Wild Bear Nature Center Breaks Ground on Highest Elevation NetZero Nature Center
OPEN 360 DAYS A YEAR
Nederland, Colorado Wild Bear Nature Center celebrated another milestone toward completing the long-time vision of their permanent home located on the SE corner of Mud Lake Open Space. On Sunday, Wild Bear’s Board of Directors, staff, volunteers and donors convened on Wild Bear’s 5 acres to acknowledge the work and dedication of volunteers and the generosity of donors who have moved this vision forward. The net zero nature center will be tied into Nederland’s grid providing energy back to the town and will be the highest-altitude net-zero nature center in the United States open 360 days of the year.
Wild Bear Nature Center has put careful thought into breaking ground on this sacred land. In June, Wild Bear invited three Native American tribes to acknowledge that the 3,000 acres of Mud Lake and Caribou Ranch Open Spaces including the land where the nature center will be built is on the traditional and unceded homelands of the Arapaho, Ute, and Cheyenne peoples.
“We are truly humbled and grateful for our community and for these Native Peoples to bless this land,” said Dreves.
At the Land Blessing held in June, Ava Hamilton, an Arapaho historian, filmmaker, and relative of Chief Left Hand, gave a brief history of the presence of different tribes in the Boulder County area, which stretches back thousands of years before white settlers came and forcibly removed them from these lands. Steven LaPointe, of Sicangu Lakota tribe, led the blessing as well as the dancing and drumming ceremony. He is a community organizer and educator throughout the Front Range and Colorado Indigenous population.
Hamilton, LaPointe, and Dreves all stressed that the education Wild Bear provides is critical to how we address the growing threats of habitat destruction and human-caused climate change.
“The planet is the most sacred site, and the most destructive things on the planet are humans,” said Hamilton.
Wild Bear Nature Center has great momentum and has raised over $5.5M through 70 capital donors and grants from the Gates Family Foundation, Boettcher Foundation and several family foundations. Local Nederland residents, Jesse and Angela Seavers of High Performance Earth Works will be on site this week to begin excavation. Construction crews will complete laying the center’s foundation by this October. After a break through the winter, framing will begin in mid-2023. Construction on the center’s interior will be completed in time for its grand opening in early fall 2024.
“We are on a roll here because of you, the community who has supported us all these years. We are breaking ground today, with plans to have the foundation in place by the 21st annual Enchanted Forest, September 24.” Founder and Executive Director Jill Dreves said at the event.
"The new Wild Bear Nature Center is not only a legacy project for the organization itself, but for the community of Nederland as a whole.” says Angela Seavers, of High Performance Earth Works. “This development represents the importance of nature to our community and will surely impact future generations of locals and visitors alike for many years to come. We're proud to be a part of it."
The new passive- and active-solar building will be completely powered by the sun, both offsetting its construction emissions and providing clean electricity to the town of Nederland.
The new center will replace four other spaces that Wild Bear currently rents, and will allow for local Nederland residents as well as the broad regional community and its visitors to connect to nature through creative exploration of the outdoors. With more than 6600 cars traveling through Nederland every day along the oldest scenic byway in the State of Colorado, the nature center will attract visitors from all over the world as well as local community members who will explore the unique and artistic exhibits of local nature as well as what we each can do to combat climate change. The community will enjoy creative and scientific presentations and performances in the large indoor community space or on the solar powered stage at the outdoor amphitheater. Children will play on the Nature Playscape, exploring, building, digging, creating and imagining in a world surrounded by wild nature, while parents will talk together, laugh and feel the health benefits of being in the fresh mountain air. Interactive classrooms and a Maker’s Space will allow for significant growth in meeting the child care needs in the community or provide space for adults and families to enjoy wild crafting and other earth art to take home.
For Dreves, who founded Wild Bear with the goal of kindling a deep love for nature in others, the construction of the Nature Center is a dream come true.
“We are grateful to our community who have supported us right from the beginning in 1995. So many participants, volunteers and donors who have brought us to this point in time. In turn, Wild Bear has supported the community and nature for over 27 years: preserving Mud Lake, removing 30 tons of trash from this land, educating hundreds of thousands of people of all ages to care for her. Now our team has carefully planned the building and landscape to improve the land and now we are breaking ground for the net positive nature center which will continue to give back, providing energy to the Town of Nederland and providing space to love the earth and learn to protect her.”
“We look forward to opening the doors to children and families, to build lifelong relationships together with nature to know that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.” says Dreves.
Wild Bear Nature Center invites the community to visit the current center in downtown Nederland to see the 3-D model and architectural designs of the future center. For more information about this legacy project or how to get involved in its creation, see gowild.wildbear.org
