If this grant application is approved, the funds will be used in concert with other funds to construct an Interpretive Center at Edgewood County Park and Natural Preserve. The Preserve, an area approximately one square mile, is known for its remarkable species richness - 480 different plant species have been identified within it. The Preserve has three plant species that are federally listed as endangered or threatened. The federally threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly’s habitat at the Preserve was compromised by an invasion of non-native grasses. However, habitat restoration efforts are being made and there are plans to re-introduce the butterfly in 2007.
Annual attendance at the park exceeds 125,000 visits. Edgewood supporters continue to look for ways to share their knowledge with visitors and for ways to teach people how to protect this unique area of biodiversity. Docents for the Preserve believe strongly that an interpretive center will help develop a stewardship ethic in all who visit the Preserve by raising people’s awareness that environmental stewardship begins with them, and that it will increase the number of people who actively participate in Edgewood’s restoration and preservation.
The Center will be located in a developed area at the Preserve’s main entrance. Designed to fit with the natural surroundings, the building is 1,200 square feet in size and has additional outdoor amphitheaters and a deck. Displays in the exhibit room can be moved to allow the Center to double as space for meetings or training. It will be a "green building" using recycled materials and incorporating active and passive solar energy into the design.
This effort is the culmination of work begun in 2001. The County’s Parks and Recreation Foundation has raised $700,000 in funds that have been spent on the concept plan, designs and drawings, environmental review and construction of the entrance improvements recently completed for the Center. The improvements included restoration of the creek, paving the overflow dirt parking lot with porous asphalt and the installation of a certified sustainably-grown timber pedestrian bridge so students will not have to use the vehicular bridge as the entrance.
The Foundation is now actively raising the remaining $1.1 million needed to fund the building construction and exhibits. The schedule expects construction of the building in summer 2007 and to have the Center fully operational by the 2008 wildflower walk season.
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