Beaver Lake Nature Center
8477 East Mud Lake Road
Baldwinsville, NY 13027
Heidi Kortright, Director of Beaver Lake Nature Center
315-638-2519
OnondagaCountyParks.com/parks/beaver-lake-nature-center
Q: What is unique about your organization?
A: Beaver Lake Nature Center consists of just under 700 acres, including a 200 acre, glacially formed lake. The 200 acre lake provides refuge for thousands of ducks and geese each spring and fall, with peak populations seen in late April and October.
I think the most important service our nature center has to offer the community is not education, although we do offer opportunities for visitors to learn about nature. Nor does our primary importance lie in recreation, though we provide trails where visitors can have fun hiking and skiing through a beautiful forest. I firmly believe that the nature center’s primary importance lies in its capacity to inspire people.
Q: How did your organization come to be located in B’ville?
A: This year is the 50th birthday of Beaver Lake Nature Center. The county purchased the land in 1963 for a future park site. Over the following two years, Onondaga County assembled a land holding of 495 acres, including the lake and much of the shoreline. Plans were still incomplete as to what was the best possible use for the areas.
Fortuitously, the late ‘60s also witnessed the formation of Onondaga County Nature Centers, Inc., a private, not-for-profit organization which made the establishment of Beaver Lake as a nature center its primary goal. This collection of concerned citizens proposed this concept to county government, paid for the studies which documented the unique resource that the Beaver Lake area represented, and agreed to provide the program staff to develop and implement an interpretive program at Beaver Lake. Six months after the nation celebrated the first Earth Day, Onondaga County demonstrated its commitment to the environment, green space, and the future of its citizenry with the dedication of Beaver Lake Nature Center.
Q: What is your favorite part about the B’ville community?
A: The Baldwinsville community supports the nature center through membership, visitation, and by volunteering. Beaver Lake Nature Center is a huge asset to the Central New York area, and in 2019 the nature center continued to make a positive difference in our community. As always, the volunteers are the foundation and strength of the center. Their professionalism, hard work, and love of nature make this an enriching, inspiring place for the nature center’s members and visitors alike.
Q: If you were to tell one person “thank you” for helping your organization become what it is today, who would it be and what did they do?
A: I would want to thank the Friends of Beaver Lake, Inc. Back in the spring of 1980, the staff of Beaver Lake Nature Center invited interested people to a meeting to discuss forming a support group for the nature center. This was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. The Friends of Beaver Lake was formed as a way to supplement the support given to the nature center by Onondaga County, both financially and through volunteering. What started out as a small group of volunteers making doughnuts and selling birdseed is now an active group of over 200 volunteers with a membership of just under 3,000 households. This is the role of the Friends of Beaver Lake, serving the nature center in a variety of ways.
They provide additional money, time, advocacy, and other resources that make it possible to carry out the nature center’s mission. Over the years the Friends have purchased land (105 acres), improved trails, sent staff and volunteers to educational workshops, and added classrooms, a wildlife viewing room, and a children’s room. The children’s room includes over 500 children’s books and a canvas tent where little ones can cozy up to read and a counter where children can pursue journaling or creative writing.
