Hello Friends and Neighbors,
As a public health precaution to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Nature Discovery Center is temporarily closing, effective March 17 until further notice. The health and safety of our staff, volunteers, visitors, and their loved ones is our top priority. We appreciate your understanding as we do our part to keep our community safe.
We will continue to monitor the recommendations of the CDC, WHO, City of Bellaire and the City of Houston. The exact length of our closure will be determined as we learn more from these organizations and government entities in the days and weeks ahead. Please keep an eye on our social media accounts while we’re closed for further updates. Russ Pitman Park remains open, and we encourage you to enjoy time outdoors during this stressful time.
The Nature Discovery Center building is now closed, and all programs and events through March 31 have been cancelled, suspended, or postponed. If you registered for a program, or booked a program with the Center during this closure period, we will reach out to you separately if you haven’t already heard from us. For more information email mail@naturediscoverycenter.org or call 713-667-6550. Note that we will continue to update our cancellations and postponements as this public health crisis continues and the length of our closure is more certain.
During the closure, our animals will remain under the continued care of our Animal Care Coordinator and other trained staff. With our position on the Texas Gulf Coast, we have weathered many emergency closures with animal care contingencies in place, and we are ready to provide our animals with quality care throughout the anticipated closure period. Though this virus is believed to have originated in a non-human animal host, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not received any reports of wildlife or animals in human care becoming sick with COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus.
Please stay healthy, spend some quality time in nature, and we’ll see you again soon!
~ NDC Staff
Over the next month or so, staff at the Nature Discovery Center will be making mission driven changes to our Discovery Rooms that will take the rooms back to the Center’s roots as a place of exploration and discovery. Visitors will notice a shift in focus from indoor nature play to hands-on learning at activity and observation stations designed to ignite curiosity, understanding, and respect for nature. While we still want to encourage nature based imaginative exploration upstairs, we want to move away from indoor play for play’s sake and hopefully discourage the misuse of specimens and Discovery Room tools that have too often been incorporated into the play-based experience our visitors have had in recent years.
We are excited by these changes, and we can’t wait to see our visitors make new discoveries as they interact with natural objects, explore with kid friendly tools of the trade, “research” areas of interest in resource books, create simple nature crafts, and engage with volunteers and naturalists at themed demo and activity tables. We know there will be a period of adjustment as our visitors acclimate to our new Discovery Room philosophy, but we also know that the changes will be rewarding and worth it! Connecting kids with nature and igniting their curiosity through hands-on discovery is our passion!
