(Okoboji)– A ribbon cutting and grand opening was held Saturday on the Pollinator Paradise addition at the Dickinson County Nature Center.
Kiley Roth, Community Relations Coordinator for the nature center says construction on the addition was completed back in March of this year. She says the interactive exhibits designed and built by an Omaha firm were just recently installed in the days leading up to Saturday’s grand opening. She adds the primary purpose of the project is to increase public awareness of the important role pollinators play…
“They want people to interact and be able to learn that one in three bites of food that we take is due to pollinators, that pollinator populations are dwindling to a lack of habitat and that it’s really up to us to bring them back.”
Roth says the $1.2 million project was made possible by donations and that they were thrilled with the support they received…
“Everybody who gave five dollars, up to people who gave hundreds of thousands of dollars, we’re just so thankful for all of the community’s support for this project. We’re really, really excited to be able to introduce it to everybody.”
The exhibit features a life-size apple orchard, a food truck to create faux meals using pollinated ingredients, a “magic monarchs” exhibit depicting the life cycle of a monarch butterfly, a human-sized “honeycomb climber”, a “build a pollinator” display and a digital game.
