Nature Center in West Bay Preservation Area?

In early December I was fortunate to participate in a meeting with senior executives from Audubon of Florida and The National Audubon Society along with several local environmental leaders and the St. Joe Company to discuss a potential Audubon Nature Center in the West Bay Preservation Area.

The West Bay Sector Plan adopted by the Bay County Commission in 2003 included an entitlement for a nature center, and recently St. Joe and Audubon have been discussing an effort to explore the feasibility of Audubon building and managing the nature center. Audubon has tremendous experience doing this, as anyone who has visited their excellent Corkscrew Sanctuary outside Naples can attest.

I was very impressed by Audubon's commitment to creating a world class facility that focused on both education and experiencing the natural world. One goal that was discussed: "Using the nature center to help create the next generation of environmentalists." An Audubon nature center could be a tremendous resource for young people in Bay County.

It may be a year or more before we know whether this idea will work. But a lot of committed people - local political and environmental leaders, Audubon's senior leadership and top executives at St. Joe - are working together to determine if the idea is feasible.

It will be interesting to see if Bay County can come together to make it happen.