Freeport Florida Gets $12 Million Nature Center

With the new Panama City International Airport just a few miles down the road from the E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center, I am sure it will get some international attention. He might change the world, but he definite change Freeport. Note: To get to the Panama City International Airport from the west, many will be travelling by this area. Panama City International Airport Opening is planned for May 2010.


M.C. DAVIS’ BIOPHILIA CENTER TO COMBINE FUN, LEARNING
EDUCATION on the plantation
By TOM McLAUGHLIN Northwest Florida Daily News 315-4435 tomm@nwfdailynews.com

FREEPORT — M.C. Davis believes he can change the world by giving kids a chance to pick up turtles in the woods. And when he opens the E. O. Wilson Biophilia Center at his Nokuse Plantation, that’s exactly what he wants to see. “The theme here is learning while you’re having fun. We expect them to learn almost through osmosis,” Davis said during a recent tour of the center. “If kids leave here feeling like a little bit of a naturalist, that may go dormant, but when you are a mayor or a governor … maybe you’ll remember. “I think it will manifest itself, I really do. I’m betting my life’s work on it.” Construction of the 28,500-square-foot center, built at a cost of about $12 million, “basically” is complete. Crews will begin setting up the exhibits next week, according to Christy Scally, the center’s director. “We’re still on target for a grand opening Sept. 12,” she said. The center, located off State Road 20 east of Freeport, will be the first of its kind in the world, Davis said, and has drawn interest from as far away as France. A film crew from that country visited recently and filmed a documentary, Scally said. When the center opens, it initially will cater to fourth-graders, Scally said. School officials from Walton and Bay counties already have signed up to bring students. Curriculums also are being put together for seventh-graders and high school students, she added. Okaloosa County schools have expressed interest in sending students, too. But budget issues have prevented the school district from pledging full support, Davis said. “I think it will give students a real-life experience they couldn’t get in a classroom setting,” said Mark Gardner, who as Walton County’s facilities director, has been close to the Biophilia Center construction since its inception. Glassed-in to give visitors a feel of being outside even when they’re inside, the center will feature exhibits designed by scientists with a focus on “things we need to teach the next generation,” Scally said. For example, the scientist designers saw the need to give students an understanding of pollinators and the importance of pollination in the food chain. “A large majority of our food comes to us as a result of the pollination process,” Scally said. To demonstrate that in a way to capture students’ attention, the designers decided to build an actual beehive into the wall of the Biophilia Center. Bees will be able to come and go as they please from a hive entrance that opens on the outside while visitors can observe the inner workings of the hive. Still another exhibit features piano keys on the floor. When children step on the keys, they will make animal noises. That will allow students to identify the animals they hear outside, Scally said. A theater that seats 200 will be used for entertainment and education, she said. Another priority for the designers was to come up with a way to explain the importance of the long leaf pine ecosystem, Scally added. That mission will be accomplished with exhibits and tours of Nokuse Plantation. Forests of old growth long leaf pine dominated the landscape of Northwest Florida before the trees were decimated during the 1800s and early 1900s to make room for development. Davis’ plantation encompasses 48,000 acres in Walton County, and he is devoted to restoring the long leaf pine ecosystem on his property. “It’s a 300-year project,” boasts Matt Aresco, Nokuse Plantation’s director. “We’ve replanted 7 million long leaf pines.” Aresco said he also is working to restore wire grass to the area. “When you have wire grass and long leaf, it’s usually an indication of a healthy ecosystem,” he said. Alongside all of the exhibits, Davis and his crew have developed a nature walk so students can observe the forested plantation. Davis quietly has acquired land near Freeport for years. He has managed to establish, he said, “the largest private wilderness in Florida.” Nokuse (the Creek Indian word for bear) Plantation also is important because it is a “linchpin,” Davis said, that connects Eglin Air Force Base’s reservation and other wilderness areas to the Choctawhatchee State Wildlife Management Area and points east. Davis said he sees his conservation effort as “the first chance in over a century” to do what he’s done. He said he hopes others will build centers such as the Biophilia Center. Students are the hope for the future of conservation, he said. “In the overall scheme of things this doesn’t mean much. I hope this is popular and this idea spreads out and creates ripples everywhere,” he said. “Then maybe we’ll have a chance to save the planet.”