Nature center launches new website as part of its ongoing improvements
The Forsyth Nature Center has launched a new website, adding to the facility’s improvement effort.
The website, forsythnaturecenter.org, which is separate from the city’s site, contains information about the Lucas Avenue facility, including its history, programs and events held there, and instructions about how to play a role in its ongoing change.
“We are proud to be a part of the Kingston community, and we are grateful for the support of local residents as well as visitors from around the world,” Meg Clark, interim chairwoman of the group Friends of the Forsyth Nature Center, said in a press release. “Our newly launched website is just one example of the growth and improvements at the Forsyth Nature Center since its early beginnings as the Forsyth Park Zoo.”
The Friends group funded the creation of the website, Clark said.
Other recent changes at the Forsyth Nature Center, Clark said, include improved animal exhibits, a new reptile house, a sensory garden, an audio tour and the addition a solar energy array and permeable pavers.
Nature center caretaker Mark DeDea said the new website replaces a previous one and “is a much more useful and vibrant tool now for those planning a visit to our facility.”
The nature center was founded as the Forsyth Park Zoo in 1936 after firefighters captured a black bear on Lucas Avenue and a cage for it was built in the park.
Over the years, the zoo/ nature center has had to battle back from budget cuts and, at times, survive on from fundraisers, but it now draws more than 60,000 people per year, officials say.
The nature center is home to about 150 creatures, including mammals, turtle and birds. There are four goats, a pot-bellied pig named Tulip, two llamas, eight turtles, nine peacocks, snakes, tropical birds, fowl, lizards and fish.
Physical improvements to the half-acre site in recent years have included the creation of a pond with native plants, the installation of the permeable pavers, and the construction one outbuildings, a reptile house and a new perimeter fence.
There also is a new greenhouse and turtle building.
The name change from Forsyth Park Zoo to Forsyth Nature Center came in June 2004.