Nature for all ages at Indian Creek Nature Center

With a new 'Amazing Space” comes amazing opportunity, and at Indian Creek Nature Center, staff are stepping up to the challenge.

Since the grand opening of their new 12,000 square foot headquarters on Otis Road SE in Cedar Rapids in September, the nature center has been expanding its programming to reach all populations as part of their new mission to 'create champions of nature.”

At the grand opening in September, the nature center's director, John Myers, said the new building represents their 'commitment to getting people outdoors, connected and engaged” through recreational opportunities.

'Only the people who care deeply about our natural world are going to work to protect it,” said Lindsey Flannery, business development coordinator at Indian Creek.

'In our increasingly urban world, the nature center is our connection to the natural world,” she continued. 'If people are never exposed, they're never going to have that connection. Everything we do fits that vision.”

Indian Creek's new location - just down the road from the barn they'd been in since 1974 - brought the nature center deeper into the woodlands, prairie, wetlands and trails system that are the backbone to the programming they offer.

'Here (in Iowa) we have lots of private land and not a lot of untouched space,” said Erin Roghaar, Indian Creek's director of education. 'We sit on this little slice of heaven here.”

Although the nature center is often thought of as a place for kids and families, Flannery and Roghaar emphasized it's really a place for everyone.

'Everybody has an innate need for nature,” Flannery said. 'They might not know it until their first visit, but then the light comes on.”

Part of the planning for Amazing Space also included a look at the nature center's mission going forward. In reaching out to the community, they found that people wanted to see more opportunities for outdoor recreation, particularly for adults.

'We attract a lot of families and it's a huge piece of what we do and always will be,” Flannery said.

'But something I'm trying to work toward is gearing programming for adults so every age group has something to see and do out here,” Roghaar continued. 'I really want to end the stigma that a nature center is just for kids.”

Roghaar was recruited to join Indian Creek's staff nearly a year ago. She'd been working for a small nature center in Logan, Utah when she met Indian Creek's director, John Myers, at a nature center conference in Georgia. At the time, Indian Creek's longtime education director Jan Aiels was retiring, so Myers was looking for a replacement.

'I was working obscene amounts of hours at a much smaller organization with a much smaller budget,” Roghaar said. 'I was feeling like I was already experiencing burnout.”

Although she hadn't considered moving to Iowa, the Tennessee native said she was 'looking for a new adventure.”

'There was a lot here I couldn't turn down,” she said, referencing the new building, for example. 'It was an opportunity of a lifetime, just in a place I wasn't looking.”

Since joining the staff last year, Roghaar has been working to create new programming for adults and kids alike.

Some examples include a series of yoga classes on Wednesday evenings, guided meditations, workshops, nature walks and snowshoe rentals to trek their year-round trail system. Also new to the calendar is a backcountry film festival on Jan. 28 and later this summer, a music festival.

In addition to their regular field trips and workshops for kids throughout the school year, Roghaar has added programs in the offseason, including two camps the week between Christmas and New Years: Winter Detective camp and Winter Wonderland camp.

'Being a non profit allows us to be innovative,” Flannery said, also noting their doubled operating budget of $1 million.

'We've been able to move forward so quickly in the last few years and pull off Amazing Space and the programming to go with it,” she said. 'It's an exciting time to be part of this organization. The nature center needed to be brought back to life, into the future.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8364; elizabeth.zabel@thegazette.com