Sept. 15, 2010 -- The World Bird Sanctuary officially opened the Monsanto Fund Environmental Education Center this morning.

The Monsanto Fund enabled World Bird Sanctuary to complete an extensive renovation of the former Visitors Information Center. The new center incorporates a new three-season classroom that will enable naturalists to conduct on-site environmental education programs in all seasons but winter. Prior to this, on-site programs were limited to the outdoor amphitheater in the warmer months. In addition, the center has a visitors welcome area, indoor interpretive environmental education displays and accessible bathrooms.

"The Monsanto Fund investment in the Environmental Education Center will help World Bird Sanctuary to achieve our mission by increasing our capacity to deliver onsite environmental education programs," said Walter Crawford, founder and executive director of World Bird Sanctuary. "Our aim is to develop future generations of personally responsible young Americans by encouraging them to make decisions that lead to thoughtful earth stewardship and management of natural resources. We have historically been forced to turn away institutions who would like environmental education programs at World Bird Sanctuary's facility rather than outreach programs at their schools during the cooler, wetter months as we did not have the infrastructure to accommodat them. The new Monsanto Fund Environmental Education Center has changed that.

The World Bird Sanctuary's mission is to preserve the earth's biological diversity and to secure the future of threatened bird species in their natural environments. The World Bird Sanctuary, located near Lone Elk Park in Valley Park, works to fulfill this mission through education, propagation, field studies and rehabilitation.

See upcoming events at the World Bird Sanctuary.

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