Wild Bear Center for Nature Discovery

Mission Statement

The Wild Bear Center for Nature Discovery offers year round hands-on educational programs to people of all ages to foster a life long appreciation of the environment and to promote an environmentally aware, responsible and ecologically sound community

In 1995, Jill Dreves, formerly a public school teacher with Boulder Valley Public Schools, developed Wild Bear Science School as a small organization offering 3 three-week science programs in the summer months and after school. The program served 24 youth from the community of Nederland. By 1997, Wild Bear Science School was incorporated as a private, non-profit organization and received 501(c)3 tax exempt IRS status. In 1998 Wild Bear further expanded programs in order to reach classrooms and audiences throughout the metropolitan region. Wild Bear programs grew significantly between 1999-2003, serving over 15, 000 children and adults in the last five years. Wild Bear's summer programs have greatly expanded with the implementation of a shuttle service from Boulder. New collaborations and partnerships have helped Wild Bear to reach more diverse audiences in the last two years. Through generous support from the Denver Foundation and other foundations and donors, Wild Bear has become a recognized environmental education organization serving the Greater Denver area. The long-term vision of Wild Bear is to build a nature center on a site north of Nederland, Colorado. In collaboration with the Town of Nederland, Boulder County Open Space and Wild Bear, over 200 acres were preserved as the Mud Lake Open Space in 1999. Over the next two years, Wild Bear successfully raised $100,000, through 25 private donors, to pay cash for four acres amid the Mud Lake Open Space where the nature center will be located. In 2000, Wild Bear initiated 120 volunteers to remove over 30 tons of trash off of the Mud Lake Open Space!

In 2001, the Board of Directors and Staff made the decision to change the name Wild Bear Science School to Wild Bear Center for Nature Discovery to embrace the complete vision of providing year round, hands on programs to people of all ages in the proposed nature center. During the last two years the Nature Center Committee has worked with Boulder County Open Space and the Town of Nederland to decide on the building location; parking and access to the site; infrastructure; and inter-agency agreements. The next phase of building planning and implementation will begin in 2004.

Wild Bear Center for Nature Discovery understands that children have an innate curiosity and sense of wonder about the natural world. Located just below the Continental Divide, Wild Bear offers the unique opportunity to educate local students as well as students from the greater Denver region about mountain ecosystems and alpine tundra habitats. Wild Bear also serves an important niche in the education of local youth, especially since elementary schools have had to reduce science programs due to budget cuts. Currently, Wild Bear offers summer programs, full day programs during school year holidays, "Nederbugs" a kindergarten enrichment program, an after school nature discovery program, programs for teens, and outreach programs (such as the traveling Arthropod Zoo) bringing environmental education programs to classrooms throughout the Front Range. Furthermore, many Boulder County teachers have enjoyed bringing their classrooms up to Mud Lake Open Space for in-depth mountain ecology studies facilitated by Wild Bear Staff. Wild Bear offers programs for families), including the annual "Enchanted Forest" held each autumn on the Mud Lake Open Space property, This event invites families into the forest at night for a guided nocturnal hike where they visit with the animals of the forest (volunteers in costumes along the trail!). Wild Bear also strives to initiate the community in projects that positively impact the environment.

Collaborations: Wild Bear formed a partnership with Chautauqua in Boulder in 2002. Chautauqua provides a site for Wild Bear to offer additional school year programs for youth and an afternoon program during the summer in collaboration with Thorne Ecological Institute. Wild Bear recently initiated a collaborative program with the I Have A Dream Foundation of Boulder County. These students live in subsidized housing in Boulder County and are 85% Hispanic. This collaboration brings low-income youth to the mountains to engage in hands on programs about the mountain ecosystem. The project also brings Wild Bear to the I Have a Dream after school programs in Lafayette and Longmont to study nature in their own neighborhoods, to investigate human impacts, and to initiate and implement neighborhood improvement projects. Finally, Wild Bear is collaborating with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to offer Wild Science Saturdays, including Super Science Saturday, workshops during the school year; Wild Earth Saturday (an Earth Day event); and the "Greenie Awards". This new collaboration offers free programs to between 3,000 and 5,000 children and their families each year in Boulder at the NCAR Mesa Lab.