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The Case for a COMMUNITY
WILDLIFE CENTER
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here for more info about Center Plans or Center
Costs or Center Support
One of the greatest
challenges to be faced in the sustainability of wild things and wild
places is finding ways to make our natural environment directly meaningful
to people. This is especially true in our expanding suburbs and urban
areas, where people are rapidly losing contact with nature. Even more
critical is providing factual, unbiased information to the thousands
of new residents who annually make Florida their home. One way in which
we can help people develop a greater sense of their relationship to
the natural world is to provide them with a place where they can interpret
what they see, hear, and feel in the outdoors.
The vision for the
Treasure Coast Wildlife Center is an evolution and expansion of the
current Treasure Coast Wildlife Hospital. It is not a zoo exhibiting
caged animals, nor is it a museum displaying inanimate materials, although
it incorporates elements of both. Rather, it is to be viewed as a cultural
resource, available to students, artists, photographers, and the public
at large, as well as those with specific interests in wild things or
wild areas. The Center will specialize in exhibiting live, native plants
and animals as they are actually seen in nature, and interpreting the
natural environment for the enjoyment and edification of visitors.
Situated in the heart of the Treasure Coast, where there already exists
a high level of environmental awareness, this facility will serve public
needs and enhance the prestige of the entire community.
The Wildlife Center
is being designed to attract new visitors and to encourage others to
return often, through dynamic exhibits and interpretive programs. It
will serve all ages and segments of the community: students and teachers,
clubs and civic groups, business and community leaders, families, seniors,
and south Florida visitors.
The Wildlife Center
will be a source of community pride, as important as an arts center,
a museum, or a school. Indeed, it will include all of those elements,
providing educational, scientific, cultural, and recreational benefits
to the community, while helping to instill far-reaching values. Like
other cultural institutions, it will attract new residents, businesses,
and industries. It will help to build a sense of community, and an
increased awareness that the community is a model place to live and
work.
Most importantly,
the Treasure Coast Wildlife Center is insurance that present and future
generations of young people can learn to understand their natural heritage,
and develop the attitudes and beliefs that are necessary if south Florida’s
living and nonliving resources are to be preserved.
return
to Wildlife Center page
click
here for info about Center Plans or Center
Costs or Center Support
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New Site
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“Never
doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change
the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret
Mead
Download
the Case
Statement for the new Center, including the complete vision for
its development
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