many animals coming to the center will be wetlands creatures who’ve been rescued after an injury and cannot be released into a truly wild setting, according to the zoo. Some of these animals could include sandhill cranes. The center will also include a native butterfly garden.

“In addition to being a beautiful and bountiful resource for tourism and recreation in Macomb County, the Great Lakes serve as a major thoroughfare for transportation and trade,” said Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice Miller, who serves on the Detroit Zoo’s Board of Directors. “The Great Lakes Nature Center will play a significant role in educating the community about protecting this valuable natural resource.”

The Detroit Zoological Society, which also operates the Detroit Zoo and Belle Isle’s Nature Center, will manage the nature center, helping connect the Macomb facility with other zoo campuses The Great Lakes Nature Center will offer innovative learning technology, including Science On a Sphere, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) system that combines computing and video projection to create presentations inside a 6-foot globe.

The Nature Center will also focus heavily on the Detroit Zoological Society’s Great Lakes field conservation programs. Animals the zoo is working to save in the region include Blanding’s turtles, mudpuppies, Massasauga rattlesnakes, piping plovers, common terns, black terns, ospreys and bats. The nature center itself will maintain a low carbon footprint, using hydro power and solar energy, including a the Smartflower in-ground solar panel system. The center will be built using green technology and practices, and will include green tech like permeable parking lots, the zoo said. A combination of private and foundation funds will pay for the center, while the zoo works to develop public sources of funds state and municipal environmental departments and agencies.

Photo Via Detroit Zoo.