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41 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, November 14, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 13, 2004 Susan Cross, left, director of the Jefferson Nature Center, and AmeriCorps volunteer Tiwana Merritt hope to turn this vacant home in Medford�s new sports park into an interpretive center. Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell The wonders of nature Nonprofit natural history center wants to be a part of Medford’s new sports park By MEG LANDERS Mail Tribune A local nonprofit organization that offers natural history programs to schools wants to set down its roots in a fixer-upper within the city’s new sports park. The Parks and Recreation Commission will hear a proposal from the Jefferson Nature Center Tuesday to renovate a vacant and vandalized 2,000-square-foot house for its headquarters. "Right now we don’t have a place to offer classes," said Susan Cross, center director. She said except for use of the 1950s city-owned house and help with putting in parking spaces, the center is not asking the city for money. She said the organization will raise funds to renovate the structure, which she estimates will come to $50,000 to $80,000. Advertisement The house is on the 132-acre parcel Medford purchased in 2002 for the new sports park complex. The park, between Highway 99 and Interstate 5 on the former Heitkamp farm near Bear Creek Corp., is under construction. Cross, who has a bachelor’s degree in education, was a marine science program director at Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and an education specialist at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve in Hillsboro. She currently runs Salmon Watch field programs for youth locally. The organization would like to use the vacant house as offices and an interpretive center. With Bear Creek running through the property, about 70 acres of the park is zoned riparian and cannot be developed. Cross said the center could coordinate restoration efforts, and eventually use the grounds for classes in organic gardening, permaculture, wetland maintenance and other horticultural activities. In 2003-2004, the organization received $22,000 in grants, including $9,300 from the Meyer Memorial Small Grants Program and $7,000 from the Carpenter Foundation. It also received $5,400 of in-kind services and materials, plus $3,460 through events and donations. A full-time AmeriCorps volunteer, Tiwana Merritt, began work with the center in October. Since last spring, the nature center has offered school programs to more than 700 students from the Medford and Phoenix-Talent school districts. The field programs were offered in Bear Creek Park in Medford and Blue Heron Park in Phoenix. Cross said the nature center has served many schools with a high percentage of children from low-income families. "Often they don’t have the extra resources to take kids on field trips," she said. Andrew Amann, a sixth-grade teacher at Roosevelt Elementary School, said his class visits to Bear Creek Park with Cross were a hit among his students. "(Cross) had these science stations set up for us," he said, adding the most popular involved measuring the current in Bear Creek. His students also learned to measure the height of trees using the Pythagorean theorem. "It was really great for me because I could tie it into what we were learning," said Amman. Craig Harper, water resources program manager with the Rogue Valley Council of Governments, is a Jefferson Nature Center board member. He said the center would be similar to North Mountain Park in Ashland, which has a waiting list for classroom visits. "Especially Medford, Phoenix and Talent schools would benefit from having another nature center nearby, although it would be unique in character," he said. Peter Tronquet, center board president and part owner of Bierson Corp. in Central Point, said city staff and officials have been supportive of their plan. "I don’t sense any resistance," he said. Some of the questions from city staff have been about issues of liability and how insurance would be handled. "I think it has to be hashed out," he said. The organization proposes sharing the space as well as expenses and fund raising with the Bear Creek Greenway Foundation, Bear Creek Watershed Education Partners and Rogue Valley Audubon Society, all local nonprofits. Merlin McDaniel, hired by the city in April 2003 to organize the new sports park’s design and construction, said there’s no reason he knows of that Jefferson Nature Center can’t get approval. "They are the only group that applied (for a space designated for a nature center)," he said. "We really want a facility like that." Cross admits the center’s plans are ambitious. She’s driven by the fact that she’s about to turn 50, she said. "I’m getting old, so I’m starting to feel civic." IF YOU GO WHAT: Parks and Recreation Commission meeting on the Jefferson Nature Center proposal. WHEN: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. 11/16 WHERE: Council Chambers, Third Floor, City Hall, 411 W. Eighth St., Medford. For more information, contact the parks department at 774-2400. Reach reporter Meg Landers at 776-4481 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities