Friday March 29th, 2024 10:48AM

Find the thyme to visit Elachee Nature Science Center

I wouldn't call myself outdoorsy. I spend most of my time inside, and when I'm not tied to the newsdesk, I'm preferably under a blanket, with a cat. My skin burns pretty much the second I step outside and I've definitely suffered a heat related illness once or twice... or three times. I may or may not have appeared in the ER at Northeast Georgia Medical for a third degree sunburn my senior year of college. Being from Wisconsin, I much prefer colder temperatures and darker skies, even though I've lived in Georgia since 1998. Sure, I like the outdoors - it just doesn't seem to like me all that much.
 
But there is one very outdoorsy thing I can get down with, and that's the Elachee Nature Science Center in the Chicopee area. Tucked behind the highway and under plenty of shady trees, I took a tour of Elachee earlier this week. While I was there, Kim Marks, who is the Director of Development and Communications, told me all about Elachee and it's many facets.
 
Marks told me a group of women in the 1970's thought up Elachee to get kids back outside. Early on, they decided to focus on nature education and not advocacy.

"The vision was clearly defined that we would be an education institution - teaching children about nature, teaching the community about nature," said Marks in an interview with me Thursday. "The intent being a conservation message. One thing we've had since the beginning is camps, day camps to get children outside and then we were able to start developing curriculum to bring schoolchildren out here for field trips. 
 
The non-profit continues the education portion of things, not just as the Science center, but also with actual coursework. Marks said the center is still a field trip destination, along with having their own pre-k and K-1 academy on site.  
 
If you've driven down Atlanta Highway through Chicopee, you've probably seen people walking the trails along the highway. 

"The trails were crafted out of the Chicopee Woods over time and now we've got 12 miles of walking trails that the community clearly enjoys," Marks said. "Specifically, in the late 70's early 80's, when Johnson and Johnson pulled out of the Chicopee Mill and they gifted this entire piece of land to what's now the Chicopee Woods Park Commission, a third of that - I say a third because it was in three distinct parcels - is the Chicopee Woods Nature Preserve. We're the conservatory and perpetuity for that, so it's a dedicated and protected green space." Marks said the golf course and Ag Center are the other parts of that divvied-up parcel.
 
A couple of events coming up on the Elachee calendar - their museum-quality, traveling bat exhibit Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats will wrap up on Labor Day. Marks said they're also working on a new bee exhibit.

"We have different exhibits upstairs, museum quality exhibits," said Marks. "We also have in progress... a pollinator exhibit. The first phase of that is already installed and has been for about a year, and that's our beehives. We have two active beehives and the children love to see that when they're coming for a field trip. One is very structured and one is very unstructured, so you get a sense of what bees are doing in the wild as opposed to what they might be doing through a bee keeper."

And the ever-popular Snake Day is fast approaching on September 10. Kids and adults can experience live reptiles, hear from experts as well as other fun activities.

"Last year was my first snake day, and I finally got brave enough to touch a snake! My coworkers were so excited," Marks said. "It's that type of thing - to overcome a fear and have a healthy respect for something you previously had a deathly fear of."
 
Of course, Snake Day isn't limited to snakes, as Elachee has a whole room filled with live critters.
 
"We've got a room on the lower level, the patio level, where we have predominately reptiles. We do have a tarantula, lizards, geckos, tortoises, snakes, we have lots of snakes, nonvenomous! Many programs, when schoolchildren are here, they have an opportunity to go through the live animal room and the naturalists who are trained can take out various critters and expose them to that, and that's a real highlight of their visit," Marks said.
 
They also have a hawk who doesn't fly - she was rehabilitated at another center after she was hit by a car, and since she does not fly, she lives a nice quiet life at the Nature Center. The hawk also doesn't have a name. Marks said that's because they want to ensure that kids know that wild animals aren't pets - they're wild.

You can visit the Elachee Nature and Science Center Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Marks recommends calling ahead to make a reservation if you've got a group. There is a small admission fee - specifics on that here. The trails are always open to the public during daylight hours as well - keep in mind, dogs are not allowed on week days, due to the amount of small children at the facility at any given day. 

You can also rent the place for weddings or events, if that tickles your fancy. More on that here. And like most things we love here at AccessUnexpected, Elachee is a non-profit organization. Be sure to add the next fundraiser - the Tree Party on October 21, and then the annual Flights of Fancy in April - to your calendars. 

If you need more of a reason to get out and go, I think Marks said it best: "It gives you a chance to unplug and get outside."

Elachee is just one of several cool outside places in North Georgia that I hope to explore more in the fall as the temperatures cool down. Got any other suggestions? Before you unplug, send me an email.

Until next week, 

Stay Curious.
 

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