NEDERLAND, Colo. — Wild Bear Nature Center is currently surrounded by pavement and other businesses in downtown Nederland, making it challenging to showcase Mother Nature's beauty. However, construction is underway on a high-elevation net-positive nature center that will become the center's new home.
"Downtown Nederland has grown exponentially since we moved in there 15 years ago, and now we're going to be walking out the door into nature, 16 miles of trail in a user friendly 3,000 acres, where people from all over the world can engage, and it'll be more of a destination place," said Jill Dreves, Wild Bear Nature Center founder and chief vision officer.
In 1995, Dreves was a public school teacher when she was inspired to get students outdoors and connected to the world around them. Using $500 in savings, she founded the nonprofitand got to work on her vision.
"It was kind of based on my own childhood of romping in the woods of the northern mountains in Colorado, and I was really inspired by an entomologist, Judy Bodenham," said Dreves.
Not only was Dreves helping to inspire children to get outdoors, but the nature education center also helped in preservation efforts as Wild Bear was approached by the town of Nederland and Boulder County to help preserve Mud Lake.
She said it took a couple of weekends, but 134 volunteers showed up to help remove over 30 tons of trash and turn it into one of the healthiest wetland habitats in Boulder County.
"Mud Lake is a 260-acre parcel of land. It was a $1.5 million purchase, slated for development, and we were the nonprofit that worked with Boulder County and the town of Nederland to preserve it," said Dreves. "We were on the ballot for the town of Nederland, and the town of Nederland approved this purchase and our building a nature center on our own five acres."
The new nature center, surrounded by trails and trees, aims to continue promoting a love of learning about nature and taking care of the environment.
"This project is a story of community, it's a story of community coming together and participating at the beginning, community working hard to preserve all this land, community cleaning it all up, and then we had focus groups and stakeholders and community members to plan the nature center, and now the community's getting engaged to being donors to this campaign," Dreves explained.
Justin Gold, founder of Justin's Brand butter, became involved with the new Wild Bear Nature Center after seeing the nonprofit's immense impact on his daughter, who attended the center's camp at the time.
"This nature center is a solution to not only get more people outdoors, but to create this curated educational experience on how they can interact in nature in a positive and meaningful way," he said.
Since the nonprofit's vision is aligned with nature, the new 8,500-square-foot center is also designed to best serve the environment. Sally Brady helps with marketing efforts for the nature center and is a bird watcher who pushed for a special type of glass window that helps prevent bird collisions.
- Hear more from Brady in the video player below
Besides the windows, E.J. Meade, founding principal of Arch11, explained that the building is partially underground to limit exposure to the cold Nederland winds. It also has a super-insulated wall and solar roof system for power.
"Aside from the mission of teaching kids how to be in the outdoors and how we're really not separated from it, I think for us, it's the same with the architecture, that the architecture really is an organic extension of nature," said Meade. "It breathes. The building is a living thing, it needs to breathe. It has systems, and it's possible to build something that's durable, resilient, good for the planet, and it will be here for a couple of hundred years."
Looking out on the building, Meade explained how this new center will be a net-zero building, producing as much power as it uses.
- Hear more from Meade in the video player below
The new center will also be accessible to all, with ADA-accessible trails and an elevator bringing people up to the observation deck to see the views from high above.
"It will be a place, a safe space where anyone can come in, free to the general public, and understand what's in this mountain area, how safe, how to be safe, how to be stewards, how to understand what community can do. Maybe that translates to what their community can do. It's an endless list of great impact that we will have," said Dreves.
Construction is still underway, with the center's expected opening in the fall of 2026. Dreves shared that they have raised over $10 million to support the center and recently received a $1.25 million donation for their wild energy campaign, which will help purchase and install the new energy systems.
As this wild dream and building come to life, Dreves hopes others in the community will realize its immense impact on keeping children and adults connected to nature.
"We know that research shows what we're doing here is taking a stand for commitment to being outdoors, and in a place where anyone can come in here or they can go on the trails, and it's really extraordinary," said Dreves.
Denver7 is committed to making a difference in our community by standing up for what's right, listening, lending a helping hand and following through on promises. See that work in action, in the videos above.