Classroom at refuge to move soon

The first steps were taken two years back when a doublewide trailer, built on wheels, was turned into a Learning Center and placed on land within Farmington Bay Wildlife Refuge.

In the ensuing days, a classroom would be designed and opened with the idea of developing an educational link for students and teachers to some of Utah's most valued wildlife and wetlands on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

Now, thanks to a sizable donation — $150,000 from Energy Solutions — made to the Great Salt Lake Interpretive Trust, that classroom will soon have a more permanent location, with access roads, parking area and an introduction to a trail system.

Eventually, that classroom will be moved again, this time to a location closer to the marshes and the birds and animals. This, said Bob Hasenyager, regional director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, "Will be the last time we move the classroom."

At this point it will be a satellite classroom to the much-anticipated Great Salt Lake Nature Center.

The center will be a 14,000-square-foot visitor and education building that will have, among other things, exhibit space, demonstration areas, a 100-seat auditorium/media center, meeting rooms, a gift shop and office space.

Hasenyager said he expects that after it has been built, between 150,000 and 200,000 people a year will visit the Nature Center.

Those who visit the center will have the opportunity to learn about old Lake Bonneville and what forces created and drained it; the geology and hydrology that sustains the Great Salt Lake, the biological diversity supported by the lake, the dynamics of lake salinity; and the connection between human behavior and the overall health of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem.

There will also be a series of trails and interpretive walks that will begin and end at the center. The walks will take visitors out into the wetlands for up-close encounters with the various birds and wildlife.

The trail system will actually start inside the center and run more than 4.2 miles over dirt paths and wooden walkways to different areas of the Farmington Bay Refuge.

One loop will provide access to open water, uplands and seasonal play areas. There will also be special wildlife viewing areas and seasonal waterfowl blinds that will be constructed for visitors.

The Learning Center, said Phil Douglass, regional information officer for the DWR, was built to serve two purposes.