Irvine Nature Center gets ready to spread its wings

The Baltimore Sun

The broad-winged hawk at the Irvine Nature Center is one step closer to getting a new home.

About a year from now, the bird, which lost its wing after being hit by a car, will move to a new aviary at the nature center's future site in the Caves Valley area of Owings Mills. The spotted owl one cage over will be going with him, as will the diamondback terrapin and the bearded lizard.

Construction on the $7.5 million project began last month.

The nature center is leaving its location on the campus of St. Timothy's School in Stevenson, which it has used for the past 33 years, for a much larger property about seven miles away.

With the move, the nature center will more than triple in size. The new home is on 116 acres purchased from the state for $1. The property has meadow, wetland and forest ecosystems, and it is on the ridge that divides the Jones Falls and the Gwynns Falls watershed areas. Last summer, volunteers from AmeriCorps used wood from an old barn to build a bridge and a shelter for the nature center.

The property is surrounded by land protected from development by conservation easements, a nature center official said.

"As people walk through the woods, they are going to have the same view as 50 years from now," said Jeffrey Muller, director of communications and events at Irvine.

The nature center is trying to keep the land that it has bought in its original condition. It has a five-year plan to phase out the practice of leasing meadows to farmers.

When it opens next summer, the main building will have an exhibit hall that is being built with the help of the Maryland Science Center, a 100-seat auditorium and several environmental and energy saving features.

"What we are trying to do is somewhat a practical green," Muller said. "Something that people can replicate in their own homes."

The facility is being built in an area that is not susceptible to erosion and receives a lot of sunlight. The construction is planned in a manner to avoid disturbing any indigenous ecosystems.

The walls are to be 6 inches thick, designed to allow the building to retain the heat it receives through the large windows and from a heat-pump system that pulls warmth from the ground into the building in the winter and out of the building in the summer.

A vegetated roof over part of the building and a parking lot that uses pervious pavement will reduce runoff. Low-flow water fixtures and rain barrels will conserve water.

Michele Speaks, director of institutional advancement for the nature center, said that while building with environmental concerns in mind is initially about 5 percent to 6 percent more expensive than conventional construction, the money is usually recovered in lower energy costs.

The nature center intends to use the building as an example to visitors and will hold seminars on how to retrofit similar features into regular homes. The center also plans to expand its programming, taking advantage of the increased classroom space in the new center.

Mary Obrecht of Owings Mills was at the nature center in Stevenson with her 6-year-old grandson, Paul, yesterday to sign up for a plant seminar in August.

"I'm looking forward to seeing it," she said of the new building as she decided between taking a class on native plants or mosses.

A lot has changed since the Irvine opened in 1975. The full-time staff has grown from one person to 20, and the single classroom also acts as a meeting room and continued exhibition space.

The nature center started looking for a new site in the late 1990s, when its facilities were no longer big enough for all of the programs offered. After looking at about a dozen locations, the center bought property from the state in August of 2000.

The construction is paid for through donations and money from the local, state and federal government.

The center has about 200 regular volunteers. This is the second summer that Sara Shefter, 15, is volunteering there.

"It's nice and small, so you really know where everything is," said the Beth Tfiloh Community School student.

This summer, Sara and her friend Shai Bados, 15, are in charge of taking care of the animals at the nature center. Bados, who will be a freshman at Pikesville High School in the fall, likes working at the Stevenson location, but is excited for the move.

"It will be nice to have more space," he said.

jenny.hopkinson@baltsun.com

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