![\"old-nature-center-buildings-1177-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/old-nature-center-buildings-1177-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI cut my photographic teeth at Farmington Bay and the Great Salt Lake Nature Center played a pivotal role in my activities out there. In the early years it was a welcoming place to meet fellow photographers and nature lovers, observe and photograph birds in its ponds and even\u00a0enjoy a hot cup of coffee on cold winter mornings with its\u00a0friendly and very helpful director.\u00a0I’m sure many of my local readers had similar experiences back then.<\/p>\n
But things are changing and changing fast. Yesterday morning I\u00a0attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the brand new Nature Center and boy does it ever look different out there!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The old buildings have been lifted from their foundations and now sit on the northeast corner of the parking lot in preparation for the trip to their next home somewhere in Wyoming.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"groundbreaking-site-1185-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/groundbreaking-site-1185-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
There were gobs of dignitaries at the ceremony and I really enjoyed\u00a0seeing a few old friends again but I don’t do particularly well in crowds so I largely stayed on the outskirts and I\u00a0didn’t take any photos of masses of people. And personally I found this shot of the groundbreaking site to be more interesting than the traditional photo of the shovel-turning by VIP’s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"new-wildlife-education-center-7129b-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/new-wildlife-education-center-7129b-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
They had large architectural drawings of the new Nature Center on display and I took a few photos of them. I was pleased to note that the new buildings will be significantly larger and more accommodating but less visually obstructive than the old ones. Here we’re facing south and from this angle (the one people see on approach) the sloping, vegetation covered roofs give them a relatively low profile that blends in well with the natural habitat at the site.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"new-wildlife-education-center-1191-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/new-wildlife-education-center-1191-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The south side of the new center is more open and faces the playas, marshlands and Goose Egg Hill. I really like the two elevated observation platforms and from other drawings I saw it appears to be well thought out in form and function. The official name for the new\u00a0center is so long and\u00a0cumbersome that I don’t remember it and I’m sure most folks will continue to just call it the Nature Center. I know I will.<\/p>\n
The director of a facility like this can make it\u00a0or break it. That individual must be a people-person with enthusiasm and knowledge that he or she is eager to share with visitors of all ages and backgrounds.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"justina-7129-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/justina-7129-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Meet Justina Bernstein, the first director of the old\u00a0Great Salt Lake Nature Center.<\/p>\n
This lady is hardcore (in a good way), a PhD who was always\u00a0eager to get\u00a0grubby and muddy in her enthusiasm to share her love and knowledge of the marsh and its inhabitants with all who came to the center. Justina banded geese and other waterfowl\u00a0from airboats (that may sound glamorous but in reality it’s hard, messy, loud, wet and\u00a0poopy work), bubbled over\u00a0with enthusiasm for the place she loved to work, shoveled heavy fresh snow from the decks around the center on freezing winter mornings (with a\u00a0bum knee that she had for months) and\u00a0walked the trails and board walks regularly so she always knew what birds were around and where to tell visitors to look for them. She even kept a list of current birds on a whiteboard outside the center so visitors could check it out as they approached.<\/p>\n
During the coldest months when there were often few visitors\u00a0she kept the thermostat in her “office” set\u00a0at 55 degrees so she wouldn’t\u00a0“burn up her budget on heat”.\u00a0 It was damned cold in there and she was there for at least 8 hrs\/day. Her dedication to and enthusiasm for\u00a0the Nature Center was boundless and contagious.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"justina-5988-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/justina-5988-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I may catch hell for posting this but to be truthful this might be my favorite photo of my friend Justina. One cold February morning we were helping her with a Bald Eagle count in the remote back\u00a0areas of Farmington Bay WMA and Justina just had to get out of my pickup and crawl through the deep snow on her belly so she could sneak up\u00a0for a better look\u00a0at few eagles on a frozen pond in the distance (one eagle can be seen just to the left of her head). If I remember correctly (and I think I do) our eagle count that morning was over 250 birds.<\/p>\n
I hope the new director of the\u00a0Nature Center\u00a0has at least\u00a0some of the enthusiasm and knowledge that Justina had. From what I’ve heard via the grapevine I have high hopes.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
PS – I realize that this post will likely be of more interest to local readers than to those who live outside of Utah but I post about what I do and experience and the Nature Center is very important to me.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I cut my photographic teeth at Farmington Bay and the Great Salt Lake Nature Center played a pivotal role in my activities out there.<\/p>\n