Learn about the Nature Education Center Upgrade

The Augusta Nature Education Center is open every day of the year. And as each day goes by, new challenges arise.

For many years, most of our visitors have been our neighbors and the students from the 2 schools located next door. The City arborist holds several field trips a year, CONY brings classes for nature study, groups visit to capture the beauty of the Center on canvas and on film, and mountain bikes and snowshoers have traversed our western trails. This is the community we serve. The Center has remained low profile and somewhat hidden from public view for many years. But that is about to change.

CONY NEXT DOOR: A New Challenge

A new CONY High School with nearly 1000 students opened September of 2006, right next door. This has already impacted the Center. We have lost 2 entrances, about 1/2 mile of trail, and 200 feet of a buffer of tall old pines.

With the new cony high schoo, there has been a significant increase of daily use in the Augusta Nature Education Center. We are excited about this opportunity for many more students to be able to include the Center in their education and the increased short and long term public exposure from students, their families, their sports activities and spectators, graduates and their return from their exposure to the Center during their classes at CONY that the Center will experience as the years pass by.

In response to this challenge, the Center has undertaken a major upgrade to the trails, bridges, entrances, maps, and all of those other basic things necessary to meet the new patterns of use. Programs of support for Sponsors, Partners and Volunteers are on-going and you will find the specifics on other pages in our website. We need your help to reach our goal. Please give if you can.