How to go
What: Brukner Nature Center, 5995 Horseshoe Bend Road, Troy
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays
Admission: $2.50 per person or $10 per family for nonmembers, free on Sunday for nonmembers; members admitted free daily, membership starts at $25 per person or $35 per family
Directions: From Interstate 75, take exit 73 and follow Ohio 55 west to Horseshoe Bend Road
More information: (937) 698-6493; www.brukner naturecenter.com; visit on Facebook
TROY — Brukner Nature Center’s new Native Ohio Wildlife Exhibit was designed to whet visitors’ appetites for what lies beyond the center’s walls.
Information graphics ask visitors “did you know” or tell them “what is amazing” about the native wildlife with examples of plants, mammals, reptiles and birds.
“There is enough information to spark an interest, then you can go outside and explore on your own,” said Deb Oexmann, Brukner’s executive director. “Our biggest exhibit is outside, our 165 acres. This is just a taste.”
The more than one-quarter million dollar renovation of the Interpretive Building’s Critter Corner and a classroom took a couple of years to become reality but was worth the wait, she said.
“This is more hands-on,” she said of the new exhibit area designed with the help of Exhibit Concepts Inc. of Vandalia.
Part of the renovation goal was to help address a “nature-deficit disorder,” Oexmann said.
“We want kids to come out here and get the same kind of ‘wow factor’ they get with a video game. For adults, we can point them to a place to have a quiet walk in the woods and stand eye-to-eye with a bald eagle,” she said.
New to the critter area is a songbirds display, home to a downy woodpecker, cardinal and, in its own room, with a glass wall overlooking the exhibit area, the more aggressive blue jay. One wall is dedicated to information on the Brukner wildlife rehabilitation unit and what happens when someone brings in an injured animal.
“We have had fantastic feedback to the (rehab) video. So many people don’t know what to do when they find an animal,” Oexmann said.
All animals on display, from an opossum to a toad and box turtles, have permanent injuries and are referred to as the center’s wildlife ambassadors.
The $288,000 wildlife exhibit was paid for with grants and contributions. The largest was from The Troy Foundation.
“We are so lucky to be in this community, to have so many opportunities,” Oexmann said.
Other donations and grants came from individuals, the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, Paul G. Duke Foundation, Lundgard Foundation, Virginia W. Kettering Foundation, Ronald McDonald House Charities and Honda of America Mfg. Inc.
Clayton Brukner, the owner of the Waco Aircraft Co., started Brukner Nature Center on land along the Stillwater River. The center opened in 1974.
The nature preserve has six miles of trails, the Interpretive Building and is home to the 1804 Iddings log home, the oldest structure on its original site in Miami County.
Contact this reporter at nancykburr@aol.com or (937) 339-4371.
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