Ozark nature center tour shows off progress

SPRINGDALE — The sounds of nature will replace the din of construction once the J.B. and Johnelle Hunt Family Ozark Highlands Nature Center opens.

About 30 people attended a progress tour Friday at the center being built along 40th Street in Springdale, one-half mile south of Wagon Wheel Road. The center is 50% to 70% complete, depending on which Arkansas Game and Fish representative was asked.

Buildings are well along, including an archery and air gun shooting building, a meeting and classroom building, maintenance facility and pavilions.

The $18 million center should be open in October. It’s being paid for by Game and Fish, plus private donations and grants through an ongoing drive by the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation.

The drive has raised about $7 million, said Deke Whitbeck, foundation president. It includes a $5 million donation from Johnelle Hunt of Springdale.

The Walton Family Foundation in May donated $980,000 to help build the center.

It also will receive support through fees paid for hunting and fishing licenses and a sales tax passed by Arkansas voters in 1996. The tax dedicates one-eighth of 1% sales tax for conservation. The commission gets 45% of that revenue.

The 27,000-square-foot center is being built on 62 acres donated by Springdale along Spring Creek. Admission will be free. Its focus is on the natural features and ecosystems unique to Northwest Arkansas. Part of the property will be restored with native grasses, which provide a wildlife habitat.

Tabbi Kinion, chief of education at Game and Fish, and Eric Maynard, assistant education chief, led tours while construction crews hammered, drilled and operated heavy machinery.

Visitors will be able to stroll through exhibits highlighting the four seasons and how they affect native plants and animals in Northwest Arkansas once the center opens.

A digital interactive stream, cave environment and aquarium are among the indoor exhibits. Meeting space will be available free to conservation-oriented groups. Private business and individuals can rent meeting space.

Maynard estimates about 100,000 people per year will visit the center.

A fishing simulator will let budding anglers feel the bite of a fish and the following fight if the fish is hooked. Hunting simulators will create various experiences. At one indoor area, visitors can walk through a grassland demonstrating good habitat for quail and other wildlife.

Other features include a 3-D archery range, two outdoor pavilions, indoor and outdoor classrooms, 3,950 feet of trails accessible to disabled visitors, plus a trail providing access to the Razorback Greenway.

The Game and Fish Commission will develop the land surrounding the education center with trails. The nature center also will connect to the greenway through a trail spur planned by Springdale.

Game and Fish will soon be hiring staff to operate the center, Kinion said. Opportunities will be plentiful for volunteers as well. They’ll include education program presenters, tour leaders, front desk help and more. Northwest Arkansas master naturalists figure to be well represented in the volunteer ranks. Several attended Friday’s tour.

Planning the nature center started in April 2017 followed by a groundbreaking in November 2017. Construction started in December 2018.

The Springdale nature center will be the fifth center Game and Fish has built around the state. They include the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center at Fort Smith, Forrest L. Wood Crowley’s Ridge Nature Center near Jonesboro, Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center in Pine Bluff and Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center at Little Rock.