Saying Goodbye To The Old Farmington Nature Center And Welcoming The New

I 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 enjoy a hot cup of coffee on cold winter mornings with its friendly and very helpful director. I’m sure many of my local readers had similar experiences back then.

But things are changing and changing fast. Yesterday morning I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the brand new Nature Center and boy does it ever look different out there!

 

old-nature-center-buildings-1177-ron-dudley

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.

 

 

groundbreaking-site-1185-ron-dudley

There were gobs of dignitaries at the ceremony and I really enjoyed seeing a few old friends again but I don’t do particularly well in crowds so I largely stayed on the outskirts and I didn’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.

 

 

new-wildlife-education-center-7129b-ron-dudley

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.

 

 

new-wildlife-education-center-1191-ron-dudley

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 center is so long and cumbersome 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.

The director of a facility like this can make it or 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.

 

 

justina-7129-ron-dudley

Meet Justina Bernstein, the first director of the old Great Salt Lake Nature Center.

This lady is hardcore (in a good way), a PhD who was always eager to get grubby 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 from airboats (that may sound glamorous but in reality it’s hard, messy, loud, wet and poopy work), bubbled over with enthusiasm for the place she loved to work, shoveled heavy fresh snow from the decks around the center on freezing winter mornings (with a bum knee that she had for months) and walked 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.

During the coldest months when there were often few visitors she kept the thermostat in her “office” set at 55 degrees so she wouldn’t “burn up her budget on heat”.  It was damned cold in there and she was there for at least 8 hrs/day. Her dedication to and enthusiasm for the Nature Center was boundless and contagious.

 

 

justina-5988-ron-dudley

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 areas 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 for a better look at 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.

I hope the new director of the Nature Center has at least some of the enthusiasm and knowledge that Justina had. From what I’ve heard via the grapevine I have high hopes.

Ron

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.

 

29 Comments

  1. This is a truly lovely post. Yay for positive changes.
    And Justine sounds like a dynamo. And going by your discussion with Laura a ‘pocket dynamo’.

  2. Justina sound wonderful. Love her dedication. That is a good count of Eagles. The Nature Center looks nice. Thanks Ron!

  3. Humming bird lover

    Hi Ron Great photos! and love all that Justina did while working there! Great posted replys

  4. I enjoyed that bit of info. Did you know BILL FINAMORE of Farmington, UT?

    • Linda, I’d never met him but I was quite familiar with some of his activities. Among other things he was on the Wildlife Board of DNR and last year I attended one of their meetings and saw him in action.

      Bill’s son Billy Fenimore was at the groundbreaking for the Nature Center yesterday. Maybe you’re referring to Billy but I doubt it…

  5. I love the last photo of Justina, and the first one, too. She’s obviously my kind of woman! I just hope the new director has her spirit and vitality! As a huge aside, I love a woman with pockets! One of my life’s pet peeves is that women’s clothing manufacturers obviously think that women can’t possibly do anything important enough to require pockets. Reality is that women like us don’t do purses (or if we do, we leave them in the truck) because they’re just entirely too cumbersome in the doing of what we need to do. Thus, we have to mosey on over to the men’s side Of Cabella’s/Bass Pro/Dick’s Sporting, etc.) 🙂

    • Laura, Justina used to be a pocket queen at the center. She not only had them, she USED them! She had to.

      • Yep, I get that Ron. That was the first thing I noticed about her and I knew she was my kind of woman! The second photo cemented that idea along with the other things I can see about her. In short, she’s not a foo-foo girl.
        I’m a pocket queen, too, and the pockets have to be the right kind–the useful kind, which is the reason for moseying over to the men’s side of the store 🙂
        Oh I neglected to mention that I really love the green roofs! That’s such a good idea and I really hope it catches on!

  6. Ron, so glad to read your report on the new Nature Center. Now, hopefully, we can keep the Legacy Highway from running next to it. The Buffalo Ranch trail system is another gem in the same area
    that may be lost to development. That would be depressing if it happens.

  7. Sounds exciting! Looks exciting! Hope it exceeds all expectations!

    Charlotte

  8. It’s so good to learn about people like Justina—–I just read your reply to Marina, otherwise you would be answering the same question again.
    I’m so glad to hear that Justina is still in a position to exercise her particular knowledge and personal example of passion and dedication !

    • Kris, Justina has the same passion for her relatively new position as she did for the Nature Center. She’s often involved with historical sites on state lands and many of them are “natural places” so her new and old positions often intertwine in some ways.

      I saw Justina at the ceremony yesterday. It was wonderful to visit with her again though I wish we’d had more time together. She still misses the Nature Center, almost as much as we all miss having her there.

  9. More great reporting on the state of “our” natural world, no matter where it may be. As Dick said, just as some of us love seeing “behavioral” images of birds more than the “posed” look, we also enjoy seeing the artist’s environment.

    Hope the new center evolves into all you hope for it.

  10. Although I may be “outside of Utah”, I share the same small world, so what happens in Utah, effects us all…people like Justina keep the world balanced on its axis! I break out in a rash when I see “dignitaries” doing anything, especially when the workers who did the real labor are left out,, but got a kick out of the shovels and the hard hats….

    • “I share the same small world, so what happens in Utah, effects us all”

      Excellent point, Patty. And we share the same attitude about dignitaries though I must admit that without some of them who were there the new center would never be built. Some state money was involved but several organizations and individuals donated a sizeable portion of the funds.

  11. I’m with you on the shot of the groundbreaking site. It is worth much more than a bunch of “VIPs”. The renderings of the new Nature Center look great. I hope it turns out to be that way and that the new director is the kind of person it needs. Even though I’m not local, I appreciate a good nature center and knowing that a place is good will encourage me to visit if I find myself in the area.

    • Susan, I’m optimistic about both the new director and the design of the new center. Looking forward to getting the construction process behind us though…

  12. It is of interest if for no other reason than one never knows where one might end up visiting! 🙂 It’s a place to tuck in the back of the mind for future reference. 🙂 Good shots and nice to know where some of your beginnings in wildlife photography were! 🙂

  13. What a great post..I’m not from your area but I really enjoyed it.

  14. I hope to be able to visit next year and check out all your favorite hangouts. Plus the new center.Do you think they will have eagle days again??? Why is Justina leaving?

    • I hope you do visit, Marina. Not sure when the new center will be completed though – all they said was “next year”. Yes, Eagle Day will apparently continue but not many birds have showed up for the event for the past several years.

      Justina left several years ago. She’s now Heritage Research Coordinator for Utah State Parks.

  15. It has an interest to the rest of us as well Ron. As we enjoy your photographs, we also get to know the habitat that you frequent and the lives you touch.
    Love these shots, and thank you for sharing them with us.

Comments are closed