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The WNC Nature Center will welcome guests into their new front entrance beginning Wednesday, September 12, 2018. The Center will be closed to guests on Tuesday, September 11th in preparation.
“We’re excited to offer this enhanced guest experience to our visitors,” said Chris Gentile, Director of the WNC Nature Center. “The new front entrance will allow us to better serve our growing number of guests with smoother check in, enhanced parking, a separate entrance for school groups and the use of the Festiva Event Plaza for events.”
The WNC Nature Center broke ground on the front entrance project in 2017. Improvements include handicapped parking and ramp, sidewalks through parking for safety, new guest restrooms, an events plaza, and new exhibits. Guests will now be able to enter the Center’s main grounds through the barn area where they can visit the new chicken habitat, Virginia the opossum, and more.
The Center will be open for normal business hours, 10am-5pm, on Wednesday, September 12th. The first 50 families in the door will receive a free water bottle from the Friends of the WNC Nature Center to celebrate the opening of the new front entrance. A ribbon cutting event will follow on Saturday,
December 1st at 11am during the Nature Center’s popular Winter’s Tail event. This project was funded in part by the City of Asheville, and by the Friends of the WNC Nature Center with support from the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority’s Tourism Product Development Fund, and from Festiva. Other contributors to the project include charitable foundations, businesses, and many generous individual donors.
Friends of the WNC Nature Center
The Friends’ mission is to support the programs, facilities and the residents of the Western North Carolina Nature Center, which showcases the fauna and flora of the southern Appalachian region. The WNC Nature Center connects people with the animals and plants of the Southern Appalachian Mountain region by inspiring appreciation, nurturing understanding, and advancing conservation of the region’s rich biodiversity. For more information on the Friends of the WNC Nature Center, or to join the Friends and support future projects, visit www.wildwnc.org .
