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Text Box: We need 4” of ice to open the Skating Ponds and 4” of snow for Cross-country Skiing at the Park. After you enter the park check out the ice skating ponds to see if the green flag is flying? If it is, don your ice skates and hit the ice. What a great place to teach the children to skate or refresh your memory on how to skate backwards. You can warm up in the “warming hut” next to the pond. Bring along cocoa and marshmallows. Nothing tastes better than hot cocoa after skating. If cross-country skiing is your sport bring along your own skis or rent a pair from the Marina. Look for the Pileated Woodpecker, listen for Carolina Chickadees, or spot our resident Barred Owl in a tree as you schuss across the snow. If you want to learn about birds or snow crystals stop by the new Earth Discovery Center. The new EDC, as we call, it is now open. The hours are Monday through Saturday 9 – 5 and Sunday 1- 5. The naturalist staff can give you a quick tour of the facility if they are not busy with a program or school group. Does your dog have cabin fever? The Gordon Gilmer Canine Companion Zone is always open from sunrise to sunset to exercise your dog. What fun to watch your dog catch snowflakes on his nose or roll around in the snow? I hope you have an opportunity to visit Eagle Creek in the winter months. It is a great time to hike along the trails, view a Bald Eagle if it happens to fly by, spot more deer through the trees or meander through the park identifying trees without their leaves. See you on the trails.

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Eagle Creek Currents

The State of the Foundation

by Jim Weir, Executive Director

We are pleased to report 2007 was a year of successes for the Eagle Creek Park Foundation. The construction on the Earth Discovery Center (EDC) was completed and the naturalists moved in and began programming. In September, the official ribbon cutting took place with Mayor Bart Peterson; Joe Wynns, Director of Indy Parks; and Aga Morgan, President of Eagle Creek Park Foundation officiating and a distinguished group of dignitaries attending. Funding for the EDC came from Lilly Endowment, the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust, the City of Indianapolis and more than 400 individual and corporate donors. Planning and fund raising for the EDC began ten years earlier and despite several challenges during those ten years the result is a beautiful, functional state-of-the-art environmental education facility that will serve everyone from “K to Gray” interested in learning about our natural world.

A pond nearby the EDC was renovated to create an ADA accessible ecology pond that will be used for programming. The Eco Pond will allow students to take samples from the pond into the wet lab at the EDC for study. Funding for the renovation was provided by the Efroymson Fund.

Concert goers were treated to 20 concerts in 2007. The 13 acoustical music “In Concert with Nature” concerts were held on Wednesday nights May through August and the 7 jazz concerts in the “Jazz on the Point” series were held on Tuesday nights July through August. Concert goers learned about the foundation’s plan to build a roof over the performance stage at the marina and generously contributed to the “Raise the Roof” fund. The roof will be constructed during the off season and will be ready for the 2008 concert season. Please take a few minutes to explore our newly renovated website. It will be your best vehicle to keep up with what’s happening in the park and at the foundation

With the completion of the EDC work began immediately to remodel the former nature center building and convert it into a new Ornithology Center. Unlike the EDC the construction of the Ornithology Center (OC) will be an inside job. Kevin Carlsen, who will be OC Manager, is also supervising the construction. Kevin has a construction background and will do the remodeling work with the help of volunteers. The cost estimated at $100,000 will be for materials only. The foundation has committed to funding $50,000 for materials. We are actively seeking support to fund the remaining $50,000. The Ornithology Center is scheduled to open in July 2008.