Day: October 23, 2018

As the vacationers of the animal world make their yearly migrations this autumn, one species has a new place to visit on their way south.  The Nature Center has a newly certified conservation station for the farthest flying butterflies in the world.

Monarch butterflies weigh less than a postage stamp yet travel up to three thousand miles.  The last generation of each season journeys from the Eastern U.S. and Canada to Mexico.  This trip is crucial to their survival and they need places to get fuel along the way.  The Nature Center’s newly certified Monarch Waystation offers adult monarchs plants with nectar for feeding and milkweed plants for the caterpillars to eat.

Monarch Waystations are a means for citizens to help monarchs.  Anyone with a little land can build one of these gardens to provide food for this iconic species. Monarchwatch.org has all the information needed to create a Waystation and you can visit ours in front of the log cabin.  We had 35 monarch caterpillars in our Waystation this year that grew to adulthood.  The caterpillars grow approximately 2,700 times their original weight before making a chrysalis!  Once our monarchs emerged as adults, they headed toward Mexico.  Bon voyage!

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) announced that the Western North Carolina Nature Center has been recognized with AZA’s 2018 Education Award for significant achievement in the “Expanding Impact through Targeted Low Income Outreach Education” program. The national award was received during AZA’s September conference in Seattle.

The AZA Education Award recognizes outstanding achievement in educational program design, judging programs on their ability to promote conservation knowledge, attitudes and behavior, show innovation, and measure success.

The Nature Center staff, along with the Friends of the WNC Nature Center, developed the Targeted Low Income Outreach Education program in response to growing demand from the community.  Low-income schools, Head Start locations, retirement centers, after-school programs, libraries, and others stated admissions fees and travel logistics/costs were too high to make a WNC Nature Center visit possible.

“Education at AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums is marked by a sharing of scientific discovery and a love of nature,” said AZA President and CEO Dan Ashe. “WNC Nature Center is a leader in conservation education; with its immersive outreach initiative instilling among its participants what Rachel Carson called, ‘a sense of wonder.’”

“We do outreach as a service to our community.  It’s a way to share our mission and educational goals with people who can’t come to us,” said WNC Nature Center Director Chris Gentile. “Over the last two years, we’ve learned the number of people who can’t visit our site is greater than we originally thought.  This year, we’re looking to reach around 10,000 students, preschools, retirees, and other community members.”

This program is led by a Friends of the WNC Nature Center staff member, Tori Duval, who works collaboratively with the Nature Center. The Friends of the WNC Nature Center raises the funds for this program through private donations and grants.

To learn more about AZA’s Honors and Awards, please visit aza.org/honors-awards.