Nature center to showcase area habitats

Planners OK site, building design of Springdale venue

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission plans the new Northwest Arkansas Nature and Education Center in Springdale as a showpiece, according to a spokesman for the commission.

The mission of the planned Springdale center to educate the public about conservation includes similarities with the commission’s seven other centers across the state. But the site and building design approved 9-0 Tuesday night by the Springdale Planning Commission promise more.

“We were looking for something different than the previous centers,” said Doug Newcomb, chief of education for Game and Fish. “Northwest Arkansas stands out, and we want it to stand out in Northwest Arkansas.”

The main building planned for the 61-acre site on 40th Street, south of Wagon Wheel Road, will include an exhibit hall, a 200-seat theater, classroom and meeting space, administrative offices, a gift shop and cafe. A separate building will include indoor archery ranges and maintenance areas.

Large stone towers come through the back of the main building to naturally landscaped areas, said Ben Harter, with Fennell Purifoy Architects in Little Rock. The use of stone native to Northwest Arkansas and glass will create a clean design that will reflect back the nature in the preserve, he said.

Ecological Design Group, which is a landscrape architecture and civil engineering firm that has offices in Little Rock and Rogers, is providing natural areas of quail habitat restoration and Osage prairie restoration. Trails complete with a swinging bridge and pavilions wander through both, which will connect to the city’s trail system and the Razorback Greenway.

“The layout of the land also lends itself well to known-distance archery ranges,” said Kevin Mullen, chief of the operations division of the Game and Fish Commission, who attended Tuesday’s meeting. The site

plan indicates nine outdoor ranges of various distances. The indoor range will accommodate 20 archery ranges of various distances and a range featuring three-dimensional targets, Newcomb said. All ranges and archery classes will be open to the public.

“One of the pillars of our education program is the archery program,” Mullen said. The Arkansas National Archery Program reaches 20,000 students in Arkansas schools as a way to build self-esteem and create a stronger atmosphere for success in the classroom, reads the commission’s web site. Mullen added that the program also can reach a new generation of children who are not exposed to the outdoors.

“The center primarily will provide information about the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s role in conservation and how we look after wildlife, fish and water,” Newcomb said. The exhibits and educational programs will focus on each season, he continued. “We are going to show what happens year-round. The park also shows the wildlife around your house — squirrels, raccoons, ’possums and snakes — and lets you know we need to coexist with wildlife for our environment to remain vibrant.”

Newcomb compared the possibilities of the Springdale center to that of the commission’s largest in Little Rock, the Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center. The Stephens center receives about 200,000 visitors a year, and Newcomb expects the same for Northwest Arkansas. “You’ve got the biggest and the best in Northwest Arkansas, and we hope to be the biggest and the best up there and educate the people.”

The Game and Fish Commission expect grant money

to become available and construction to start in March or April, Newcomb said. The first phase of construction will create the trails and pavilions on the west side of the site, at a cost of about $10 million, with the main building to be completed later for $8 million. The total project could take more than three years to complete.

Judy and Orvill Brandon, who live across from the nature center site on 40th Street, came to the Planning Commission meeting Tuesday with concerns about traffic on the road. Patsy Christie, director of the Springdale Planning Department, said improvements of 40th Street are planned if the $71.4 million bond issue for street improvements passes Feb. 13.

“One of the pillars of our education program is the archery program.” — Kevin Mullen, chief of the operations division, Game and Fish Commission