A very productive volunteer work bee completed most of the Oleson Pavilion this weekend.
The Grand Traverse Conservation District's new covered outdoor facility, located at the Sabin Pond Trailhead, was roughed in Saturday and Sunday thanks to steady efforts by dozens who pitched in. District employees and area builders worked from sun up to dusk on Saturday and noon to six on Sunday to rough in the pavilion.
When the plumbing and finish work are completed later this summer, the 960-square-foot building will be available to the community as well as the conservation district for a range of educational programs.
"I think it's an exciting first step for the whole Boardman River Nature Center," said Rebecca Teahen, development director for the Grand Traverse Conservation District. "It's a beautiful new pavilion and far more attractive than the one at the Meadows Pavilion. I really think the community will enjoy coming out and seeing it and participating in the new programs."
The conservation district's next step of development will be the 7,000-square-foot Boardman River Nature Center. This indoor education facility will be situated next to the Oleson Pavilion and construction will begin next spring. The building will house district offices as well as an exhibit gallery, classroom and community. Conservation district personnel are working with area teachers and other users to ensure that final plans meet their needs.
A major benefit is that the Boardman River Nature Center's indoor space means that no longer will a thunderstorm cancel a planned outing.
"It's a big step for the district, we're growing by leaps and bounds as the population and community grows around here," said Teahen. "We think it's important to keep up and have a place where people can get questions answered about trees and plants plus we have a number programs on nature-related topics."
"People can come into our office with a tree disease problem or they can come in to set up a hike for five year olds," she added.
The conservation district offers educational hikes all summer as well as during the school year throughout the 600-acre Grand Traverse Natural Education Reserve. The county owns the majority of the property and administers the other 95 acres owned by Garfield Township.
"There's many miles of trail system out there," said Dan Busby, a licensed builder with the conservation district who also runs the groundwater stewardship program in a five-county area.
"There were a lot of people fishing, a lot of people on the trails this weekend and a lot of people were pretty interested in the [new pavilion,]" he added. "The thing is that we need better facilities to run our nature hikes out of."
The planning for both the Oleson Pavilion and the Boardman River Nature Center has been in the works for at least five years. A $100,000 matching grant from Rotary Charities helped launch the effort and fundraising. Planning began in earnest two years ago after the conservation district obtained the necessary matching funds.
The Grand Traverse Conservation District chose the Sabin Pond Trailhead for the expansion after evaluating other possible sites. Grand Traverse County leased them six acres there for the center and pavilion for 99 years at a $1 a year.
"The site at Sabin Pond has already been heavily impacted by development," said Teahen. "It was already compacted and impacted and there were no really high-quality ecological communities there."
For more information on the Grand Traverse County Conservation District's summer Discovery Hikes series, call 941-9060 or their website at http://www.gtcd.org/news.shtml and select the Discovery Hikes for 2006 option. More volunteers are welcome over the next few weekends to complete the Oleson Pavilion; contact the conservation district office for more information.