Biophilia center aims to educate on conservation, 'bring out inner naturalist in each kid'
FREEPORT — Bald eagles, hawks, owls, bobcats, snakes, turtles and gopher tortoises are among the many animals that help educate an average of more than 100 area fourth- and seventh-grade students at the nonprofit E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center each school day.
Thursday’s guests included two busloads of fourth-graders from Bluewater Elementary School near Niceville.
“Look, it’s Pine Tree Paul!” a student who was a repeat visitor to the center said after departing a bus.
He was referring to the “trail name” of Paul Arthur, the center’s longtime director who was joined by environmental educator “Turtle” Bob Walker and other center staffers to welcome the students.
While the kids marched off to absorb many of the more than 20 environmental science lessons offered at no charge to schools, Arthur discussed the facility’s roots, mission, and continuing growth spurt.
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Mission of E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center
Nestled on about 12 acres of the 54,000-acre Nokuse Plantation nature preserve, the center strives to educate students and others on the importance of biodiversity, promote sustainability and encourage conservation, preservation and restoration of ecosystems.
“We want to bring out the inner naturalist in each kid,” Arthur said. “We want them to understand how important our environment is.”
The center opened in 2009 at 4956 E. State Road 20. It is named for the late world-renowned scientist E.O. Wilson. Wilson, who coined the term “biophilia,” meaning “the love of all living things,” died in December at age 92.
“State testing for science is fifth grade and eighth grade, so we want to get them a year before so they hopefully do better on their testing and get more excited about the science aspect of it,” Arthur said while explaining why the center instructs fourth- and seventh-graders.
Each year, more than 6,000 students from Okaloosa, Walton, Bay, Holmes and Washington counties visit the center, usually for two- and/or four-day programs.
Not long ago, schools such as Bluewater Elementary would bring one group of students for a four-day program, Arthur said.
“Well, 2018 was when we still had no fourth-grade classes that had to be split in two,” he said. “But now, Okaloosa alone, we have six elementary schools that we have to split in half (for visits to the center) because they’re so large. It’s crazy.
“Okaloosa County is more than half of our clientele. For Bluewater, we used to schedule four days. Now we have to schedule eight days.”
Arthur said when he began working for the center in 2010, he was its sixth employee. The center now has a total of 12.
“So that tells you we’re going right along with the population needs,” he said. “Before this school year ends, we’ll be booked for the next school year completely. The teachers (from area schools) understand the value and they know what we’re trying to do.”
Tour of environmental education center
Guests approaching the main entrance of the 25,000-square-foot environmental education center building cross a boardwalk covered with painted bear tracks.
They can look down at a pond that is fed with pristine well water and filled with insects, snails, sunfish and other fish, and turtles called yellow-bellied sliders. Many of the creatures are briefly caught in dip nets by students for up-close inspection.
The environmental education center building resembles a modern, polished structure that one might find at a national wildlife refuge. It includes a 200-person-capacity theater that presents shows on birds of prey such as a red-tailed hawk named “Medusa” that sails just over spectators’ heads while flying from one perch to another.
Medusa performs seven flights per show.
“Every kid will feel the wind from her wings,” Arthur said.
The center also includes a bat cave, the ceiling of which is covered with life-like bats, and “the flight zone,” where students can put on capes resembling different birds of prey and have them flap around by wind from a fan.
In other sections, students visit screech owls, a barred owl, a red-shouldered hawk, a black vulture and two bobcats.
On Thursday, Jillian Southerland, the center’s mammal program director, tossed around a squirrel’s tail attached to a string toy while playing with a southern bobcat named “Zeda" and a northern bobcat named “Cheyenne.” Both bobcats are part of a 45-minute animal enrichment class.
“They love wild smells,” Southerland said of the bobcats in their enclosure. “Students see how they are in the wild.”
In another part of the center, “Turtle” Bob Walker introduced students to red-footed tortoises from South America, gopher tortoises, red rat/corn snakes, a gray rat snake and a rare Eastern indigo snake. Among those creatures was a small gopher tortoise named “Mini Cooper” that apparently had been hit by a small car before being brought to the center.
Walker presented the animals in front of a projection screen showing the message, “Embrace Nature: Protect it, Hike it, Bike it, Paddle it, Love it!”
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Arthur later noted that more than 5,000 gopher tortoises have been relocated over the years to Nokuse Plantation from various development sites. The plantation is comprised of a longleaf pine ecosystem, part of which includes three wildlife underpasses below U.S. Highway 331 north of Freeport.
The underpasses, which were developed almost a decade ago and which Arthur said were the first ones in the Panhandle, provide safe passage for wildlife between Eglin Air Force Base's reservation and the plantation.
Arthur finished giving a tour of the center on Thursday by showing guests an NOAA-designed, wrecking ball-sized teaching device called the “World of Wonder.”
Encircled by chairs in a darkened room, the 50-pound device hangs from a ceiling and presents scores of environmental images and information from projectors.
“It has over 500 data sets,” Arthur said.
They include awe-inspiring presentations on the Earth’s real-time atmosphere, bird and sea turtle migrations, sea surface temperatures, earthquakes, lightning flashes, commercial airline flights, natural fires, prescribed fires, and moon phases.
The center is open to the general public with paid admission on Thursdays and Fridays in June and July, as well as during special events.
For more information, call the center at 850-835-1824 or visit www.eowilsoncenter.org/.